It was the summer of 1988 when Tara Brady (B.S. ’91), then a Kinesiology and Health Education (KHE) student, began working at the newly opened Recreational Sports Center facilities on The University of Texas at Austin campus.
It was one of Brady’s multiple part-time jobs to keep afloat as a student, the others of which ranged from cleaning a rotation of houses, refereeing flag football games, and a shift at a local aquarium and fish store. Looking back, the now retired multidisciplinary expert says it was one of the best jobs she recalls having — one which prepared her in resiliency and skills set for her ever-evolving career that included a women’s summer swim national championship, law school and a longtime post teaching compliance to medical professionals.
You never know what something can bring into your life when you open yourself to new opportunities,
Brady said.
Now, Brady looks back in awe realizing that she and her fellow building crew members were in charge of the newly opened facility. Whether it was helping with events, calling 911 if someone got injured, breaking up a scuffle on a court, or calling campus police in cases of emergency, Brady and her colleagues were the inaugural frontline of UT’s Division of Recreational Sports. Her favorite part, she said, was interacting with students from around the world and working with fellow students of diverse majors.
It was really good exposure for someone like me in my 20s,
Brady said. It was a big responsibility to have the keys to the building, open and close, and be the point person for lifeguards and those who had to call in sick.
Making Her Way to UT Austin
Brady took a lesser traveled path to becoming a Longhorn. She began her higher education career in New York, where she obtained an associate’s degree in criminal justice. In 1988, she came to Texas to visit family friends who had recently moved to Austin.
Upon spending some time in Austin and after being turned down for a position with a police department in New York, the family hosting her suggested that she stay permanently and enroll at UT Austin. After unsuccessfully applying to the Austin Police Department and UTPD, she decided to give it a go.
When I first arrived at UT, my goal was to do accounting and then law school,
Brady said. I wanted to work for the FBI and become an accountant with a gun.
She began her studies in the business school but quickly realized the classes did not align with her interests. Then, she thought of her parents’ advice that educators had a great schedule allowing for a work-life balance and exploring other interests during summer. Soon, she transferred to COE into Kinesiology and Health Education on track to earn a teaching certification with a minor in sociology from her transferred associate’s degree credits.
After completing her field work at a local junior high, she felt disheartened by some students’ lack of effort and questioned whether teaching was truly the right path for her. Then, as she was making her rounds at the RecSports Center one day, she saw a sign for the summer swim camp and, recalling her days of doing swim herself in high school, she knocked on the door to volunteer.
I don’t have the personality to teach people who don’t want to be taught, but if you want to be there, I am all in,
Brady said.
From Student to Swim Coach
At camp, she discovered a passion for coaching swimming as she applied her education-related coursework and kinesiology knowledge to a non-traditional field. Eventually, she began leading stroke sessions in the morning and afternoon between jobs, and by her second year was able to accompany the University’s collegiate summer team as part of the coaching staff to the summer national championship in Mission Viejo, California.
By 1991, she was preparing to begin her master’s degree in the kinesiology field when she received a job to assist coaching a Division I college women’s swim team in Fresno, California.
Never one to turn down an opportunity, she decided to accept the offer, but after four years of coaching swim, Brady recalled a goal she previously had to attend law school. Not wanting to go back to being a full-time student, she decided to enroll at San Joaquin College of Law in California and took night classes while working as an administrative assistant at a manufacturing site nearby.
Four years later, Brady graduated as a lawyer and was deciding between working for the federal government or practicing corporate law when a friend pointed her to Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare company that was seeking to create compliance offices at the medical center level and needed a compliance manager.
Again, Brady jumped at the opportunity before her and during her interview process became amazed at how her COE degree had suddenly come into play. The group was seeking someone who could effectively teach physicians about corporate compliance, and her response when asked about her approach, which included presenting the information in a way that is meaningful to the audience, was formed by her educational knowledge.
It is all about taking situations that would apply to a doctor or a nurse and guiding others to connect the dots on why it matters in their role as a janitor, administrator, doctor, nurse or clerk collecting money,
Brady said. Being able to understand people’s roles and giving examples that are applicable helps regulations resonate with people.
Brady was promptly hired in 2005 and began applying a combination of her educational skills and legal expertise to prepare people in different professions and work with employees with diverse personalities to ensure everyone understood their roles, rights and responsibilities in compliance with laws and regulations.
Building Her Career as an Educator, Coach and Lawyer
There, Brady began moving up the ladder, first as a privacy officer with the Fresno Medical Center, then to the Kaiser Permanente northern California regional privacy office, where she managed privacy incidents for the region, and finally with the national office on operations risk management with the clinical technology group. Her career took her from Maryland to Hawaii, discovering new ways at every turn to apply her years of experience in education, coaching and law.
The biggest piece of education that I carried with me and helped me along the way was understanding that there are various ways people can learn things,
Brady said. Some people were better able to read the information from a paper, and others preferred more personal interaction.
Over time, she made a goal to work at Kaiser Permanente for the required number of years to retire early under an employee program for which she qualified. Along the way, she saved and stored as much as possible and finally, a few years ago, that dream became a reality.
It was hard sometimes, and there may be times that you have to live paycheck to paycheck, but if you are determined, you can achieve any reasonable goals you set for yourself,
Brady said. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason. That reason may not be obvious right away, but over time you will realize it.
Looking Back and Giving Back
Looking back on her multifaceted and wide-ranging background, she shared that the common denominator along the way was that when one path didn’t work out, she always found another.
Every experience was like another tool in my toolbox and over time I built my talent stack,
Brady said. In the end, my varied background made sense, and I was able to overcome challenges with a willingness to adapt, take chances and learn something new.
Brady said the best example of her resilience was taking on her first job at Kaiser Permanente despite not knowing much about healthcare law and learning the ropes quickly while using her tools from COE on teaching techniques to help herself in a new field.
She credits her experience at COE for inspiring her resiliency and helping her build a foundation for the future. According to Brady, much of her career success can be traced back to her time on campus as a student, which helped shape her, opened doors and ultimately moved her to give back.
She has already made provisions to create the Tara C. Brady Scholarship through her estate plan, which will support students in Kinesiology and Health Education. She is also creating a second scholarship for RecSports student workers through another planned gift. She hopes through her generosity, more students like her will be inspired to embrace every learning opportunity that comes along.
When people think of the College of Education, they think of becoming a teacher,” Brady said. “But teacher is a very broad term. A coach is a teacher.
She also credits her time at RecSports as one of the biggest highlights of her college career because it helped her learn to interact and work alongside many people of many different backgrounds.
Now, her advice to future Longhorns is to keep their eyes open for opportunities and if an opportunity presents itself, seriously consider taking it. Ask questions, research necessary information and then make a fully formed decision, but remember to always think outside the box.
There is the textbook way of doing things, which is then enhanced by experience,
Brady said. You learn a lot by doing, and if you start to go down a certain path and realize maybe it’s not the right path for you, that’s okay. Look for another avenue to achieve your goal.
