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Dr. Carla Earhart is Professor of Property Management in the Department of Applied Business Studies, Miller College of Business at Ball State University. She joined the faculty after earning M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Housing from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Earhart is currently on phased retirement and will be retiring in Summer 2024.
Much of Dr. Earhart’s teaching involves immersive learning projects where students are engaged in the community as part of the learning process. These projects have resulted in films, podcasts, training materials, conference presentations, and other ways of disseminating the collaborative work. She most recently taught an immersive learning course where students examined the Indiana Department of Education academic standards for the elementary grades to determine opportunities for adding more housing content to the elementary curriculum, especially content related to multifamily rental housing. This led to a Creative Teaching Grant where she and Honors Fellow Hannah Hays worked with a group of current/future elementary educators to pilot test professional development materials to increased awareness, acceptance, and appreciation of multifamily rental housing.
Dr. Earhart’s scholarly interests focus on the factors that influence attitudes and preferences toward housing options...multifamily vs. single-family housing, and renting vs. buying. She is especially interested in the influence of art, media, literature, music, film, education, and public policy on housing attitudes and preferences. Her scholarly work also focuses on the uses of experiential teaching techniques such as immersive learning, job shadowing, and internships.
Dr. Earhart’s work has been presented at conferences of the Housing Education and Research Association, International Conference on Education, Charleston Library Conference, American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, European Network for Housing Research, International Sociological Association, National Apartment Association, Hawaii International Conference on Business, Environmental Design Research Association, and Architecture, Media, Politics, Society. Her work has been published in a variety of journals, books, magazines, and newspapers. Much of her scholarly work involves students as collaborators.
As a result of her teaching and scholarly activities, Dr. Earhart has received awards from the Department of Management, Miller College of Business, Ball State University, Indiana Community Engaged Alliance, National Apartment Association, Housing Education and Research Association, and American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. She was awarded a regional Emmy nomination as executive producer of the documentary Somewhere Called Home. Dr. Earhart was also selected for the Distinguished Service Award by the Housing Education and Research Association.
Dr. Earhart has served on a variety of committees in local, state and national professional organizations, as well as at the department, college, and university level. She is regularly called upon to assist other universities in creating academic programs in Property Management.