Admitted to practice law in California. 2015 graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington, Maurer School of Law. Along with her team at HomeBase, Tara supports various Continuums of Care throughout California in their efforts to end homelessness. As a Senior Staff Attorney, she analyzes State and Federal legislation to aid local decision-makers regarding homeless policy and advocacy efforts; she also supports facilitation of gatherings of regional stakeholders and CoC Leads from across Northern and Central California to discuss evidence-based practices and solutions for eradicating homelessness. Tara supports the strategic planning and launch of Coordinated Entry Systems within the communities she serves, as well as grant application efforts and program- and system-level performance measurement through the annual CoC Program Competition. She enjoys collecting and examining data while programming competitions in the Program and Evaluation and Scoring Tool (PRESTO), HomeBase’s propriety web-based platform for analyzing the performance of homeless housing and service projects. Previous legal experience includes the following: Immigration Law: As a Bridge to Practice Fellow, responded to USCIS Director Requests For Evidence (RFEs), researched client cases and prepared I-400 Applications for Naturalization, I-130 Petitions for Relatives, as well as petitions for U Visa and VAWA eligible clients. Legal Services: Independently managed caseload concerning Landlord/Tenant disputes, Wrongful Termination disputes (with success before an ALJ), including UD defense and RAs for elderly and disabled clients, as well as assisting with SSI benefit claims and appeals. CHINS Law: Assisted attorneys for the State of Indiana advocating for protection of abused and neglected children by preparing petitions, motions to the court, subpoenas, and discovery documents. Language abilities: Professional proficiency in Spanish, and experienced with assisting Spanish-speaking clients.