CARA RIGGS

​Inducted in 2024

Cara was awarded the SHSAA Hall of Fame Distinguished Staff Award in 2024.

Cara Riggs was Principal of South High School for six years, from 2009 through 2014.  She admits that those were the most rewarding years of her career.  Before coming to South, she was Principal at Beveridge Middle School for nine years. There she led the transformation from a regular middle school to a magnet program with the themes of visual and performing arts/international studies.  Prior to that, she was a Benson bunny.  She taught English at Benson High School for seven years and then took a position as Assistant Principal and Athletic Director for eight years.  That position made her the first female athletic director in Nebraska. 

Cara has an undergraduate degree in English and a Masters in School Administration.  She is also a published author. Her books are titled: HOPE in the Urban Schools: Love Stories, Rainbows, Lollipops and Tough Bitches Fight Cancer: Short Stories of Joy, Faith, Friendship and Laughter.

After spending her whole life in Omaha, Cara retired to La Jolla, California in 2014.  Following a beautiful 30-year career in the Omaha Public School system, Cara moved to enjoy sunny southern California. A year-long fight with breast cancer in 2013-14 and its return of metastatic breast cancer in 2019, validated her many blessings and her lifelong belief in living life fully.

Today, Cara works for the National Center of Urban School Transformation (NCUST) at San Diego State University as an Executive Coach.  Her work with NCUST allows her to coach school leaders around the country as they do the hard work of transforming their own schools into places where kids are happy and achieving at high levels. 
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Cara is the proud mom of her daughter Shelby, her pride and joy, a 2014 South High grad, and San Diego State University grad.  

After a valiant, years long fight against cancer, Cara passed away August 26, 2024.