Carrie Kruse

Economic development coordinator, city of Des Moines

Age: 39

Husband: Tyler Kruse 

Reasons she is a Forty: Carrie has spent the majority of her career in public service and has helped facilitate the successful implementation of over $550 million in economic development projects in Des Moines. She was appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad and reappointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds to serve on the state of Iowa’s City Finance Committee. She spent over a decade serving on the board of directors for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Iowa Chapter, raising funds in the fight against blood cancers. An avid transit rider, Carrie also served on the Transit Riders Advisory Committee for DART.

What are your goals in your role at your company? My goals are to continue developing and implementing policy recommendations that help provide equitable access to quality affordable housing, transportation, child care and jobs. I want to continue strengthening Des Moines’ public-private partnerships with a focus on economic development initiatives that help to eliminate economic disparities in our community.

What are your goals for your community involvement? I enjoy volunteering for organizations and nonprofits that are strong partners in local economic development initiatives. I’ve really enjoyed serving on boards and committees for DART, Neighborhood Development Corp. and Operation Downtown. In the future, I’m also interested in volunteer opportunities with our housing nonprofit partners.

What's your biggest passion, and why? Helping others. Working in the municipal government sector, I feel incredibly fortunate that much of my work is focused on helping others and each day striving to make our community a better place than it was yesterday.

What is it that drives you? Recognizing the impacts that local government has on the community, both positive and negative. Accountability and transparency must be front and center within government operations for us to right the wrongs of the past and improve the public services that we provide today and into the future.

What are your future aspirations? Professionally, I’m excited to continue strategizing and working with our many partners to help solve the shortages in affordable housing that we have throughout our region. My personal goal in the near term is to train for the New York City marathon and raise some much-needed funds for cancer research.

Three hobbies: Biking, traveling to music festivals with my husband Tyler, and being a dog mom to our rescue dog Dottie.  

Fun fact: Carrie was a multiyear MVP award recipient on the Simpson College women’s tennis team.

One word to describe you: Resilient.

What is your wish for the Central Iowa business community? The Central Iowa business community has a long track record of successful collaborations that better our community. I’m excited to see the business community coming together to look for solutions for improved access to quality affordable child care.

What's one piece of advice that you would give to a young professional? I highly recommend getting involved with any of the programs offered through Lead DSM. Through this organization I was able to learn so much about myself and our community. The experiences offered in the Lead DSM programs really helped me align my passions with my community leadership and volunteerism efforts.

What is one issue you would like to see Central Iowa leaders address? I’d like to see us address the financial and economic disparities outlined in the Directors Council “One Economy” report. To attract and retain talent and maximize the potential strength of our regional economy, we all need to work together on removing the systemic barriers that exist in financial inclusion, employment, education, health and housing.