As Patagonia’s VP of Social and Environmental Responsibility, Cara leads a team of professionals that set strategy and implement Patagonia’s sustainability initiatives. Responsibilities include guiding Patagonia’s social and environmental supply chain programs that protect people and our planet (factories, mills, farms), ensuring animal welfare, traceability and content claims assurance of sustainable materials, maintaining footprint metrics, B-Corp reporting and B-Lab certification, and development of sustainability website content. Her team also leads the implementation of the new Regenerative Organic Certification starting with their organic cotton supply chain. Cara is the co-chair of Patagonia’s Footprint Council, a group of executives that make corporate wide sustainability decisions. Cara also sits on Textile Exchange’s Board of Directors and was on the Fair Labor Association’s (FLA) Board of Directors from 2012 through late 2016.
Since 1998, Cara has worked in the corporate responsibility industry as an executive, consultant, trainer and auditor at STR Responsible Sourcing, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bureau Veritas C.P.S. and CSCC. At STR, Cara held the position of Global Director, Training & Education where she led a large global team dedicated to the development and execution of CSR/sustainability trainings and capacity building engagements for brands, suppliers and over 300 in-house auditors. In her career, Cara has conducted over 1,000 supplier social and environmental compliance assessments and capacity building engagements in over 35 countries across 25 different industries.
She has a Master’s degree in International Affairs and a Bachelor’s degree in Government from California State University, Sacramento. She has lived abroad in Madrid, Spain and has traveled to over 50 countries around the world.