Council Member Cara Mendelsohn was elected to the Dallas City Council in May 2019 to represent District 12 in Far North Dallas. Cara is an accomplished nonprofit executive and volunteer leader with a passion for building stronger communities.

On the Dallas City Council, Council Member Mendelsohn serves as Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee, Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on General Investigating and Ethics, Vice Chair of the Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee, and is a member of the Government Performance and Financial Management Committee, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Ad Hoc Committee on Pensions, and Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs. She is also the Dallas Delegation Lead for the Regional Transportation Council, serves on the Executive Board of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and Chair of the Dallas Area Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness.

Professionally, before joining the City Council, Cara served as Executive Director of Rebuilding Together North Texas, a director of Visiting Nurse Association of Texas/Meals on Wheels of Dallas County, a director of The Samaritan Inn homeless shelter, and Chairman of the Collin County Homeless Coalition. Prior to having children, Cara had a career in human resource management in the banking and insurance industries.

Cara has served the City of Dallas as a volunteer on several task forces, commissions and committees, including the Vice Chair of the Citizen’s Homelessness Commission, the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness, the 2017 Bond Committee, and Housing Policy Task Force committees.

Cara has an extensive record of volunteer service to the North Texas community that has been recognized with many civic awards, including "Volunteer of the Year" for Collin County from Volunteer Center of North Texas, two Life Member awards from PTA, the Service Learning Partnership Award from Collin College, the Homeless Advocate Award from the Baron and Blue Foundation, the Community Impact Award from Plano ISD, the Environmental Education Award from the City of Plano, the Shofar Award from Boy Scouts of America’s National Committee on Jewish Scouting, and the Board Leadership Award and a 15-year Board Service Award from Jewish Family Service of Dallas, of which she served as Board Chairman for 2 years.

Cara earned a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. She has been married to her childhood sweetheart for 34 years and they have 3 hilarious sons.

Current Council appointments:

Public Safety Committee, Chair

Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Affairs, Chair

Ad Hoc Committee on General Investigating and Ethics, Chair

Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee, Vice Chair

Government Performance and Financial Management Committee

Transportation & Infrastructure Committee

Ad Hoc Committee on Pensions

Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs

Regional Transportation Council, Dallas Delegation Lead

North Central Texas Council of Governments, Executive Board Member

Dallas Area Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness, Chair