Beloved Sandy Springs Nonprofit CEO To Retire

SANDY SPRINGS, GA – Tamara Carrera, who has led the Community Assistance Center since 1997, has announced plans to retire in the coming months. She will remain on board, however, until a new CEO is in place.

The CAC Board of Directors continues to work hard and prepare for the leadership transition. They will begin a search next week, representatives with the organization said.

Under Carrera’s leadership, CAC has become widely recognized as the cornerstone emergency human services agency preventing homelessness and hunger in the Sandy Springs and Dunwoody communities.

“Tamara’s outstanding leadership has put CAC on the national map as an exemplary model of a successful nonprofit assistance agency,” said CAC Board President Nancy Berger. “For 23 years Tamara has championed the needs of our lower-income families and those who fall on hard times. She will be missed at CAC and in the community.”

Carrera was the driving force behind CAC’s growth from a small charity initially housed at a scout hut at the Mount Vernon Presbyterian campus, providing food and clothing to about 280 families a year, to the go-to emergency assistance agency in the community serving more than 6,500 individuals a year from 3,000 households.

During her tenure Carrera built what CAC founders envisioned - a network of people, organizations and resources all focused on helping those who struggle to overcome crisis situations and to achieve progress and stability.

Originally joining CAC as a volunteer in 1993, Carrera was hired in 1997 to be the nonprofit’s fourth director.

“Tamara worked tirelessly to develop a diverse network of volunteers, donors and supporting congregations to reflect all socio-economic levels, multiple ethnicities and religious faiths who come together to work in harmony to help our neighbors improve their lives,” said Laura DeLong, who was part of the personnel committee that hired Carrera.

CAC was founded in 1987 by 10 local religious congregations of multiple faiths looking to provide and centralize assistance to address growing poverty in the community despite the area’s developing affluence.