About

Bright Ideas for Complex Challenges

Joy Street Consulting is a mission-driven consulting firm with a passion for initiatives that push boundaries to bring about lasting, positive change.

Our clients include nonprofit organizations, government agencies, healthcare systems and payors, and start-ups – and, of course, we are eager to work with any group that shares our enthusiasm for tackling tough social problems in a creative and thoughtful way.

We have particular subject matter expertise in: community health and community mental health; the intersection of healthcare and homelessness; the “lived experience” workforce; and Medicaid restructuring endeavors, especially those that aim to improve health and social outcomes for individuals with complex needs.

And we love a good challenge! Our favorite projects to take on are those characterized by aspiration, complexity, and the need to work across sectors to achieve wildly ambitious goals.

Leadership and Partners

Tara Murphy founded and leads Joy Street Consulting LLC, drawing on her wealth of experience in translating aspirational goals into high impact initiatives to ensure the success of all Joy Street-supported endeavors.

Joy Street also actively partners with other consulting organizations and subject matter experts so that clients have the right mix of expertise and support to achieve their goals.

Our Name

Joy Street Consulting LLC takes its inspiration from the name of an iconic street in Boston, Massachusetts, where our company is based.

We think our name does a good job of capturing the ethos we strive to bring to each of our engagements: a sense of optimism and lightness, imagination, and a true compulsion to put forth only high quality, thoughtfully crafted work.

We know that the people our projects seek to benefit often face challenging circumstances, and our work can sometimes feel weighed down by all the very many details that it’s our job to pull together. Yet, we firmly believe there should be a lot of “joy” in using our talent, experience, and energy to help our clients create “bright spots” of innovation and success.

Tara Murphy, Founder & Principal

Joy Street Consulting’s founder, Tara Murphy, is known for her decades-long commitment to standing up and driving new initiatives that strengthen community-based healthcare, build the healthcare and behavioral health workforce, and uphold ambitious agendas for systems-level change.

Since 2022, Tara has provided consulting services for nonprofits, state agencies, and start-up companies engaged in various aspects of healthcare and social services transformation, with a particular focus on homelessness and healthcare, innovative financing models, and Medicaid 1115 demonstration waivers. Immediately prior to consulting, Tara led the design, launch, and management of the $115 million Statewide Investments portfolio at MassHealth (Medicaid), which comprised 20+ programs that advanced Massachusetts’ groundbreaking efforts to transform payment and care delivery for its Medicaid population. Many of the Statewide Investments programs attracted national recognition, including the MA DSRIP TA Marketplace, which served as the blueprint for the California PATH TA Marketplace, as well as a multifaceted funding initiative for community health worker (CHW) training, which was highlighted by the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) as a promising practice for integrating healthcare and behavioral health.

Tara’s earlier experience includes leadership roles in community health and global health at Mass General Brigham (formerly Partners HealthCare), the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her work has contributed to the launch of new entities, such as the Kraft Center for Community Health Leadership at then-Partners HealthCare, and includes a number of “firsts,” such as designing and implementing the first federal compliance program for the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Across all of her roles, Tara has been widely recognized for her exceptional ability to foster collaboration, generate enthusiasm for new projects, and adeptly navigate complexity and uncertainty in order to achieve high-impact goals.

Tara is a founding Board member of Boston Community Pediatrics, a former Board member of ParentChild+, and a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women and the Cornell University Council. She is also a founding member of the Cornell University Public Health Advisory Group and has been a frequent guest lecturer in Cornell’s Masters of Public Health (MPH) program.

Tara holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health, and an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.

A first-generation college student and dual U.S.-Australian citizen, Tara grew up in both suburban upstate New York and a small bush town in New South Wales, Australia. She lives in Boston’s South End and is the proud mother of a beautiful and accomplished grown-up daughter.