Tamara Murray helps social-change organizations say what they want to say — and get heard, from the front page of The New York Times to award-winning public education campaigns.
Tamara specializes in branding and messaging, content creation and campaign development. She has a track record of using thoughtful research to persuade audiences on immigration, reproductive justice, educational equity, vaccinations, gun violence, recycling, bail reform, and workforce development. Previously, Tamara was a vice president at Fenton. She also served in-house with The San Francisco Foundation, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and NARAL Pro-Choice California.
Tamara is the author of Awesome Supervisory Skills: Seven Lessons for Young, First-Time Managers, which frequently appears on Amazon’s list of top 100 team management books. She lives in Santa Barbara, California with her husband, Chris, and enjoys hiking and playing ukulele.
Why are you a strategist for good?
“It’s in my blood. My grandmother went door to door in her small Filipino town to promote family planning long before it was considered acceptable. I’ve never considered using my talents for anything other than positive social change.”
What’s your superpower?
“I’m a textbook ESTJ, which means I’m determined (or stubborn enough, depending on your point of view!) to make things happen no matter what. ESTJs have supernatural executive function: I can take a vision or idea and reverse engineer what needs to happen to make it come to life, even in crisis situations.”
Who is your intellectual crush?
“Brené Brown. She researches vulnerability: how it is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change — and also the feeling that terrifies us, so we suppress it to our detriment. Her research says it’s OK to put ourselves out there and take risks to make a big impact. That it’s better to know failure than be a timid soul that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
