Tara’s mission in life has been to transform the opportunities available to young people, especially girls, to reach their full-potential and impact their communities. Tara founded Iridescent in 2006 to empower underrepresented young people, especially girls, to become technology innovators and leaders.
Iridescent has since grown to a community of over 7,000 mentors and more than 100,000 participants across 100+ countries through its flagship programs Curiosity Machine and Technovation. Forbes highlighted Tara in 2016 as “the pioneer empowering the incredible tech girls of the future” and she was prominently featured in the award-winning documentary Codegirl.
Also in 2016, Tara was honored by Discovery’s Science Channel as the first inaugural CEO Science Super Star Hero for igniting passion for science and encouraging the next generation of innovators, problem solvers and game changers. A frequent speaker for her thought leadership in STEM education, she recently presented Iridescent’s work at the White House STEM Inclusion Summit and at the UN. Tara earned her BS in Physics from St. Stephen’s College and a MS in aerospace engineering from Boston University. Tara left her PhD program in aerospace engineering at USC to pursue her social entrepreneurship to found Iridescent and directly empower girls and children everywhere.