Tara is strategist and campaign manager, leading Purple teams in the development and execution of campaigns that help clients navigate through some of the world’s most complex challenges on their way to achieving critical business goals. Tara joined Purple after several years focused on public affairs and crisis communications at Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Public Strategies. As a vice president in Hill+Knowlton’s DC office, Tara provided communications counsel to organizations across a variety of industries, including energy, water, aviation, labor, sports and higher education. Tara is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Junior League of Washington. She received a master’s degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity University in San Antonio. At Trinity, Tara was a member of the women’s basketball team and was named a Division III Kodak All-American as a senior.

“Each client I’ve had over the years is as unique as the challenges they face. Given that, there’s a lot to admire about each one, including just the simple fact that by engaging a firm like Purple, they’re taking action to address those challenges. I also admire clients with a willingness to try new things. Even companies you’d assume might be resistant to a bold strategy or hesitant to try a highly-creative tactic can and will surprise you.”

“I love consulting because it’s never boring. I’ve always loved immersing myself in new subject matter (nerd alert: I loved writing research papers in school!). I find it fascinating to dig into a new industry, or a new issue facing a client, to expand my understanding of the challenges our clients face. When I recently started with a new client, I read a handful of books and watched 4-5 documentaries on the company – in addition to our typical onboarding and insights process – just because I found their industry so fascinating.”

 “I had to take two introductory economics classes as part of my political science major in college and ended up finding the entire field so interesting that I decided to pursue a double major in economics and political science. I’m not sure if it was the unique way to look at human nature, or because I was gaining a better understanding of how the world works, or maybe just all the graphs, but I was hooked on economics from the beginning.”