Larkin W. Tackett

Larkin Tackett is a Partner and Executive Advisor at VIDA Collaborative (formerly MAYA Consulting), which he joined in 2017 driven by a belief that everyone deserves a real opportunity to live a good life. VIDA’s work is built on the conviction that health, wealth, and education are deeply interconnected, and that lasting change requires working across all three. At VIDA, he builds the leadership capacity of communities, systems, school districts, agencies, and foundations to improve their impact and expand opportunity.

Larkin’s career spans teaching middle school in the Mississippi Delta with Teach for America, to serving in the California and Texas Legislatures, to designing Promise Neighborhoods at the U.S. Department of Education, to leading schools and community engagement at IDEA Public Schools. He is also a certified leadership coach and a foster and adoptive parent, both of which continue to ground and shape his approach to this work.

He is energized by moments when results improve, when community leaders have breakthroughs that lead to greater agency and alignment, when successful strategies become sustainable, and when the people closest to challenges become the ones leading the change. Outside of work, Larkin has completed more than 40 marathons and is working toward running one in all 50 states. He volunteers at his synagogue and enjoys camping in Texas State and National Parks with his wife Katie and their five kids. Larkin is also a living organ donor, which made him internet famous on Facebook and Instagram for a minute.