Cara graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in 2001. After graduation she worked with colleagues to found Stone Soup Theatre Arts, a socially active theatre company. Cara traveled to China for the first time while working on a new show dealing with human rights issues. In 2001 she traveled to China again with Children of China Pediatrics Foundation, a charity performing surgeries in China's Orphanages. In 2003, she moved to Yue Yang to work at Bo Wen School.

After forming a strong relationship with Bo Wen, she decided against moving to coastal Xia Men as planned and spent a year teaching in the Hua Rong countryside. While in China she partnered with the Qin family to open the UCS branch school before returning home to found UCS. She has worked for Families With Children From China, which advocates for International Adoption and for Human Rights in China, an advocacy organization and now teaches English as a Second Language in Philadelphia.