Carrie holds a doctorate in Education with a focus on Children and Youth in Communities and a master's degree in early childhood special education from the University of New Hampshire (UNH). She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Roger Williams University in cultural anthropology and sociology with a minor focus in Political Science. Post-Bachelors, Carrie spent several years in Montana then Seattle, WA as a conversation corps leader, a tutor for students with learning disabilities, and as a teacher and assistant director at a community-based childcare setting. Upon returning to her home state, NH, she began focusing her studies on inclusive education and risk-taking in classroom practice that supports both children’s and teachers’ agency, innovation, and learning.
Upon joining NH Listens, a civic engagement initiative, at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy while pursuing her Ph.D. she began to collaboratively design opportunities for people in communities to gather across their differences to confront challenging issues. In her inter- and trans-disciplinary work, Carrie has contributed to community-engaged work focused on education funding structures, access to early childhood education, race and equity in schools, substance misuse, childhood lead poisoning, downtown revitalization, among other emergent areas as requested by and developed with partners. In her work cultural anthropology and inclusive education ethics and frames are combined with qualitative and applied ethnographic methods to challenge dominant community-based paradigms -- while working collaboratively within and across current social and cultural systems -- to instill equitable changes that represent a deeper attention to the diversity of people’s lived experiences.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrieportrie/
