Kara Coates began her formal service to the Gahanna-Jefferson Board of Education in January 2022 and currently serves as Board President. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Communications from Ohio University and also graduated with a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from Franklin University in the spring of 2023.

Ms. Coates has been a proud associate of OhioHealth for 18 years, currently serving as Advisor of Provider and Associate Well-Being. With over 30 years of experience, her background encompasses internal communications, video production, event design, production, and logistics, as well as cause and experiential marketing, team building, critical incident response, mental health support programming, suicide prevention, and people and organizational management. Ms. Coates is Co-Chair for the OhioHealth Disabilities Awareness Wellness Network Business Resource Group, and Co-Chair of the OhioHealth Arts Collaborative.

She is a member of GLOW, a giving circle that supports Central Ohio non-profits, and served on the 2025 Inaugural Gahanna Juneteenth Planning Committee, as well as the Gahanna Pride planning committee in 2024 and 2025. Kara moved to Gahanna with her husband, Kevin, in 2006 and has two children who graduated from Gahanna Lincoln High School and also graduated from Ohio State and Kent State in May.