Dr. Carnahan obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo in 1989. She then completed a two year NSERC postdoctoral fellowship in Psychology at the University of Western Ontario. Her first faculty appointment was in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Western Ontario. This was followed by 13 years as a faculty member the Kinesiology Department at the University of Waterloo, where she served as Chair of Graduate Studies and established an international reputation in the field of motor control and learning.

Dr. Carnahan is currently a Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and she has cross appointments with the Departments of Physical Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology. She is also Co-Coordinator of the Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Science. Her research interests involve studying the role of sensory inputs such as touch and vision in the performance of skilled hand movements. Her clinical research involves applying current motor control and learning theory to studying the acquisition of technical clinical skills in medicine and rehabilitation.

Dr. Carnahan was recently awarded the BMO Financial Chair in Health Professions Education Research. This is a very exciting opportunity as it reaffirms that this field of research is now maturing and being acknowledged by important organizations within the community. For the duration of this Chair the work will focus on developing new knowledge in the area of technical clinical skills education. The goal is to see translation of this knowledge to the applied setting. As well, Dr. Carnahan's goal will be to work towards increasing the visibility of health professions education research to the public and scientific communities.