Charis Förster was appointed to the professorship for Theory, Empiricism and Practice of Childhood Education at htw saar in 2007. She has shaped the profile of the Faculty of Social Sciences in various academic self-administration roles and has headed it as Dean since 2018. In cooperation with key players in professional practice, she is committed to the development of academic and part-time continuing education courses and degree programs, including with the Continuing Education Center Saar (CEC Saar, htw saar's continuing education institution) and the Institute of Childhood Education.

Her research focuses on the quality of institutional education, care and upbringing in the field of childhood education as well as the importance and promotion of children's language skills in the context of educational processes and trajectories. While working at pädquis gGmbH (Berlin, Professor Dr. Wolfgang Tietze), she had the opportunity to prepare relevant projects from a professional and research methodological perspective. In current research projects, including in cooperation with Saarland University, she is investigating these topics in an interdisciplinary research team. Charis Förster was also a long-standing member of the htw saar research advisory board.

As Federal Chairwoman of the Pestalozzi-Fröbel Association (funded by the BMFSFJ), she is responsible for networking key players from politics, administration, studies, qualification and practice in the field of childhood education. In addition to relevant publications, it is above all decentralized federal conferences and dialogue events that promote the current interprofessional exchange.

Charis Förster studied psychology and theology in Leipzig and Berlin (graduating in 1996 and 1999) and completed her doctorate in 2003 under Prof. Dr. Ralf Schwarzer in an interdisciplinary research project (with Charité Berlin, among others) on a health psychology topic.