Demystifying Strategic Planning

Tamara Jones brings more than 17 years experience providing strategic leadership, organizational administration, program management, and team development. Her skill at leading organizations through effective planning and implementation resulted in her being honored as a 2011 White House Champion of Change. Jones specializes in leading organizations through robust and impactful planning, evaluation, and program management in order to help them achieve their strategic goals. She has extensive experience in the government and nonprofit sectors where she served in executive offices overseeing programs in the offices of Houston Mayor Bill White and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. She has also held positions as Director of Programs at Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance; Director of Programs at Southface Energy Institute; Director of Policy & Management Analysis in the City of Atlanta Department of Finance; and Chief of Staff for City of Houston Council Member Ada Edwards.

Tamara has an unrelenting passion to better the world through service to social impact organizations. Her professional life is marked by her leading programs to accomplish more than what was expected of them, and she is committed to helping more organizations to do the same.

Her success as Director, Deputy Director, Chief of Staff, and Program Coordinator in Offices of Mayors, Finance Department, City Council, and nonprofits are rooted in an understanding of what it takes to build systems to achieve goals and to realize the impacts embedded in large-scale visions.

Jones has in-depth understanding of management and strategic tools such as Balanced Scorecard, Theory of Change, Logic Models, Performance-Based Budgeting, and Performance Management. She has substantive knowledge in diverse industry sectors including organic food and farm, environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, civil rights and social justice movements. She is an experienced facilitator whose clients applaud her ability to drive high energy and focused group discussions. Ms. Jones holds a Master of Arts degree in Political Science from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Long Island University Brooklyn Campus.