Taryn is a storyteller at heart. At The Colorado Health Foundation, she leads the Communications team, where she sets the vision for the communications department to advance Foundation goals, strategy and mission through effective and equitable communications. She’s also responsible for community relations programming that highlights and advances the nonprofit executive leadership sector. Through all of this work, Taryn is driven by her belief that everyone deserves to be healthy, regardless of economic, social or geographic circumstances. As a communicator, she also believes we have a responsibility to tell the story of Colorado’s health and create a sense of belonging for those the Foundation serves.

Taryn has worked in health-related strategic communications for more than 22 years and has been at the Foundation since 2013. She started her career as a journalist, eventually moving into the corporate communications sector working for about a decade in New York City at leading communications agencies where she honed her skills in public relations, brand development and marketing. After moving to Denver, she transitioned to the nonprofit sector, working as a marketing and communications director for a national patient advocacy organization that is now part of the American Stroke Association/American Heart Association. She then transitioned to the philanthropic health sector to lead communications at The Foundation, where she has been for ten years, developing and institutionalizing an approach to doing equitable and strategic communications that centers equity and the people The Foundation serves.

Taryn has a bachelor’s degree in English from Kansas State University. She grew up in a small rural agricultural community in southwest Kansas and now lives in Denver with her partner, daughter and three cats.