Professor Carpenter received a BSN from Oakland University (Rochester, Michigan) in 1988. At the University of Kentucky, she completed a MSN in 1992, a PhD in nursing science in 1996, and a post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral sciences in 1998. She joined IU in 2003 and in 2011 she became the Sally Reahard Chair and Director of the Center for Enhancing Quality of Life in Chronic Illness.

Professor Carpenter is an expert in the fields of women’s health and symptom management. She pioneered the use of ambulatory sternal skin conductance monitoring as an objective measure of vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats) and developed a questionnaire to assess the degree to which vasomotor symptoms interfere in a woman’s daily life. Her work incorporates four foci that singly and synergistically advance science including: (1) modeling - research on the prevalence, correlates and consequences of symptoms; (2) measurement – development and testing of alternative measurement methods; (3) mechanisms - physiological research on the mechanisms or causes of symptoms; and (4) management - clinical trials evaluating pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments to reduce symptoms.

Professor Carpenter’s research has received several honors including Outstanding Alumni of the University of Kentucky College of Nursing (2010), Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (2009), Midwest Nursing Research Society Senior Scientist (2008), and the North American Menopause Society / Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Vasomotor Symptoms Research Award (2007). In 2011, she was named as Chair of the standing study section Behavioral Medicine, Interventions, and Outcomes at the National Institutes of Health. She serves as reviewer for several professional journals and has presented and published her research findings nationally and internationally.