Tammy Blackard Cook

Secretary Tammy Blackard Cook is a co-founder and former co-owner of Aspire Counseling Group in Raleigh where she still manages a part-time clinical caseload and serves as a consultant to the owner. Tammy also co-founded The Resiliency Collaborative with her Aspire business partner.

In 2010, Aspire Counseling Group opened in a little house on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh.  Back then, there were very few group mental health practices in the Triangle, and even fewer who had a website!  Building Aspire from the ground up, Tammy and her partner learned many lessons along the way, some the hard way, adapting Aspire to meet the needs of a changing community and market.  

As an undergraduate at UNC-Chapel Hill, Tammy studied journalism, writing for the campus newspaper and serving in various capacities as a desk editor. Her journalism career trajectory changed when she realized that interviewing and hearing people’s stories was her true passion. After 30 years in social work, she’s turned her attention back to writing, taking various classes at Redbud over the years.

In her spare time, Tammy enjoys giving back to the community through service, staying politically engaged, reading, pickleball, and spending time with friends and family. She lives in Raleigh with her husband, two cats, and a dog named Steve.