Career Summary
Professor of Medical Education & Medical Humanities | Southern Illinois University School of Medicine | 2023- 2024
As the first and only poetry professor on faculty, I was responsible for creating the ideal conditions for an entire community of medical educators, students, and professionals to flourish and avoid burnout. I designed curricular and extracurricular offerings for stressed stakeholders to connect, share their stories, build trust and empathy, practice active listening, and facilitate workplace wellness. I worked with internal and external stakeholders to create a culture in which storytelling was the norm, and in which creativity, awe and perspective (which positive psychology argues are key to flourishing) were valued. The four projects I spearheaded included a Story Slam series, a Story Gathering Box Installation, and a weeklong Storytelling, Mindfulness & Compassionate Communications Bootcamp.
Story Slam
Hosted virtual and in-person storytelling workshops.
Provided one-on-one storytelling coaching in-person and online.
Coordinated biannual in-person Story Slams with options for online streaming.
Crafted and managed project budget.
Designed all promotional materials for website, social media, and print.
Archived Story Slams for dissemination and longitudinal assessment.
Co-hosted story slam workshops at medical conferences.
Managed a team of five medical students (who are in effect project leads), three staff members, and one diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ambassador.
The Story Slam Series involved offering instruction in Moth-style storytelling: true, five-minute stories performed live on stage. This project was designed to advance equity, break down silos, elevate the voices of vulnerable populations, raise awareness of bias in medicine, and enhance the interpersonal connections required for on-the-job collaboration.
Storytelling, Mindfulness & Compassionate Communications Bootcamp
Crafted learning objectives related to the physician as individual in the content areas of communications and mindfulness.
Designed a weeklong, immersive, bootcamp for 75 in-person and 12 virtual medical students.
Coordinated guest speakers, including in-person and virtual logistics.
Designed and hosted mindfulness and compassionate communications workshops in-person and online.
Designed and administered a longitudinal assessment plan.
This Bootcamp was designed to help third-year medical students understand the role storytelling, sharing, and listening play in healthy self-definition and self-awareness; using technology to produce stories that make medicine comprehensible and meaningful for general audiences and that bridge gaps between patients, caregivers, and medical providers; and growing interpersonal communication skills and empathy.
Story Gathering Box Installation
Raised funds, which includes grant-writing and donor development.
Crafted and managed project budget.
Identified, hired, and managed an external consultant, a carpenter, and a graphic designer.
Coordinated all logistics for the “opening night” gala event.
Coordinated promotions with the Director of Marketing & Development.
Archived installation for dissemination and longitudinal assessment.
Organized a task force comprised of medical students, staff members, an internal DEI ambassador, an external consultant, a carpenter, and a graphic designer.
This installation was a low-stakes way to embed creativity, awe, and perspective (which positive psychology shows is essential to flourishing) as part of the institutional culture. It offered an anonymous opportunity for community members to share the parts of themselves they left out in order to fit in, and to get to know each other as whole persons with complicated lives.
Diagnostic Poetry Project
Collaborated with librarians and student interns to research diagnostic poems via library databases and other online sources.
Crowdsourced diagnostic poems from poetry community via publications, social media campaigns, and email newsletters.
Co-authored publications in creative writing and medical journals.
Co-created an anthology of diagnostic poetry, which includes securing permissions, querying publishers and agents, copy-editing and proofreading, etc.
Managed a team of two student researchers, one librarian, and one internal DEI ambassador.
Professor of Practice, Creative Writing | New College of Florida | 2019- 2023
I was hired as the first and only professor of Creative Writing, with the task of building an interdisciplinary undergraduate B.A. from scratch. I designed a curriculum for students studying at the intersection of writing, technology, and design. I recruited, hired, and mentored all writers teaching in the BA. I performed biannual assessments and collaborated with college administrators to create action plans based on qualitative and quantitative data.
I worked with internal and external stakeholders to design and implement four major initiatives designed to grow enrollment, build community connections, develop relationships with donors, and create internships and other professionalization opportunities for students, including a weeklong arts and activism festival and a teaching internship at Booker Middle School.
During my tenure, enrollment steadily increased at an average rate of 28% per term.
Words In Action: Digital Storytelling Conference | New College of Florida | Aug 2019 - Aug 2023
Designed a three-day conference for 45 undergraduate students. In 2020 and 2021 these were online; in 2022 and 2023 these were in-person.
Coordinated four featured artists per conference, including all travel logistics.
Crafted and managed project budget.
Forged partnerships with and secured funding from external and internal stakeholders.
Wrote all promotional materials for website, social media, and print.
Collaborated with external consultats on conference branding.
Coordinated promotions with the Director of Marketing & Development and marketing team.
Trained student interns to run Zoom events and provide on-site tech support.
Designed and administered a longitudinal assessment plan.
Managed a team of three adjunct faculty, two student interns, five student volunteers, and an external photographer and designer.
Founder & Program Director | Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing | Oregon State University - Cascades | 2013- 2019
When I was hired in 2013, I was the first and only Creative Writing professor. There was no department, no faculty, no curriculum, no students, no budget, no dormitories, and very few classrooms—but there was a fledging branch campus with vision, an entrepreneurial spirit, and close ties to the local community. Within six months of my hire, I had designed a hybrid, social-justice-infused curriculum; crafted a fiscally-responsible budget; built a synergistic relationship with Caldera Arts, an educational nonprofit with a mission of “nurturing creativity, igniting self-expression, and transforming the way that youth from underserved rural and urban communities engage in their lives, families, and communities through innovative year-round arts and environmental programs;” secured housing for students and faculty at a Caldera’s gorgeous mountain arts facilities; hired two adjunct faculty and three distinguished visiting artists; admitted and enrolled our first cohort of eight students; and coordinated meals and transportation for everyone.
For the next six years, I would manage intensive ten-day residency sessions at a remote mountain arts facility; serve as the brand ambassador and primary point of contact for students and faculty; act as chair of what was, at the time, one of the most diverse low-residency MFA’s in the country; successfully advocate for pay raises for adjunct faculty; and raise funds for and act as festival director for Rendezvous with Risk, a seven-day, ten-event festival.
During my tenure, enrollment increased at an average rate of 34% per term.
In 2018, I was tasked with coordinating a five-year external review of the MFA. This included building a team and creating a plan for reviewing, analyzing, and summarizing all quantitative and qualitative data, preparing a formal report, and creating and implementing an action plan based on the reviewer's recommendations. These reviewers wrote: "We were extremely impressed with the MFA at OSU - Cascades. The program’s curriculum is first-rate—innovative and intensive, with a far greater emphasis on professionalization than is to be found at most residential programs. The one-on-one mentoring sessions are a particular strength, in that they allow the students to develop close personal and professional ties with the faculty. Its director, Emily Carr, has not only come up with an original and compelling vision for the program but has managed to make that vision into a reality despite significant impediments and challenges. Her belief in what she is doing, to say nothing of the sheer energy she brings to the directorship, should both be commended."
The MFA I designed for OSU-Cascades is now ranked #4 on the Best College Review list of Top Master’s in Creative Writing Online.
Rendezvous with Risk Arts & Activism Festival | Oregon State University | April 2016 - Aug 2019
When I took this administrative position, I was relatively young, on a steep learning curve the entire time, and surprising myself at every turn. One thing I learned is that I’m skilled at project management, events coordination, fundraising, and donor development. In 2016, I envisioned Rendezvous With Risk, a one-day, two-event arts and activism festival with a $5,000 budget. By 2019, I had grown Rendezvous with Risk to a four-day, twenty-event festival with a $35,000 budget, a range of internal and external sponsors, and a diverse array of international authors, program alumni, and local celebrities. I was responsible for managing every aspect of the festival, including supervising a team comprised of two festival assistants, five student interns, seven community volunteers, and one marketing consultant and coordinating with an external community board with five members. Over 150 community members attended our final festival.