Excellence in Public Service, 2025
Carsey School of Public Policy
Carson is the founder and director of the Center for Social Policy in Practice and a research assistant professor at the Carsey School of Public Policy. She has built an impressive research agenda examining families, poverty, childcare, and nutrition needs in New Hampshire and New England.
Carson mentors a seven-person research team while also providing leadership to multidisciplinary teams across academic, NGO, and government agencies. Her work on the child-care crisis and related issues of poverty, preschool availability, and food access represents cutting-edge research with significant policy implications that serve those same families and children. She has secured multimillion-dollar grants and served as principal investigator on multiple competitive grants.
Carson studies how policy affects people, focusing on how legislative and administrative decisions shape access to resources available through work, the social safety net, and community settings. She focuses on the structural issues surrounding access to early childhood care and education, the multidimensional nature of food access, and measuring how policy and program effects vary within and across rural places. Her work is applied in nature, and she is passionate about helping nonprofit partners get the data they need to continue their good work.
About this Award
This award recognizes and honors exceptional achievements in the area of public service. Individuals who receive this award have engaged in outstanding service activities that are dependent on their academic expertise and that support the mission of the university. The types of activities to be honored should be related to a candidate's academic field and may include exceptional service to local, state or federal governments, to non-profit organizations or agencies, to business or industry, and to the university. UNH benefits-eligible faculty members are eligible, except those who have received this award within the last five years.
