Tara O’Neil

Tara O’Neil

2017 NACSA Leader

Tara O’Neil is the Program Director of Charter Schools for the Portland Public School District, where she manages a portfolio of eight charter schools. Prior to her authorizing role, she served as school administrator at The Emerson School, a charter school in Portland, for 14 years. Tara enjoys visiting the schools as often as possible, seeing innovative programs in action and learning how the schools are doing at a street level. Believing that strong relationships are at the core of every success, Tara centers her work on conversation, consideration of multiple perspectives, and collaboration with charter school leaders.

Away from work, Tara enjoys spending time with her family, walking with her dog, playing music badly with friends, and most recently square dancing with Portland’s LGBTQ club, the Rosetown Ramblers.


Most Recent Posts
New Charter Schools Need Vetting. But the Process Shouldn’t Shut Good Ones Out
Over the last year, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and our partners engaged nearly 150 school leaders, authorizers, organizations, prospective school founders and advocates — through interviews, focus...
NACSA’s New Schools With Communities Guide
In every community–especially those historically under-resourced–there is long-ignored and underutilized knowledge and potential. At the heart of NACSA’s work lies the recognition of these tremendous assets and a desire to...
Continuing Conversations on Multiple Measures
At NACSA, we work to ensure students and communities—especially those who are historically under-resourced—thrive. Thriving means different things for different students, schools, and communities. And to ensure we capture the...