Carly Murphy grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and moved to South Bend with her family just before high school.  After graduating from St Joseph’s High School, Carly attended the University of Notre Dame where she received an undergraduate degree in Art History and a masters degree in French Literature.  After an internship at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Carly attended the American Arts Course offered by Sotheby’s Institute in New York.  From there she began her career at Sotheby's Auction House in May 2003, working in a variety of departments before settling in Client Strategy for the Contemporary Art Department in 2007.  She left Sotheby's in 2010 and returned in 2014 - expanding her family and working a year-long stint at Phillips Auction House in between.  After four more years in Client Strategy she ran the Data Management department until she left the company in 2021 to become Senior Vice President, Head of Client Strategy for the Americas at Christie’s Auction House in Rockefeller Center.

Carly and her Irish-born husband John (ND JD 2002) live in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with their two boys and one dog.  She serves on the Advisory Council for the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (University of Notre Dame), the marketing committee for the Montclair Art Museum, and is a member of ArtTable and the Inner Circle of the Voices of Contemporary Art Network.