Tara Giltner was born in Connecticut and moved all over the US as a Navy brat. After her dad retired early, Tara spent the rest of her childhood in Six Mile, SC, which she describes as a "bustling metropolis" just outside of Clemson. As an adult she moved to South Florida where she spent time on the beach, sat in traffic, started her career, had her first child, and traveled around the US, Central, and South America — her favorite place to visit is Belize.

Tara moved to Upstate, SC to be closer to her parents before having another daughter, then moved to WNC where Tara's family has lived for almost four years. She can't think of anywhere else she'd rather be: building community, tending to her two dogs and two cats, and hoping to get chickens in the near future.

When Tara was a child she always wanted to be a writer and, indeed, she has had a fascinating short story published: Water Babies, which is avdailable online.

She studied English at the University of South Carolina. Politically, at that time, she cared deeply about NORML (a cannabis legalization organization), but not much else. She hadn't yet connected politics more generally to life. As she's learned more about privilege she says that she's "working to incorporate [politics'] importance into everyday life with my own kids."

Tara worked as a marketer in real estate and international investments before turning to the expansion of access to medicinal cannabis as part of her career. She currently works in healthcare "helping patients receive access to products and treatments that insurance loves to make it difficult to receive."

She is passionate about gun control, abortion rights, population health, and access to food.." She loves to hike and to be on the water. She recently started painting to cut back on doom scrolling. She'd like to write more on her own time, but writing for work makes that difficult. She's currently parenting young children so some of her hobbies involve attending birthday parties and taking children to trampoline parks.

Tara got involved with PAHC's postcard parties through her work with Moms Demand Action. She has recently taken over the PAHC website, newsletter and e-blasts. We’re so fortunate that she’s willing to share her expertise and passion with this group.

As a parent of young children, Tara would love to see more support from our local progressive community for parents who want to be more involved with activism. Childcare costs are often prohibitive and it's difficult to participate in many direct action events in our increasingly unsafe political climate. She'd love to have more behind-the-scenes roles or group activities that can be done in spaces where younger children are safely able to be present or participate.

Parents have a lot to offer our progressive community, but they are in need of parenting support. Tara says: "We [parents] want to be here and promise you the reason why we aren’t isn’t apathy — it’s the math of survival in a system that hasn’t yet built a bridge for the boots on the ground who are also pushing strollers."

Wise words from a wise and wonderful woman.