
Carla Sands

Carla Sands (née Herd; born October 13, 1960) is an American socialite, former actress, and chiropractor who served as the United States Ambassador to Denmark from 2017 to 2021. Sands was previously an economic advisor to Trump. Prior to her nomination, she donated nearly a quarter-million dollars to, and organized high-dollar fundraisers for, Trump's presidential campaign. She also gave $100,000 to Trump's inaugural committee.
She married business executive Fred Sands on April 10, 1999. Following his death in 2015, she succeeded him as chair and CEO of Vintage Capital Group.
Early life and education.
Sands was born Carla J. Herd, daughter of Jack (a chiropractor) and Barbara Herd, on October 13, 1960. She grew up in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Sands attended Cumberland Valley High School, where she was active in student council, the ski club, and various other student-led organizations. She studied fine art at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and chemistry at Elizabethtown College. She later attended Life Chiropractic College, now Life University, and earned a doctor of chiropractic degree.
Career.
Sands had a brief career in acting in the 1980s, appearing in several episodes of the television series "The Bold and the Beautiful" in 1987 and in two movies, the 1988 sword and sorcery fantasy film "Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell" and the 1989 South African action film "Wild Zone".
Sands worked as a chiropractor in private practice from 1990 to 1999. On April 10, 1999, Sands married real estate mogul Fred Sands. Following his death in 2015, she succeeded him as the chair and CEO of Vintage Capital Group, which has around $150 million in assets, and of Vintage Real Estate.
Political involvement.
She is also a Republican fundraiser and donor; she supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. In 2016, Sands donated nearly a quarter-million dollars and organized high-dollar fundraisers for Trump's campaign, and subsequently gave $100,000 to Trump's inaugural committee. Sands was previously an economic advisor to Trump; she was one of eight woman that Trump added to his economic advisory council after facing criticism for initially naming an all-male slate.
Sands was also a California delegate for the 33rd congressional district to the 2016 Republican National Convention.
After the 2020 presidential election, Sands repeatedly and falsely claimed on Twitter that she was "disenfranchised" because her absentee ballot in Pennsylvania was "not counted". "The New York Times" noted that running a search on Pennsylvania's election website with Sands' information showed that her ballot had in fact been received and counted in Cumberland County.
U.S. Ambassador to Denmark.
Trump nominated Sands to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. The convicted fundraiser Elliott Broidy had put her name forth to Trump. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 2, 2017, on a voice vote. She formally assumed the office on December 15, 2017.
While serving as Ambassador, Sands prioritized pushing the Danish government to increase military spending.
In December 2019, she caused controversy by vetoing the presence of Stanley Sloan, a scholar of the NATO alliance, at a Danish Atlantic Council conference that was meant to celebrate the 70th anniversary of NATO and discuss its future. Sloan had been invited by the head of the Council, Lars Struwe, to give the keynote address at the conference. Days before the conference, Sands objected to Sloan speaking because he had criticized Trump; after Sands' intervention, the Danish Atlantic Council canceled the conference rather than accede to Sands' wishes.
Struwe wrote to Sloan that "we believe that freedom of speech is paramount in every democracy" and that the think tank saw no conflict between Sloan's criticism of Trump and his participation as a speaker at a conference. The U.S. Embassy posted a Twitter message saying that the "proposed last-minute inclusion" of Sloan into the conference did not comply with the "agreement that we followed when recruiting all other speakers." The Embassy offered no proof of that allegation, however, and Struwe denied that such a process had even existed. When all the other speakers for the conference were being selected, Struwe said the U.S. Embassy had played no role in choosing them or in confirming whether they would attend the conference.
Sands was accused in February 2021 by the State Department of violating the Hatch Act of 1939 multiple times while serving as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark by using her official Twitter account to tweet about political matters, including criticisms of Joe Biden and conspiracy theories about Kamala Harris.
Additional affiliations.
Sands served on the boards of Pepperdine University, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She was also named by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be on the board of the California Cultural and Historical Endowment. Sands served as the President and Chairman of Blue Ribbon, an organization that supports the Los Angeles Music Center and also as a Director of the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County.
Personal life.
Sands has one child, a daughter named Alexandra.