As an accomplished advocate and social worker, Tamara enjoys using her skills, knowledge and lived experience in foster care to contribute to the transformation of the child welfare system. As a graduate from the University of Kentucky, with her Bachelor’s in Social Work, she earned departmental honors and served as the commencement speaker.

 

During her time as an advocate on the Voices of the Commonwealth, Kentucky’s foster youth leadership council, she and her team worked together to pass child welfare legislation, SB 115 (Foster and Adoptive Tuition Waiver), in April 2020 and SB 8 in 2022. She has shared her experience in foster care and advocated for change in the child welfare system, while also training foster parents and other youth in care, and leading conference workshops over the past four years and now supervises the council.

 

She has also been an active advocate on a national level, partnering with advocates all over America on child welfare issues and participates in the Annual Chafee Grantee Conferences in Washington, D.C. She was recently awarded Social Justice Star of the Year 2021 by the NASW KY for her commitment and passion in this field and nominated for the 'Unapologetically Woman' award for her commitment to change within the community. She has been engaging in public speaking and advocacy since she was 19 years of age and her story has been covered by several local news outlets in KY. Her story was recently published nationally by the TODAY Show.