I had the pleasure of working with Tamar as a cultural house fellow for the Dean of Students for Diversity and Inclusion at Mount Holyoke College. Together, we were responsible for the management of and event-programming in the College's five cultural houses (spaces for learning, support, and community). Tamar oversaw three of the Houses, and worked with their respective programming assistants to help organize events for the larger campus community. Being a resource/guide for six programming assistants, and carrying the responsibility for the many different events these houses offered can be an overwhelming task - but Tamar was always so adept at making time for her assistants and balancing the details for the movie nights, open-mics, cultural dinners, and lectures that they planned together as a team. I appreciate how she handled her responsibilities cheerfully and gracefully, listening carefully to her teams' ideas, and doing all in her power to help them bring their ideas to fruition. Her impeccable organization skills no doubt helped; she was aware of each and every deadline and sent her team timely, respectful reminders so those deadlines would be met.
When Tamar, the Dean and I would meet to discuss the Houses as a collective and brainstorm for ways to raise awareness of them on campus, Tamar offered creative ideas for fundraising. She volunteered her time for tabling at the student center, and thought of unique venues where posters for the cultural houses would catch students' attention.
At one point, we held an open forum for discussion, where students were invited to share their thoughts on the cultural houses and recent events that had been held in them; Mount Holyoke women passionately offered differing views, and in a couple of instances, critiquing some of our teams's recent work. The discussion was a sensitive one, but Tamar facilitated it with such composure and maturity, giving every attendee a chance to voice her thoughts, and offering innovative and respectful solutions that would allow different people's concerns and needs to be met.
Tamar also has a great eye for interior design and arrangement. We worked together to arrange furniture in the houses and decorate the spaces in ways that would make them more welcoming, comfortable and homely. She had a handle over the smaller details - which posters should go where, how to arrange furniture so that more people would feel invited, etc. But Tamar also was able to envision and implement the larger details, like how to spread awareness of the houses so more students would be able to use the spaces.
Finally, Tamar's sense of humor, approachability and kindness make her so much fun to work with! I definitely recommend her to anyone looking for a wonderful event-planner! read more