Carla Gibbs Kelman grew up in Amarillo Texas and attended Phillips University in Enid Oklahoma, where she obtained a BS in Pre-Law in 1982. She then moved to Lubbock Texas to attend Texas Tech School of Law. After graduating in 1985 she joined the Fort Worth Court of Appeals as a Briefing Attorney.

She then moved back to Amarillo to join the Potter County Attorney’s office as Assistant County Attorney where she was responsible for cases involving misdemeanors, Texas Department of Human Services, Mental Health and Domestic Violence. In October of 1989 Carla married and moved back to Fort Worth where she worked for eleven years as Assistant Attorney General as a Child Support Litigation Attorney. While there her tasks included negotiating all aspects of child support cases. In 2001 Carla moved to private practice.