ABOUT ME

Tiara has a passion for healthcare and works for Aetna Health Insurance as a Manager of Contract Negotiation. She serves as a Subject Matter Expert in Medicare Contracting in her region, ensuring that Medicare Advantage members has adequate access to in-network healthcare providers. She spends countless hours researching potential providers to contract with in the state of Iowa.

​

Her interest in healthcare began in 2015 when her son was diagnosed with Autism and Intellectual Disability. As a single mother of twins she quickly learned that navigating the healthcare system to get services for her son would require research, dedication and persistence. Through the process of learning how to secure services for her son, Tiara began writing about her experience and sharing her story.

 

Tiara became a published author and a contributor for Autism Parenting Magazine. Her article “This is My House” published in November of 2018 has been re-published several times and shared across the internet over 10,000 times. From that article many parents across the country reach out to her for guidance and she dedicates her Saturday mornings to consulting with parents. She is also the author of the children’s book #TwinChronicals™: Adventures of Prince & Tiana. Written in the voice of her daughter Tiana, as she details how she plays with her non-verbal autistic brother. The books educate and emphasizes to “normally developing” children that their peers with different abilities like to play just as much as other kids.

 

Through her continued advocacy for equity in education and healthcare for our state’s most vulnerable populations, Tiara was recently elected as the 1st woman of color to serve on the Heartland Area Education Agency Board of Directors.