With extensive research experience in the field as a traffic safety professional, Tara decided to form her own consulting business as an independent consultant. Tara is the former Director of Research of the Traffic Injury Research Foundation USA. Tara was also a Research Associate for Preusser Research Group (PRG) from 1998 to 2015 and served as a Senior Research Associate (2010-2015) where she led several national and state projects involving alcohol and drug impaired driving, occupant protection, teen driving involving graduated licensing, pedestrian and bike safety, older drivers and distracted driving.

Tara’s work includes a national evaluation of 28 state’s ignition interlock programs, a Washington State ignition interlock offender behavior project, a northern Virginia distracted driving program, Minnesota and Colorado interlock program evaluations, Governors Highway Safety (GHSA) Motorcyclist Fatalities by State: 2017 Preliminary Data report, and several state highway safety behavioral evaluations.

Tara has worked very closely with the US DOT and upper level management of federal and state government agencies including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the U.S. FDA, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and GHSA. Tara has worked extensively with state highway safety offices and governor representatives in addition to state and municipal law enforcement and has a thorough understanding of government agency procedure, program development, implementation and evaluation.

Tara has published several peer-reviewed journal articles and is regularly asked to present her research at local and national professional conferences. Tara is a founding member of the Connecticut Statewide Impaired Driving Task Force, a faculty staff member for the National Center for DWI Courts (NCDC), a member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation Committee, a member of The International Council on Alcohol, Drugs, and Traffic Safety, a member of the Institute for Behavior and Health Drugged Driving Committee, an expert panelist for the Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program (BTSCRP) 2018 BTS-03 Primary Handheld Bans vs. Texting Bans, and a manuscript reviewer for Traffic Injury Prevention.