Kielsmeier helped initiate the nonprofit African Reconciliation and Development Corps International and led their first project in Somalia (1993–94) during the civil war.
Kielsmeier spent time as a youth worker in Harlem, and then as a U.S. Army Infantry platoon leader and community relations officer in Korea during the 1960s.
A former middle and high school teacher and Outward Bound instructor, Kielsmeier founded the National Youth Leadership Council in 1983, initially based at the University of Minnesota.
Kielsmeier has also been engaged in the design and implementation of comprehensive state and federal youth service and service-learning models.
Kielsmeier also helped initiate the nonprofit African Reconciliation and Development Corps International, and led its first project to build schools in Somalia during the civil war in 1993.