Tara Zirkel

Tara serves as Director of Strategic Research with a focus on community colleges. She brings 14 years of experience working in, and alongside, community colleges to create better opportunities for all students, regardless of their starting point. Her work in higher education is deeply rooted in her own identity as a first generation, low income, transfer student who needed to work full time while pursuing her education. Within community colleges she has served both as adjunct faculty and in roles related to student success, enrollment management, and distance learning, such as Director of Admissions at Community College of Allegheny County, and Dean of Distance Education & Education Centers at Westmoreland County Community Colleges. Additionally, she has led national initiatives to strengthen community college access at RaiseMe and Education Design Lab.