Carol brings more than 25 years experience to her work in health communication, behavioral science and social marketing. As Center Director, she provides technical and managerial oversight on a wide range of issues including, immunization, nutrition and physical exercise, health care access and quality, tobacco prevention and control and clinical trials recruitment. Carol is known for her strong analytic skills and her commitment to technical excellence. Her current projects include strategic planning for a national obesity prevention initiative, conducting formative research on health care quality choices for consumers, developing a web-based training in social marketing and piloting a media literacy curriculum on physical activity and nutrition for middle school youth. Clients include the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute on Aging and Harvard University.

Prior to joining AED in 1991, Ms. Schechter served as project manager for a program to provide health communication, health education, media and evaluation support to the National Cancer Institute. Before relocating to Washington D.C. she served as the Assistant to the Secretary of Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where she provided policy support; served as liaison with other state agencies, the legislature, and health interest groups; and assisted with crisis intervention and management. She has a master’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in rural sociology from Cornell University.