As Director of Program Strategy, Tara cultivates, oversees, and manages a multi-million dollar portfolio for CHA, working across sectors to support courageous leaders and organizations seeking to advance equity. In her current role, Hacker oversees programs focused on leadership development, community practice, and assessments and evaluations. She co-directs team building, staff development, and organizational growth for the company. Her portfolio includes directing the program experience for the Culture of Health Leaders Program, a three-year leadership development program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where she leads a team of program staff and partners in supporting participants in their growth as equitable leaders by learning from them; incorporating the wisdom of their experience into the program; creating spaces and opportunities for them to engage and share across their cultural identities; and supporting the development of robust networks.
I take action for equity because for far too long this country has divided our communities and caused harm to many. We need everyone to explore their own privilege and find ways to come together to create cultural shifts.
Experienced in program design, equitable practices, and organizational strategy, Tara specializes in connecting people with resources and approaches to co-create solutions, navigate challenges, and build cultures of collaboration and, respect. Tara provides technical assistance to leaders from different disciplines in their efforts to unpack issues of privilege and oppression, shift power dynamics, reimagine, and build strategy to advance equity in their organizations and communities.
Prior to joining CommonHealth ACTION, Tara worked as a Program Director at the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative where she led the organization’s cross-sector stakeholder engagement and programming along with launching and managing a $2.9M CMS grant and national initiative focused on improving the engagement of patients, families, and communities in the care redesign of ambulatory practices. Over the past two decades, Tara has worked with diverse communities in the U.S. and abroad on public health, social determinants of health, and health policy reform. This includes serving as a health educator in Honduras as a Peace Corps volunteer, and managing promotores de salud programs at the National Council of La Raza (UnidosUS), and managing health reform research and policy development focused on expanding access to affordable health care for low-income residents and improving the health and wellness for all people in Kansas.
Tara earned a Master of Science in Public Health for health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Bachelor of Science degrees in Human Nutrition and Kinesiology from Kansas State University. She is based in CommonHealth ACTION’s Washington, DC headquarters.
