Full Name
Cara Ciminillo
Job Title
Executive Director
Company
Trying Together
Speaker Bio
A voice for early childhood, as Executive Director of c, Cara serves as a champion for the nonprofit’s mission of supporting high-quality care and education for young children by providing advocacy, community resources, and professional growth opportunities for the needs and rights of children, their families, and the individuals who interact with them. While focused on driving impact across Southwestern Pennsylvania, Cara sits at coalition-building and policymaking tables, extending her voice to statewide and national interests. Joining what was formerly known as The Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC), Cara initially served as the Director of Operations and Communications, becoming one of the first full-time team members after four decades of being volunteer led. Playing pivotal roles in shaping strategic plans to expand impact across 10 counties, she led campaigns promoting what matters most to child development—meaningful relationships, creativity, discovery, and play—and operationalized and administered programs to optimize outreach and impact.
Before being appointed Executive Director, Cara took the role in an interim capacity, expecting to return to her beloved operations and communications post. Within short order, Cara found herself even more deeply connected to the people, programs, and processes involved in advocating for early childhood, embracing the opportunity to lead the organization and being officially appointed as its Executive Director in January 2016.
Since then, Cara has truly led transformational efforts involving leading the organization through its first 5-year strategic plan, diversifying funding sources to reduce grant reliance, growing the budget from $1.5M to $7M, and leading the 60+-member team in optimizing return on that investment. Cara’s leadership and impact with Trying Together cannot be overstated. From shaping a total rebranding to securing critical funding for early childhood organizations and workers during the pandemic, capturing a 5-year state contract to operate the Early Learning Resource Center (ELRC) Region 5, to casting a long-range vision to build a vibrant talent pipeline to protect the future of the early childhood industry, she has led countless inaugural, ground-up, and game-changing initiatives.
Earlier in her journey, Cara was a Project Director and Senior Evaluator with the University of Pittsburgh’s Collaborative for Evaluation and Assessment Capacity (CEAC). Here, she oversaw the delivery of services for educational organizations, social and human services agencies, foundations, and other child and youth programs. In addition, she established best practices, produced qualitative and quantitative reports, and created workshops for premier education and evaluation conferences, a perfect precursor to her current work through Trying Together. Concurrently, and for more than a decade, Cara directed groups in construction-based, cross-cultural community service programs through Visions Service Adventures. Working in various parts of the world from Alaska to Australia, Cara began her journey building a foundation grounded by her desire for advocacy, equity, inclusion, and change-making. Cara possesses a Master of Education in Social and Comparative Analysis in Education from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from Bowling Green State University. She is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh XXXIII and completed the Race Equity Consciousness Institute Facilitators Academy in Summer 2024.
Cara currently serves on the Board of Pittsburgh Child Guidance Foundation, Jefferson Regional Foundation Vision Council, and the Allegheny County Child Death Review Board. Formerly, she served on the Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families Advisory Board. She was recently appointed to co-chair the Robust Education, Workforce Development, and Youth Investments Committee of County Executive Innamorato’s Transition Team.
For the past 3 years, Cara has been recognized as one of the Top 50 Women Leaders in Pennsylvania by Women We Admire. In addition, Trying Together was named a finalist for Nonprofit of the Year in 2023 by the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce. Cara resides in Highland Park with her husband, Provin, daughters, Mia and Lyra, and dogs, Clover and Chico.
Before being appointed Executive Director, Cara took the role in an interim capacity, expecting to return to her beloved operations and communications post. Within short order, Cara found herself even more deeply connected to the people, programs, and processes involved in advocating for early childhood, embracing the opportunity to lead the organization and being officially appointed as its Executive Director in January 2016.
Since then, Cara has truly led transformational efforts involving leading the organization through its first 5-year strategic plan, diversifying funding sources to reduce grant reliance, growing the budget from $1.5M to $7M, and leading the 60+-member team in optimizing return on that investment. Cara’s leadership and impact with Trying Together cannot be overstated. From shaping a total rebranding to securing critical funding for early childhood organizations and workers during the pandemic, capturing a 5-year state contract to operate the Early Learning Resource Center (ELRC) Region 5, to casting a long-range vision to build a vibrant talent pipeline to protect the future of the early childhood industry, she has led countless inaugural, ground-up, and game-changing initiatives.
Earlier in her journey, Cara was a Project Director and Senior Evaluator with the University of Pittsburgh’s Collaborative for Evaluation and Assessment Capacity (CEAC). Here, she oversaw the delivery of services for educational organizations, social and human services agencies, foundations, and other child and youth programs. In addition, she established best practices, produced qualitative and quantitative reports, and created workshops for premier education and evaluation conferences, a perfect precursor to her current work through Trying Together. Concurrently, and for more than a decade, Cara directed groups in construction-based, cross-cultural community service programs through Visions Service Adventures. Working in various parts of the world from Alaska to Australia, Cara began her journey building a foundation grounded by her desire for advocacy, equity, inclusion, and change-making. Cara possesses a Master of Education in Social and Comparative Analysis in Education from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from Bowling Green State University. She is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh XXXIII and completed the Race Equity Consciousness Institute Facilitators Academy in Summer 2024.
Cara currently serves on the Board of Pittsburgh Child Guidance Foundation, Jefferson Regional Foundation Vision Council, and the Allegheny County Child Death Review Board. Formerly, she served on the Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families Advisory Board. She was recently appointed to co-chair the Robust Education, Workforce Development, and Youth Investments Committee of County Executive Innamorato’s Transition Team.
For the past 3 years, Cara has been recognized as one of the Top 50 Women Leaders in Pennsylvania by Women We Admire. In addition, Trying Together was named a finalist for Nonprofit of the Year in 2023 by the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce. Cara resides in Highland Park with her husband, Provin, daughters, Mia and Lyra, and dogs, Clover and Chico.
