Carla Nelson

Carla J. Nelson (born May 22, 1957) is a Minnesota politician and member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, she represents District 26, which includes portions of Olmsted County in the southeastern part of the state.

Nelson graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, receiving her B.S. in special education. She went on to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, earning her M.Ed. in teacher leadership, and her reading specialist certification.

She is the owner of the Olmsted Group, an insurance and investment firm in Rochester. She was previously an elementary and middle school teacher in Rochester.

Nelson was first elected to the Senate in 2010 and was re-elected in 2012. She previously served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2003 to 2005, and was a member of the House's Education Policy, Higher Education Finance, and Local Government and Metropolitan Affairs committees. Her special legislative concerns include health care, commerce, higher education, and taxes. Nelson was named an assistant minority leader in November 2012.

Nelson was an appointed member of the Minnesota Higher Education Finance Authority Board from 2005 to 2009, of the Capitol Area Architectural Planning Board (CAAPB) from 2005 to 2010, and of the Minnesota Academic Excellence Foundation Board from 2008 to 2010.

Active in her community, Nelson has served in leadership positions with Junior Achievement, a non-profit youth organization, on the University of Minnesota Citizens Advisory Council, and the Rochester Music Guild. She is vice president of Next Chapter Ministries, past president and a current member of the board of directors of Friends of Mayowood, a member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and its Government Affairs and Government Forums Committee, a member of the Rochester Rotary and its Community Service committee, and a former member of the Rochester Symphony, Orchestra, and Chorale, on which she was an Aspiring Conductor winner.