Cara Petersen serves as the Principal Deputy to the Assistant Director for Enforcement of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Cara joined the Bureau in March 2011 during the stand-up and implementation phase of the agency. Prior to assuming the Principal Deputy role, Cara served as a Litigation Deputy and an Assistant Litigation Deputy in the Office of Enforcement.
Before joining the CFPB, Cara was an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, handling consumer protection investigations in the FTC's Division of Financial Practices. Before that, she was a litigator at Arnold & Porter.
Cara holds a B.A. in Economics from the George Washington University and a J.D. from the University of Iowa Law School.
