Biography
Carlsen began coaching at the College of St. Mary in Omaha, Nebraska, where she was the head softball coach from 1994-1997. Carlsen then proceeded to be an assistant coach for the volleyball and softball teams at Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska, from 1997-1998.
After her stint at Wayne State College, Carlsen started her basketball coaching as the assistant coach at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, a position she held from 1998-2000 before being promoted to head coach in 2001, guiding them to the post-season in 2003. Following her time at Nebraska-Omaha, Carlsen spent the next three seasons, from 2004-2007, as the associate head coach for Winona State University, helping guide the Warriors to a 12-win improvement.
In 2007, Lewis University made the decision to hire Carlsen as its next head women's basketball coach.
During her time with the Flyers, she recorded a 148-89 record, making four NCAA Division II Tournaments, two Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Championships and an NCAA Elite Eight in 2014-2015. During the 2014-15 season, she was also named Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA), GLVC, and Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Region IV Coach of the Year. During that season, the Flyers recorded a 23-game winning streak and received the No. 1 ranking for five weeks.
After her successful tenure at Lewis, Carlsen was named head women's basketball coach at Northern Illinois University, a position she has held since 2015. During her time at NIU, the Huskies recorded the fourth highest grade point average in NCAA Division I after being named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 for the fourth straight season ranked in the top 10.
During her first season at the helm, NIU overcame three double-digit deficits in games to come back and win, the most since 2005-2006, while four players achieved a 10 points per game average for the first time since 1989-1990. The following season, the Huskies knocked out the reigning Mid-American Conference (MAC) Champion, Ohio University, with a comeback victory after trailing by 22 points in the second quarter.
The program also received an at-large bid to the Women's National Invitational Tournament for the team's first postseason berth since 1995 after making it to the MAC Tournament Championship Game in 2016-17. Carlsen led the Huskies back to the postseason in 2022-2023 as the team qualified for the Women's Basketball Invitational.
In 20 years of coaching, Carlsen owns a 318-301 record.
Before coaching, Carlsen graduated from Northwest Missouri State University in 1992, where she was a four-time all-conference basketball honoree and earned all-conference and All-Region as a softball player. Carlsen was also the 1992 Champion NCAA Female Athlete of the Year.
Carlsen went on to earn her master's degree from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 1994 while playing professional basketball for the Nebraska Express in the Women's Basketball Association from 1992-1995.
Carlsen has four children; Jacob, Zach, Sam and Lexi. Jacob is an assistant baseball coach at Winona State, Zach is a second lieutenant in the United States Army, Sam is a student at Winona State and Lexi is a women's basketball player at Northern Illinois University.
