Following high school, Carmen attended Syracuse University where she earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Music Theatre. Since her graduation from Syracuse , she has excelled in many different endeavors. In June of this year, Carmen was nominated for the National Latina Business Women’s Association award in recognition of her entertainment career.

Carmen has demonstrated many talents in the entertainment industry. Starting out as an actress, she was the hostess of FOX Television’s Children’s show “The D.J. KAT Show” for which she taped over sixty episodes. Carmen made her Broadway debut at New York City Lincoln Center in the production, “In the Summer House,” starring Diane Weist. As a musician, Carmen plays nine instruments, including the violin, classical guitar, mandolin, bass, percussions, cuatro, and the harmonica. She received a full scholarship to College for the Violin, and she is known for her sight-reading abilities. Her entertainment career also includes appearances on HGTV and WE Network, as well as working as a Director of Operational Communications and Director of TV Publicity at Warner Brothers. In this capacity, she supervised more than 50 managers and over 400 employees.

Besides her entertainment career, Carmen is very well known as an interior designer, decorative painter, carpenter, and cook. As owner of De La Paz designs , an interior design/decorative paint studio, Carmen has designed spaces in both Los Angeles and New York City – her work can be found in multi-million dollar homes and various businesses in both cities. Carmen does all of her own work and handles a compound miter saw, paint brush or power drill, as well as pots and pans.

In addition to painting and music, Carmen is very well known for her Puerto Rican cuisine. She was proud to work as the Puerto Rican Food Stylist for the award-winning film produced by PBS Masterpiece Theatre, “Almost a Woman.” As a result of her work, she was invited to cater the premier of the film on Paramount Studios lot. Carmen has also been the caterer of choice for the California Puerto Rican Parade Association.

One of Carmen’s current projects is creating hundreds of 6”x6” clay tiles for the Waukesha Parade Memorial. She heads up this project by working with community members to carve designs and patterns into the clay and with students from Waukesha South to cover and fire them in blue glaze. The end goal of this project is to create 750 tiles for the memorial, which will be in Grede Park.