Carolyn Gentle-Genitty

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty is an American academic, writer and youth development consultant. She was born in Belize to Belizean parents and grew up there as the eldest of five children. Her family ran a food cart, and her father helped pay tuition despite financial hardship. She valued leadership from a young age and attended an all-girls private high school.

Education
- Associate of Arts from St John’s College Junior College (1996)
- Bachelor of Science in Social Work (1998) and Master of Science in Social Work (1999) from Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky
- PhD in Social Work with a minor in Criminal Justice from Indiana University (2008)

Career and leadership
- Moved to Indianapolis to pursue her PhD and joined IUPUI as a faculty member, where she led the School of Social Work undergraduate programs and held various campus and system-wide leadership roles
- July 2017: appointed Assistant Vice President for University Academic Policy and Director of the University Transfer Office, overseeing more than 25 initiatives including feeder school assessments, credit decisions and policy guidance
- June 2022: stepped down as director but continued as AVP for University Academic Policy and liaison to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education
- 2023: selected for the American Council on Education Fellows program and promoted to full professor at Indiana University (April)

Research and impact
- Focuses on school attendance, truancy, student engagement and school bonding
- Developed the Perception of School Social Bonding (PSSB) instrument, the first assessment of its kind to identify gaps in school bonding related to truancy
- 2008 study showed that Indiana middle school absenteeism involves both parents and schools
- 2014 collaboration with a school social worker produced an internationally recognized program to foster positive student behaviors
- Worked with Warren Township schools using community-based research to improve student success
- Awarded The Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Scholar Award (2017) and served as president and editor of the International Association for Truancy and Dropout Prevention (IATDP)

Current roles
- Chief Education Officer, Lead Consultant and Founder of Pivot Attendance Solutions
- April 2024: named the inaugural dean of Butler University’s two-year Founder's College; joined on June 3, 2024 to build the college’s infrastructure and hire faculty and staff

Approach
- Uses a holistic, community-engaged approach to address attendance and behavior, emphasizing accountable yet non-punitive solutions and collaboration with educators and community partners