Tammy Tai brings over twenty years of experience in the nonprofit sector, primarily in the areas of youth development and mentoring. She provides consulting and facilitation services that help organizations design and implement innovative solutions to achieve higher levels of productivity and impact. Prior to launching her practice, she served as vice president and chief mission officer at MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, the unifying champion for expanding the quantity and quality of youth mentoring in the United States. In this role, she provided strategic leadership to advance the organization’s vision that every young person have the supportive relationships needed to grow and develop into a thriving, productive and engaged citizen. During her tenure, MENTOR strengthened its efforts to: provide in person and virtual support to a national network of affiliate Mentoring Partnerships; create research-based tools and products for mentoring programs; and provide national training and technical assistance. Under Tai’s leadership, MENTOR was selected by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to develop and manage the National Mentoring Resource Center and also launched the National Quality Mentoring System to support mentoring programs in the implementation of the Elements of Effective Practice for MentoringTM. Tai’s commitment to mentoring began over fifteen years ago when she first served as a mentor to a young Latina high school student through the goals-based mentoring program New Pathways for Youth; the experience transformed her professional trajectory and she eventually went on to serve as the organization’s first Program Director.
Previously, Tai served as the Teen Development Program Officer at the Boston based Hyams Foundation. While in this position, she designed and implemented the Foundation’s signature initiative Teen Futures that provided significant multi-year funding to community-based organizations and schools focused on addressing the high school dropout crisis in Boston and Chelsea. Tai’s commitment to tap the power and potential of young people was solidified through early work directing summer and after-school programs in Boston’s Mission Hill community. Tai also served as an elementary bilingual Spanish teacher in Phoenix, Arizona.
Tai has a BA in Sociology from Harvard University and an MBA from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Raised in New York by immigrant parents from Jamaica, Tai resides in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood with her husband, a nonprofit CEO, and their three children.