Tara McLain Manthey, MLS, (Osage Nation)

Owner and Principal, Returning Light Consulting

Tara McLain Manthey, MLS, (Osage Nation) is an experienced nonprofit leader and consultant with demonstrated success in public policy and direct services sectors. A former newspaper reporter, Tara (she/her) is an expert communicator and adept facilitator. She offers strategic leadership, communications, development and facilitation support so organizations can move missions forward through consensus-based decision making. Tara has served as the Executive Director of Denver Indian Family Resource Center and Senior Vice President of Advocacy, Communications and Development for the Colorado Children's Campaign. She has a Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and degrees in journalism and music from the University of Colorado at Boulder. A citizen of the Osage Nation, Tara serves on the Editorial Board of the independent Osage News. She lives in Denver with her family and spends as much time as possible in the mountains of Western Colorado, where she grew up and her parents still live.