Our Team

Carrie Bates

Director of Strategic Growth and Advocacy
OLY

Carrie Bates is an advocate for recovery. As a three-time Olympic gold medalist (OLY) in swimming and a person in recovery, she deeply understands the interplay of the drive for excellence, trauma, life changes, and addiction. Sharing her truth and living her recovery out loud has been at the center of her work. Since 2012, she has helped others access treatment and fought to end the stigma that surrounds the brain disease of substance use disorder.

Carrie came to Caron in 2025 as director of strategic growth and advocacy. In her role, she works with partners in recovery to help more families in need access treatment and support services, promote Caron’s neurorestorative approach to treatment, reduce stigma, and advance awareness about addiction as a brain disease and recovery's benefits. Carrie is passionate about prevention, the importance of mental wellness, the impact of addiction on families, the difficulties women face in accessing treatment and recovery support, and the role of employers and workplaces to support recovery.

Before coming to Caron, she served as an outreach manager for Hazelden Betty Ford where she worked directly with employers, patients, and their families to navigate the process of finding the treatment they need for sustainable recovery. Carrie has been a fixture in traditional media, podcasts and as a keynote speaker sharing her personal story, tips for families, and hope.

Carrie spent the better part of her career before entering the treatment and recovery field as a sales and marketing career at Nike, Inc.

She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.