Kathleen Mintert – Board Member  

As a young social worker, with a Masters degree from St Louis University, Kathleen first learned the power of elections when the then- Illinois Republican governor, Jim Thompson, after campaigning on children’s services, redlined the budget for the successful children’s treatment program where she worked. That’s when Kathleen first became a community organizer and advocate. Politics was personal for those parents who had no place else to turn for help for their children.

       Leadership

Kathleen is a clinical social worker whose career spanned four decades of direct services to families and children in Missouri, Illinois and California; she worked in and oversaw mental health and developmental disability programs, women’s health, the NICU, and public health policy and statewide program development for underserved groups while working in senior positions in California state government, under both Democratic and Republican governors.

A resident of El Dorado County since she and her husband built their home in 1985; she joined Sierra Forward to work on local issues and help candidates succeed. When not campaigning, Kathleen can often be found on a sailboat, snowshoeing in the Sierras, gardening, cooking, or attending theatric productions in San Francisco.