Carol was a founding editor of USA Today and also worked as a legislative correspondent at Gannett News Service in Albany, N.Y., the White House correspondent for Gannett News Service in Washington, D.C., an editorial writer for USA Today and a deputy editor of the editorial pages at Newsday in Melville, N.Y.

She has been a lecturer at the George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs since 2010 and also taught at Hofstra University in Long Island and the University of Maryland.