Cara Biesak - Health and Wellness Director

Cara stepped into her role as Health and Wellness Director after joining the Whipporwill Team as a Mentor, Trainer and Program Director over the past two years. She came to us from Utah after spending over a decade working for Evoke Therapy Programs in multi-faceted roles including Senior Field Instructor, Pursuits Adventure Excursion Guide, Family Walkabout Facilitator, Orientation Leader, Intensive Host, and Staff Development Specialist at Entrada; as well as Alumni Outreach Coordinator and Hospitality Director at Evoke’s Summit Lodge.

Prior to Cara’s experience in the Mental Health Field she graduated from Illinois State University with an A.F.A. in Studio Arts. She pursued this passion as a Freelance Artist painting murals on commercial buildings and inside home residences in the Chicagoland Area. She graduated from William Rainey Harper University with an A.S. in Horticulture and A.S.S. in Landscape Design. She worked as a Landscape Designer and Custom Container Creator at Knupper Nursery & Landscape for 4+ years fusing her passions into creating living art with plants enriching outdoor spaces. After that she graduated from Southern Illinois University with a B. S. in Outdoor Recreation specializing in Experiential Education & Adventure Programing minoring in Positive Psychology.

Cara is passionate about promoting longevity, enthusiasm, and resilience within the Whipporwill community as the Health and Wellness Director. She is driven towards fostering an optimal growth mindset amongst our clientele. Cara pours energy into creating deeper awareness of basic life skills, clinical topics, therapeutic tools, and awareness of interpersonal dynamics in her weekly Health and Wellness sessions. Cara meets with each client individually twice weekly working on budgeting expenses, developing organizational systems, activity scheduling, creating cleaning habits, establishing healthy routines, monitoring sleep hygiene; and assisting with exploration of employment, educational and volunteering opportunities. Cara promotes personal accountability, self efficacy and utilization choice theory in her approaches which address underlying issues linked to behavior patterns and role modeling responsiveness to each client's individual experiences. Cara hopes to empower clients to autonomously implement & maintain sound systems of self care to propel sustainability & responsibility moving forward in all their life passions, pursuits and endeavors.

Cara has a lively, playful disposition that delights in anything ridiculous! She loves to laugh, scuba dive, climb, sail, paddle, golf, surf, mountain bike, canyoneer, snowboard & digging in the dirt growing plants. Cara is focused on learning & implementing new homesteading practices with her husband & young daughter on their Organic Farm in Arden. Cara believes wholeheartedly in fostering a strong sense of community while actively pursuing activities that nurture her adventurous spirit.