Tara Terry is a senior operations researcher working across several of RAND's FFRDCs conducting research on behalf of the Air Force, Space Force, Army, Joint Operations, and Homeland Security. Terry has 13+ years of operations research experience with a focus on data analysis, mathematical modeling, and optimization. Terry's recent research focuses on workforce assessment to include requirements determination and staffing vacancies, aircrew management for a variety of sponsors, major airline hiring and implication on military pilot losses, and analyzing future analyst skills. Last year, Terry concluded a direct support role for the Air Force Aircrew Crisis Task Force where she provided analytical support for building a pilot recovery plan for former Secretary Wilson using RAND's inventory projection model, showing the impacts of retention, production, and requirements validation on the health of the pilot community. Supported by the CSAF and the AF/A3, this work is a continuation of 6+ years of analytical support for the Total Force Aircrew Management (AF/A3TF) division. Terry's past research includes a historical analysis of Air Force institutional requirements, a sustainment model to use in allocating advanced academic degree quotas at the Air Force Education Requirements Board, analyzing the line officer non-rated classification model, and determining STEM needs across the Air Force. Her education includes a Ph.D. and M.S.E. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan as well as a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.S.E. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oakland University, Rochester, MI.
Selected Publications
Terry, Tara L., Jeremy M. Eckhause, Michael McGee, James H. Bigelow, and Paul Emslie, Projecting Air Force Rated Officer Inventory Across the Total Force: Total Force Blue Line Model for Rated Officer Management, RAND Corporation (RR-2796-AF), 2019
Schulker, David, Tara L. Terry, Evaluating the Impact of a Total Force Service Commitment Policy on Air Force Pilot Manning: An Exploratory Application of Inventory Modeling, RAND Corporation (RR-2400-AF), 2018
Robbert, Albert A., Michael G. Mattock, Beth J. Asch, John S. Crown, James Hosek, and Tara L. Terry, Supplemental Career Paths for Air Force Pilots: A Warrant Officer Component or an Aviation Technical Track?RAND Corporation (RR-2617-AF), 2018
Terry, Tara L., Chaitra M. Hardison, David Schulker, Alexander C. Hou, and Leslie Adrienne Payne, Building a Healthy MQ-1/9 RPA Pilot Community: Designing a Career Field Planning Tool, RAND Corporation (RR-2018-AF), 2018
Robbert, Albert A., Tara L. Terry, Alexander D. Rothenberg, Anthony Lawrence, and Neil Brian Carey, Air Force Officer Management Flexibilities: Modeling Potential Policies, RAND Corporation (RR-1921-AF), 2017
Harrington, Lisa M., Kathleen Reedy, Paul Emslie, Darrell D. Jones, and Tara L. Terry, Air Force Institutional Requirements: Opportunities for Improving the Efficiency of Sourcing, Managing, and Manning Corporate Requirements, RAND Corporation (RR-1596-AF), 2017
Rothenberg, Alexander D., Lisa M. Harrington, Paul Emslie, and Tara L. Terry, Using RAND's Military Career Model to Evaluate the Impact of Institutional Requirements on the Air Force Space Officer Career Field, RAND Corporation (RR-1302-AF), 2017
Terry, Tara L., James H. Bigelow, James Pita, Jerry M. Sollinger, and Paul Emslie, User's Guide for the Total Force Blue-Line (TFBL) Model, RAND Corporation (TL-233-AF), 2017