Director of Business Development Tara Waters cultivates and stewards relationships with corporate partners supporting Americares health programs for people affected by poverty and disaster. Americares supports more than 4,000 health centers worldwide with transformative health programs and donations of medicine and medical supplies, improving the health of millions of people in need.

Waters also leads the Americares Emergency Response Partner Program, which provides the resources to maintain a constant state of readiness as well as launch robust responses. Americares responds to more than 30 natural disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide each year, establishes long-term recovery projects and brings disaster preparedness programs to vulnerable communities.

Waters has experience in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors with a focus on new business development and strategic partnerships. She joined Americares in 2016 as a strategy consultant and joined the Institutional Relations team as an associate director in 2017. She was named director of business development in 2019.

Prior to joining Americares, Waters served as the senior manager of special projects for the Branding to Design Group at WPP, where she worked on strategic planning and corporate growth initiatives and served as the business development manager at Landor Associates. She also worked at Miramax Films, where she developed film and Academy Award marketing campaigns.

Waters earned a bachelor’s degree in English and American literature from Harvard University and holds an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. She also served as an Asia Pacific Leadership Program Fellow at the East–West Center in Honolulu and earned a graduate certificate in global health from the University of Hawaii.