Associate Chair, NC Rare Disease Advisory Council and NetworkFounder and President, Rare Disease Innovations Institute, Inc.Tara previously worked in the finance, human resources and policy arena before becoming Associate Chair of the NC Rare Disease Advisory Council. She worked with researchers and clinicians in rare disease in the University of North Carolina Gene Therapy Center where she engaged with patient advocates supporting research in Gene Therapy.Tara currently serves as Associate Chair of the North Carolina Rare Disease Advisory Council and Network. The council was created as a result of co-authoring legislation with a North Carolina patient advocate to create a Rare Disease Advisory Council signed into law, August 2015. Tara has created a unique rare disease ecosystem within the state that brings together patients, caregivers, academics, clinicians, foundations, industry and any entity in rare disease. Tara is also the President and Founder of Rare Disease Innovations Institute, RDII. RDII is a global non-profit focused on educating, engaging and equipping the rare disease community to achieve a higher quality of life, accelerating diagnosis and enabling access and treatment. Through this non-profit and her rare disease network, RDII has developed exclusive toolkits for other states to build upon the learning and success of North Carolina enabling creation of successful councils and unique rare disease networks. The toolkits are state tailored to the unique rare disease population. RDII also partners with rare disease advocacy groups, academia, foundations, healthcare systems, state and federal government and industry to build disease specific models to support targeted disease populations and the challenges to accessing care and managing their disease. These models are currently developed in North Carolina and can be modeled globally by the RDII team.Information about RDII can be found here:rdii.org More information about the council and the network can be found on the following url:https://www.med.unc.edu/ncrarediseasenetwork/