Co-founder and Executive Director

Before co-founding Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop in 2002, Tara worked as a radio and television news and documentary producer for twelve years. After producing many features on the US criminal justice system, showcasing such topics such as the death penalty, prison overcrowding and juvenile justice reform she was drawn to direct service. Tara began volunteering with Georgetown University’s Family Literacy Program, tutoring incarcerated parents at the District of Columbia jail. She is trained as a tutor with the Literacy Volunteers of America and a mediator with The Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County, MD. Tara trained at the Freedom Writer’s Institute and her writing has been included in Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writer Teachers (www.freedomwritersfoundation.org). In 2022, she was selected for the Equity Lab Seeding Disruption Fellowship, a DC-based fellowship to build knowledge, skills, and community across racial difference and youth-facing professional fields—and to catalyze movement toward racial equity. She is certified in Restorative Justice and the Deep Elements of Human Energy Dynamics. She won the Linowes Award for “Unsung Community Heroes” and the DC Department of Corrections George Strawn Volunteer Award. Tara oversees all aspects of Free Minds and works with the Board of Directors to fulfill the organization’s mission.