04 Nov 2025 Couple of the Month: Kara and Eric Gilmore
HIS STORY:
I love God, love my family, love people, and love being a part of meaningful relationships and work.
NATIVE OF: I was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Indiana.
EDUCATION: Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Cedarville University, followed by a Master of Social Work from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.
WORK: Founder of Immerse Arkansas. Learn more about the organization on page 22.
HONORS: The biggest honor for me is seeing our young people succeed. It’s a gift to have a front-row seat to this on a daily basis.
CHURCH ACTIVITIES: We’re a part of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Little Rock, and big fans of many great churches in our area.
HOBBIES: I enjoy time with my family, exploring Arkansas’s outdoors and smoking meat.
HER STORY:
I enjoy windy days, pink skies, long walks, silly moments, big challenges, close relationships and spending time with the Lord.
NATIVE OF: Sherwood
CHILDREN: We have four wonderful children:
Ean (16), Mercy Kate (14), Ezra (12) and Mabel Rose (9).
PETS: A mini-Aussie named Love and three cats: Princess, Oreo, and Cookie.
EDUCATION: Bachelor of Social Work from Cedarville University.
WORK: I homeschool our younger three children, manage our Airbnb and help out where I can.
SPECIAL INTERESTS: I enjoy being with family and friends, adventuring outside and making healthy food (that will hopefully be edible!) for the people I love!
AWARDS: I’m proud of the Arkansas Business Nonprofit of the Year awarded in 2023 for Immerse, not because I can take credit, but because I am so proud and thankful for the many people who work with a full heart on behalf of our young adults.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE 501? I tell people all the time that I love Arkansas, especially Central Arkansas! We have such wonderful people who are quick to care and genuinely want good for those around them.
THEIR STORY
We met freshman year at Cedarville University in Ohio. Eric had never met a Southern girl before and was smitten upon seeing Kara across campus. It took Eric several attempts to gain Kara’s affection, but he ultimately did.
Eric proposed to Kara on a Florida beach during his senior year of college. They married less than a year later on December 20, 2003, at Grace United Church in Little Rock.
The couple enjoys exploring the outdoors together, raising their incredible children, and working together to show love and kindness to young people who have found themselves on the margins of society — young people whom Eric and Kara feel honored to count as friends.
Why we created immerse
By Eric Gilmore
Kara and I discovered the challenges that youth aging out of foster care face firsthand as we served as house parents at a local group home for teens in foster care. We had fallen in love with the young people we were serving and simply couldn’t stomach the reality they faced as they exited care. Before this, we hadn’t considered what happens to young people in the foster care system who weren’t adopted or returned to their families.
This awareness came to a climax when one young lady named Meagan aged out of foster care. We had gotten to know her when she briefly lived at our group home, and then did our best to keep up with her as she bounced around facilities throughout the state. By the age of 18 and over the course of the next six years, she moved to more than 50 different foster care placements.
The day after her 18th birthday, Meagan’s caseworker dropped her off at what used to be the Greyhound Bus Station in North Little Rock to return to family members who lived in a different part of the state. We were shocked. Meagan only had a bag of clothes and a day’s worth of medications. We couldn’t wrap our minds around what was unfolding before our eyes.
It was Meagan’s experience that made us realize we had to do something. We firmly believed that Meagan and other young people in her situation were, and always will be, close to God’s heart. As we shared Meagan’s story with others, we found they wanted to help. This is how Immerse Arkansas came to be.
Today, Immerse is the product of the heart and hand of God, combined with the work, financial support and prayers of many. Together, we’ve developed a model that is centered on relationship-based coaching and therapy, and bolstered by transitional housing, shelter, life-skills training, mentorship, recreational therapy and family support.
This year, Immerse will serve more than 500 amazing young people between the ages of 14-24, who are in and around Arkansas’s foster care system. We will embrace each one of them and surround them with the tools, relationships and vision they need to enter adulthood resilient and ready for life. Looking ahead, Immerse is working toward a future in which Arkansas will be a model state for preparing vulnerable youth for adulthood.
