Although she first started in Nuclear Medicine, Carmen returned to school with a focus in nursing. She went on in her studies and graduated in 1998 from Case Western Reserve University with her MSN, and later, with her first post graduate nurse practitioner focus as a Nurse Midwife from Frontier University. Nearly 20 years later, she again returned to graduate school and in 2016, she earned her second post graduate nurse practitioner certification as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, PMHNP, from the University of Cincinnati.

In 2017, Carmen started her own company, which now spans four states, multiple providers and 7,000 patients. She is a pioneer in the telepsychiatry world as from the beginning, tele services were offered by her company in the outpatient rural settings that she primarily serves. Alay Health Team, Carmen's company that she founded and runs, serves children through adults, from group homes, County facilities, and immediately post discharge from hospitals and prison systems. From SMI to addiction, a full scope of psychiatric services is what Carmen and her team treat, primarily in rural markets.

Carmen and her team of PMHNPs accepted graduate PMHNP-clinical resident students from over 45 different universities across the US and as such, Alay Health Team was the largest teaching facility for PMHNP-clinical residents via tele psych in the country until 2023. Over 500 PMHNPs have come to learn not only tele psychiatry, but the implementation and utilization of current, evidenced based practice with the newer pharmaceutical therapies in the marketplace. Fiscal obtainability is additionally taught with the nuances required to fulfill these new meds.

The progressive psychiatric prescribing that Carmen is known for, continues to drive this expansion while Carmen continues to orchestrate further development of new providers during their first few formative years in her teaching of current, evidenced based practice pharmacological offerings within the psychiatric focus.