Tara Beecham

Tara Beecham is a member of the Composition Department at Penn State Berks, teaching courses including rhetoric and composition, technical writing, and principles of multimedia journalism, encouraging student critical thinking and engagement, while helping them build effective writing skills for an academic setting and for the professional workplace. Incorporating innovative technology as a traditional, hybrid, and online educator is an area of research interest for her, in addition to student engagement within community-based learning, and utilizing open and affordable educational resources in classroom that emphasizes a sense of belonging and community.

Prior to her career in education, Beecham worked as a journalist for companies including Bloomberg News and as a freelance writer. Her work has been published in a variety of media outlets, including Pittsburgh Magazine, the Chicago Reader, In Pittsburgh, Family Tree Magazine, Erosion Control, the Daily Local News, the New York Times (as a contributor from Bloomberg News), and she has also worked as a researcher for Bloomberg Personal Finance Magazine and Outside Magazine. In addition to teaching, Beecham serves the college as coordinator of the Common Reading Program; a faculty adviser; the College Contact and Referral Representative for the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications; and as the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Division liaison for the Berks Open Education Coalition. She was selected as the campus Open and Affordable Educational Resources Champion award recipient in spring 2025.