Dr. McCarthy retired in 2007 from the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps where she worked in health policy and education for the Health and Human Services Administration. During her time in the Commissioned Corps she worked as a regulatory scientist for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), reviewing anesthesia and respiratory medical devices in the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, as the Scientific Advisor to the FDA Associate Commissioner and as the Science Education Advisor for the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

To better meet the anesthesia health care needs of the Uniformed Services, she developed the congressionally mandated nurse anesthesia program for the Uniformed Services University (1993-2000) which educates nurse anesthetists for the Army, Navy, Air Force and US Public Health Service. In 2004, because of the shortage of nurse anesthetists and the lack of a nurse anesthesia educational program in the state of Maryland, she developed a nurse anesthesia program for the University of Maryland School of Nursing. She has been on faculty as a Professor at the Univesity of North Florida helping to establish the Nurse Anesthesia Masters and Dotorate of Nursing Practice programs since 2007.  

Dr. McCarthy was one of the first nurse anesthetists to be recognized as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 1994. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetist is active with the District of Columbia Association of Nurse Anesthetists (DCANA) where she directed the DCANA Annual Anesthesia Safety Conference for 25 years for over 200 CRNAs and students from around the country. She obtained her doctorate in Physiology from the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in Bethesda, MD in 1985 and her nurse anesthesia education at the Fairfax Hospital Nurse Anesthesia Program in Falls Church, VA in 1976.

Presently, Dr. McCarthy is a part-time Professor in the UNF Brooks College of Health teaching on-line healthcare policy and evidence based practice. She works mostly from home in Olney, MD and enjoys the commute. She is a strong proponent of healthy living and plays tennis as much as possible.