[6] Tarleton attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she studied Russian language and earned a Bachelor of Science degree.
She graduated in 1981, cum laude, and earned an additional honors certificate in international business diplomacy and membership in Phi Alpha Theta.
[8] Following her graduation from Georgetown University, Tarleton joined the Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C., where she worked as a specialist in Soviet strategic issues for nine years.
During her employment with the University of Washington, she helped establish the endowed Herbert J. Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies and the Institute for National Security Education and Research.
She also served as a Special Assistant in the Office of the Vice Provost for Global Affairs; Manager of Partnerships for the Pacific Rim Visualization and Analytics Center in the College of Engineering; and Strategic Advisor for the Information School's Institute for National Security Education and Research.
The commission also initiated the Century Agenda to help create an additional 100,000 jobs in the maritime, aerospace, fishing, seafood, and manufacturing-industrial sectors in the coming 25 years.
Tarleton also authored HB 2238, which would have made Washington the first state in the nation to require employers to provide paid vacation in order to support a healthy workplace.
Another of her bills, HB 2579, proposed a prohibition on the practice of "suction dredging" by hobby miners in public waters where salmon, steelhead, and bull trout spawn.
[13] Tarleton now co-chairs the legislative task force on the economic resilience of maritime, fishing, and other manufacturing sectors that constitute about 40% of Washington's economy.