Cara Nielsen

Cara Nielsen is the current President of the Kootenai Health Foundation and has been in this role since October 2019. Prior to that, they served as the Executive Director of Development at Boise State University from August 2013 to October 2019. In this role, Cara provided strategic direction for all aspects of annual giving across the University to broaden the base of philanthropic support from over 100,000 alumni, friends, parents, faculty, staff, and students. Cara also managed the leadership annual giving team, mass solicitation channels, student philanthropy, parent giving, student affairs giving, crowdfunding and giving day programs.

Before their time at Boise State University, Cara worked as the Community and Government Relations Manager at Albertsons from January 2012 to April 2013. In this role, they created and executed strategic community relations campaigns to raise organizational profile and brand in communities in a nine state region and administered a $600,000 annual corporate donation budget. Cara also provided supervision and guidance for community relations programs for 450 stores.

Prior to their work at Albertsons, Cara served as the Development Administrator at Idaho State Theirtorical Society from January 2009 to June 2012.

Cara Nielsen attended Boise State University, where they earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science.

They are on a team with Ryan Smith - Chief Information Officer, Jeremy S. Evans - Chief Operating Officer, and Dan Klocko - CHRO. Cara Nielsen reports to Jon Ness, CEO.