Carole Carson

Carole Carson silenced naysayers when she achieved tremendous success in a variety of influential roles and occupations, even though she was an English major with no business experience.

In the ’60s, she was the first woman analyst for the Alameda County Civil Service Commission. Later, she joined the University of California, Berkeley, as a wage and salary specialist. In the early ’70s, she served as assistant to the president of the University of California for personnel services. She also taught public administration at Indian Valley College.

Building on her university experience, Carole started her own consulting firm and became a “turnaround” specialist for venture capitalists in the Silicon Valley. In one “temporary” assignment that lasted five years, she was chief executive officer of Access Health Care, a start-up company in San Francisco that staffed and operated five medical clinics.

Carole simultaneously served as a consultant to EST, under the leadership of Werner Erhard, and Lifespring, headed by John Hanley Sr.

After successfully turning around a dozen failing Supercuts franchises for investors, she opened twelve franchises of her own and acquired a dozen more. As one of a handful of women Supercuts franchisees, she became vice president of the Supercuts Midwest Franchisee Association and was named International Franchisee of the Year for her innovations.

During her work life, Carole was a single parent and bread- winner. When she sold her franchise chain and retired, she launched a countywide fitness project that helped friends and neighbors lose 4,000 pounds in eight weeks. Her community’s success was featured on national media and chronicled in her book From Fat to Fit. She also wrote The Fat to Fit Meltdown Manual to help other groups duplicate her success. Carole became a community leader on AARP’s national website, writing over 700 articles on various aspects of fitness. Her latest book, Blackbird, is a fictional autobiography—the first book in a quartet that explores the taboo subject of mother-daughter abuse. The story spans a period in American history when women began to redefine their traditional roles.

Carole retired once again to write a newspaper column on joyful aging for the Union newspaper, a blog titled Grandma Carole’s French Adventures, and four novels. She lives in the south of France, where she struggles to become fluent in French. Her hobbies include remodeling vintage clothing, cooking, and quilting. She is the mother of three, grandmother of eight, and great-grandmother of five.