Dr. McCarthy has had a distinguished and varied career as an executive, diplomat, educator, fundraiser, psychologist, and consultant in both the domestic and international arenas. As Senior Partner of Songmasters, McCarthy is responsible for the development and oversight of all educational and philanthropic programs as well as all non-profit and community relations.

Before joining Songmasters in 2002, she served for nearly four years as a diplomat assigned to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina (OSCE BiH). McCarthy was responsible for implementation of media policy and reform efforts of the OSCE BiH as mandated in the Dayton Peace Accords. In her capacity as Senior Advisor to the Head of Mission she was responsible for the coordination of the Mission’s anti-corruption efforts. She also provided technical assistance and policy consultation to other OSCE Missions in Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia and remains active as an advisor and consultant in these areas.

McCarthy has also made substantial contributions in education, psychology, program and fund development, and consulting to non-profits and educational institutions. As President of No Strings Consulting, Inc., she directed and participated in two consultative arenas – to non-profits in organizational development, management and fundraising, specializing in interim replacement of Chief Development Officers; and to educational institutions in administration and in curriculum development, specializing in interdisciplinary curricula and math, science and technology education. Her clients have included dozens of major non-profits such as the Metropolitan Museum, the Conference Board, and Community-Based Services, Inc., and more than 100 public school systems nationwide, as well as private schools and universities. McCarthy has raised over $400 million for various educational and non-profit ventures.

McCarthy has also held several not-for-profit executive positions. McCarthy served as the Executive Director of the New York Region Pathwork (NYRP), an international educational organization operating in more than 15 countries and as CEO of the Phoenicia Pathwork Center, a major retreat and conference center in upstate New York owned and operated by the NYRP. She also served as Vice President for Development of the Liberty Science Center during the initiation of its operational phase which included fundraising for the elimination of a $12 million construction debt balance and for full scale operations and costs of major opening and ongoing exhibits for LSC. Prior to this she was Vice President for Program and Fund Development for the New York Urban Coalition, a leader in urban revitalization through its programs in housing, education, community development, public policy and race relations. There, she was responsible for the development of new program initiatives and for ensuring the successful solicitation of the Coalition’s annual budget of $20 million in program and general operating support.

For more than a decade, she served as administrator, faculty member, and Board member at Bank Street College of Education, and was pivotal to Bank Street’s emergence throughout the 1980s as a pre-eminent and groundbreaking institution in the development of educational technology and its re-emergence as a leader in early childhood education. During this period, Bank Street developed the first word processor for children (The Bank Street Writer), the first educational CD-ROM (Palenque), the first technologically-integrated educational materials (The Voyage of the Mimi Seasons 1 and 2, aired on PBS) and launched the world-renowned Center for Children and Technology. In addition to assisting in both program development and fundraising for these efforts, McCarthy attained the rare privilege of serving as Principal Investigator and Director of a four-year research, training and dissemination project funded by the National Science Foundation to implement interdisciplinary curricula using integrated media as a core in schools nationwide.

McCarthy also has extensive experience as a presenter and author. She has spoken widely at national and international conferences and seminars as keynoter, panelist, and in specialized seminars and forums at conferences and on the air. McCarthy has authored and/or co-authored nearly 30 publications, including articles, books, videos, and technical reports. McCarthy obtained a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Columbia University in 1990.