Tamara M. King
Biography
Tamara King is the chief equity and engagement officer for Richland Library in Columbia, SC. In her role, she is tasked with the development and support of the library’s equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives, programs, and partnerships, ensuring community engagement efforts reach underserved and marginalized populations. In addition to her role leading the library’s equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts, Tamara also supports the library’s award-winning Let’s Talk Race team. Through Tamara’s leadership, the team has held discussions surrounding race, women’s rights, and social justice for nearly 4,000 participants and helped raise $200,000 to support EDI initiatives and programming at the library.
Additionally, Tamara is an ALA Spectrum Scholar, and she is a nationally and locally recognized award-winning public relations professional. She was recognized as a 2019 Library Journal Mover and Shaker for her role in Richland Library’s race, equity, and social awareness work. Fun fact, Tamara was once ambushed by both penguins and a rowdy group of football fans, thankfully not at same time. She is an unapologetic bibliophile and loves sharing good books. She is married to her high school sweetheart and they have an inquisitive, funny, and active seven year old.
Personal Statement
“In my role, I would like to support libraries all over the country in deepening their equity, inclusion, and diversity work. EDI is a journey and many libraries are just at the beginning, and starting to ask those hard, challenging questions. I want to use my experience in communication and facilitation to help the Public Library Association and libraries to further develop an EDI-centered lens to use to review their policies and procedures, and look for ways to be a more equitable and just system."