Tara Baker grew up in Wauconda, Illinois the only girl of six brothers. She has been a part of the Special Olympics movement ever since she attended her future step brother Alex's Special Olympics Illinois swim competition in 1998. Tara has been a multi-sport athlete all her life, playing volleyball, basketball and soccer in high school. She attended Northern Michigan University where she played Division II soccer, captaining the team her sophomore and junior years. She was also involved with Special Olympics Michigan through volunteering with her soccer team. Tara landed her dream job right out of college working for ESPN, which relocated her to Connecticut. She continued to get involved with Special Olympics through the Disney/ESPN VoluntEARS program. In 2015, Tara was part of ESPN's production team, which covered the Special Olympics World Games Los Angeles 2015. That experience led Tara to change careers to work full-time for Special Olympics in April of 2017 as Director of Marketing and Communications for North America. Tara is honored to have the opportunity to help witness and share the stories of all involved with Special Olympics USA!