[5] Her father was president of an investment brokerage; her mother was a Northwestern University graduate.

[7] She completed a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1933,[8] with a dissertation titled "The Shallow-Water Foraminifera of Bermuda.

[11][12] She was an analyst for the Petroleum Administration Board from 1934 to 1936, and was based in Texas and Nebraska as a geologist for the Felmont Corporation from 1936 to 1939.

[3] Her expertise was cited and her testimony was read into the record of several Congressional committees,[13][14][15] including a 1942 Senate hearing on mineral resources and public lands.

[16] Carman was the Illinois district geologist for the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation from 1943 to 1946.