My name is Kim Fountain (she/they), Deputy CEO at The Center, and I am honored to share that The Center’s Chief Executive Officer, Cara Dessert (she/her), has been named California State Senator Akilah Weber Pierson’s 2025 Woman of the Year! This well-deserved honor recognizes Cara’s leadership, vision, and commitment to our community while strengthening The Center’s collaboration with the State Legislature in our critical fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
The Woman of the Year award, organized by the California Women’s Caucus, celebrates the contributions made by remarkable women throughout the state. During Women’s History Month, members of the California legislature can invite one woman from each district to come to the Capitol and be honored in a formal ceremony. This year, Cara will be among the small group of women recognized for their groundbreaking leadership, achievements, and positive impact.
Our community is at the heart of Cara’s leadership. As a queer Latina and a dedicated advocate, she has spent 20 years championing social justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigrant rights. Her experience as an attorney, leading Immigration Equality, and working with the Obama Administration and California Department of Justice uniquely positioned her to transform The Center into a force for change and a provider of robust community support.
When she stepped into the CEO role at The Center in 2018, Cara launched a comprehensive needs assessment as part of The Center’s Strategic Planning process. Returning to a grassroots approach to shape The Center’s priorities, she engaged 2000 community members for input via surveys, focus groups, interviews, and town halls. Her deep roots in San Diego and her commitment to listening to and valuing community voices have guided her vision to redefine The Center’s work—not only to create diverse teams that reflect the communities we serve, but also to give our community more power to influence meaningful policy change. Cara’s progressive leadership inspired me to join her team.
Under her bold leadership, The Center has experienced unprecedented growth, more than doubling its annual budget to $15.5M and expanding services to over 90,000 visits each year. She led The Center fearlessly through the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting and advocating for our community during one of the worst times in recent history, while driving remarkable expansion, including working closely with the COO to develop a full-scale housing continuum and opening San Diego County’s first LGBTQ-affirming youth shelter. We were also able to launch critical initiatives like The Center’s Black Services, the South Bay Youth Center, San Diego’s leading LGBTQ+ Training Institute, and a groundbreaking cross-border immigration campaign to support LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.
These transformative advancements were made possible through power-building and community support, as we fostered stronger relationships with our donors, elected officials, and community partners to expand and sustain our critical programs. Through Cara’s guidance, The Center has become a stronghold for unshakable advocacy, direct services, and affirming community spaces for the full diversity of our LGBTQ+ community in San Diego. I’d be remiss not to note that she has done so much of this while also being a mom to two wonderful small children and with the unwavering support of her wife, Lisa Valenzuela.
Today, as we face an onslaught of political attacks, Cara’s leadership has prepared The Center to hold the line. We will continue to provide the full range of services our community needs and fight against ongoing assaults to our rights, including discriminatory federal actions that restrict gender-affirming care, ban trans people from the military, and undermine the rights of immigrants. The Center is well-prepared to mobilize our community, elected officials, and partners against these attacks.
We are incredibly proud to celebrate Cara’s recognition as 2025 Woman of the Year, and we are inspired to keep building on her legacy of fighting back and meeting the needs of our LGBTQ+ community. Her leadership reminds us that advocacy is not just about resisting political and societal threats but cultivating resilience, building our collective power, and supporting people when they need us most.
The Center’s expansion under Cara’s direction has taught us that, through our collective effort, we can overcome unprecedented obstacles and come out stronger than ever. When our community is under attack, we will organize, fight back, and further commit to our vision for a better future. Together, with our staff, donors, local partners, community members, and allies, we will continue to uplift, protect, and empower our community—no matter what challenges lie ahead.
In community,
Kim Fountain (she/they)
Deputy CEO