Carolyn has a background as a secondary school biology teacher, and as a public servant with the Victorian Government, in equal opportunity education, then state training, occupational health and safety, and finally with the freight and logistics industry, where she received the Australian Freight Industry Personality of the Year in 2003.
She has always worked in her local community, in the 1990s as a local government councillor for Camberwell, and then chairing the Board of Women’s Information Referral Exchange (WIRE ) for 7 years in the early 2000s.
In 2006 she founded and ran Lighter Footprints, a community climate action group in the municipality of Boroondara. In 2020, she stepped aside from convening Lighter Footprints, but remains active in community work as deputy Chair of the Electrify Boroondara Alliance.
In 2003 she was awarded an Order of Australia medal for her work in Conservation and for services to the Boroondara community.