Leading as a collective, more can be seen and solved.
Why do social justice work? As Tamara (Tami) Lee explained, some people are privileged to voluntarily enter into social justice work, while others are born into a need for it. Tami happened to be the latter, born into poverty in Black America. Growing up, Tami watched those around her work tirelessly to elevate their economic status, but continue to fall short. From engineer, to lawyer, to now scholar and professor, she leads as a staunch advocate for workers and their collective movement towards change.
Tami entered the workforce as an industrial engineer. She developed a passion for worker rights and safety, and she loved entering the factory at the end of the day seeing the positive changes and safety measures experienced by the workers as a result of her work. A problem arose however, when she realized that she and management were not on the same ideological level. Tami focused on the workers, while management prioritized the business. She knew then that her leadership path did not lie through management, so she left engineering and began working for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Tami loved supporting labor, until once again she faced a conflict with her vision for change. An influential case went through the Supreme Court in 2002– the Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB decision stated that undocumented workers could not receive full compensation for any unfair labor practices committed against them. Many of Tami’s clients were undocumented workers, and it would be difficult to serve them to the best of her ability while complying with the law, so she chose to switch positions to investigator at the NLRB. This new role included case review, and as she desired a more active role in the cases, Tami decided to attend law school. With her J.D. under her belt, Tami established and maintained strong relationships with her clients. In 2008, when politics altered the functioning of NLRB once again, Tami left the NLRB to get her PhD.
Following her heart– supporting the people doing the work– led her through all of her career’s twists and turns. Each policy change or new law that impacted her ability to advocate for them sent her in search of the next best way to get this done. She found this while working towards her PhD, as she began studying Critical Race Theory and social justice work.
Through her studies, Tami discovered Cuban socialism’s framework of the roles of government and workers. In support of Cuban Socialist ideology, Tami is a member of several organizations that support a bipartisan end to the Cuba embargo. Due to the long history of imperialism in Latin America, Tami’s work is aimed towards allowing the people of Cuba to make choices without the influence of other nations. As a member of the National Lawyers Guild, Tami works from an international human rights frame to learn about the Cuban justice system to allow people to form their own opinions about what is occurring in Cuba and return to the United States to engage in meaningful dialogue, which she feels can best stem from a more open-minded view of the Cuban socialist system.
Always looking towards the best ways to affect change, while also keeping an eye on the change-makers, Tami identified the need for a safe space for herself and her colleagues who were feeling unsafe at times in the workplace.
Again with an eye to those doing the work, Tami recently co-founded Haven, “a collective of Black Indigenous Women of Color (BIWOC) and non-binary identifying folks rooted towards abolition, liberation and healing through art and storytelling. [Haven is] creating a safe space for our collective that will allow us the freedom to develop the systems and communities that work for us.” Haven is meant to be a place to have conversations safe from white supremacy and patriarchy. Haven achieves this through storytelling and art. Haven describes their space as a “connected community,” with a desire to create a space of joy, love, mindfulness, liberation, to lift up, support and nourish their members. They provide programming, resources and support virtually and in person. In a video on their website, one of the members describes Haven as an intentional, radical, healing space. Looking forward, Tami hopes Haven will become a global organization targeted to like-minded individuals desiring to live in community.
As engineer, public servant, lawyer, scholar, and professor, Tami has always been an activist for social justice. Through all those roles, she saw that leading as a collective allows more to be seen and solved. To Tami, real transformational leadership is collaborative.
Captured in April 2021.
Image © Tewfic El-Sawy via The Travel Photographer