As a Boston Public School graduate, Tara Gully-Hightower is committed to the success of urban youth as evidenced by over twenty years of teaching in Boston area colleges, high schools, and middle schools. Before teaching in Boston, Cambridge, and Chelsea, she taught Literature and Humanities for The Transitional Year Program at Brandeis University. Presently, she teaches English at Massasoit Community College. Tara Gully-Hightower recently worked as a project assistant at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Achievement Gap Initiative. She is also a Ph.D. student, with ABD status, in the Urban Education and Policy program at Umass Boston. As an educator, she is driven by her desire help students experience excellence in their work and thus gain confidence in their own ability to succeed academically. Tara earned an M.A. in English and American Language and Literature from The Harvard University Extension School and an Ed. M. in Education and Curriculum Development from The Harvard Graduate School of Education. She earned her B.A. in English and American Language and Literature from Brandeis University.