Nora J. Carpenter, president and CEO, United Way of Treasure Valley in Boise

“I don’t know that my leadership, mentorship and community engagement will leave ‘footprints’ in the sands of time, but I certainly know that I don’t want to sit by and not embrace (the) opportunity.”

Nora J. Carpenter keeps a small card on her desk. The card says, “You can’t make footprints in the sands of time if you are sitting on your butt. And who wants to make butt-prints in the sands of time?”

While she “apologizes for the less-than-ladylike language,” Carpenter says the quote has been her muse throughout her career.

“I don’t know that my leadership, mentorship and community engagement will leave ‘footprints’ in the sands of time, but I certainly know that I don’t want to sit by and not embrace (the) opportunity,” she says.

And embrace it she does. When she began working for the Better Business Bureau in 1992, the organization was effectively bankrupt and considering closing its doors. A year later, Carpenter and her team had turned the tables and brought the company back on track. And for someone whose title was executive director and CEO, she didn’t spend much time behind a desk — she connected with people at senior centers, churches, high schools, and through the newspaper and radio, talking about consumer alerts and fraud protection. Twice a week, she was the “Scamaramma” lady on KIDO radio.

“From the Magic Valley to eastern Oregon, my job and, frankly, my personal fun, was helping consumers make good choices by making information easy and entertaining,” Carpenter says.

Her work soon caught upstairs attention and Carpenter was tapped by the national organization to help refresh the brand for the entire company. She ended up as the right-hand to the president and says she’s very proud of having the role of “chief cat-herder” in the effort. She was also invited by Timothy Geithner, then United States Secretary of the Treasury, to help establish the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

“This was a pretty remarkable experience for a girl from Idaho,” Carpenter remarks.

Carpenter then spent three years as executive director and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Idaho, working to reach as many at-risk youth as possible, before becoming president and CEO of United Way of Treasure Valley in 2010. Today, Carpenter works tirelessly to promote collaboration between community agencies and change for the better.

“Our southern Idaho community is just moving so rapidly and has this really vibrant sense of wanting to meaningfully connect and work together,” Carpenter says. “The opportunity to leverage that … gets me jumping out of bed in the morning.”

Outside the office, Carpenter, a Caldwell native, says she likes to be “wearing (her) Idaho and getting it all over” herself. She doesn’t mind dirt under her fingernails or standing in a lake for hours stalking a stubborn fish. She’s been married to husband Jim for 28 years and is proudly the “world’s greatest aunt” to a host of nieces and nephews.

Though she thought she’d simply “sail on into the sunset,” Carpenter happily believes the best in her life is yet to come, and she’s hopelessly optimistic about the human race.

“I almost can’t get enough of meeting different kinds of people,” she says. “I guess I’m naturally nosy. Learning little short moments about someone is like reading a book in person. And I truly believe that good people become great people when given the opportunity, skills and trust to excel.”