Carrie Schatz

Carrie Schatz leads CES Waiver at Easterseals Arkansas, supporting individuals with disabilities in living meaningful, connected lives in their communities. What matters most to her is making sure the people and families Easterseals serves feel valued, heard, and supported, while also ensuring employees have the guidance, training, and resources they need to do their best work. She focuses on strengthening teams, improving the quality and consistency of services, and building a culture of accountability, collaboration, and Service Excellence.

Carrie brings more than 20 years of experience working alongside individuals with disabilities, families, and the professionals who support them. Her background spans developmental disabilities, behavioral health, education, crisis intervention, program leadership, training, quality improvement, and CES Waiver services. She holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, along with credentials as an Instructional Specialist in Special Education and Positive Behavior Support, and she is a former ArkSTART Coordinator. Having served in many different roles throughout her career, from teacher and advocate to trainer and program director, she understands this work from multiple perspectives. That experience has shaped her belief that strong relationships, clear expectations, and genuine respect for people are at the heart of providing exceptional services.

One of the things Carrie loves most about working at Easterseals is combining her passion for serving others with her love of teaching and developing people. Teaching Service Excellence is especially meaningful to her because she gets to help others understand that the way we serve people matters just as much as the service we provide. She loves the moments when someone connects with a concept, sees their work from a different perspective, and realizes the difference they can make simply by being intentional about how they treat others. Helping create that kind of culture is not just part of her job; it is one of the reasons she loves the work she does. Carrie lives by a simple idea: people may forget what she says, but they will always remember how she makes them feel.

Carrie and her husband, Scott, have been married 26 years and have a 15-year-old son, Xander. She once brought home a goat and a dog without telling Scott, and he found out when she was chasing the new dog, which was chasing the new goat, around their unfenced yard. Scott and Xander built a fence, so Carrie brought home two more goats.

A quote she lives by: "It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than to complain about what is not given. One or the other becomes a habit of life." (Elisabeth Elliot)