Tara is a former classroom teacher in secondary alternative education. Her research focuses on the experiences of low-income adolescents and young adults of color served by urban schools, particularly as related to disciplinary exclusion and dropout. She specializes in qualitative, community-based, participatory, and action research methodologies. Her most recent study is entitled, Uncredentialed: Young Adults Living without a Secondary Degree. This mixed-methods community-based, participatory action research project focuses on the social, educational, and economic causes and implications of high school dropout among, primarily, Latinx young adults in an economically disenfranchised, urban community.