Tamara Toles

Tamara Toles O'Laughlin is an environmental activist, climate strategist, and the CEO and president of the Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA).

Early life and education
Toles is from Brooklyn, New York. She is an environmental activist focused on people, the planet and resources.

Toles was an undergraduate student at the City University of New York, where she majored in political science. From Vermont Law School she graduated with a Juris Doctor and a Masters Degree in Environmental Law and Policy.

Career
As a City College (CUNY) student, she interned at the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Environmental Protection Agency. During graduate school at Vermont Law School she interned at the Center on Race, Poverty and Environment, and did a summer law fellowship at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

After her Juris Doctor and Master in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law, Toles worked for the Maryland Energy Administration and District Department of Energy and Environment in Washington, DC. She served as the Senior Law Clerk to the Honorable Douglas A. Brady, and the Senior Sitting Judge Julio A. Brady at the Superior Court of the US Virgin Islands on St. Croix.

In 2014, Toles was appointed to the Executive Board of EcoWomen. During her tenure, she held several positions, including vice president of professional development, where she produced the organization's signature salon and monthly educational forum EcoHour. She closed her term as the Board Chair during the final two years.

She served on the board of the Maryland Climate Coalition.

Toles is the former Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments: Air and Climate Public Advisory Committee, where she advocated for responsive public resources. She recently concluded her term as the Chair of the Board of Directors for Women's Voices for the Earth, an organization based in Missoula, Montana, where she supported science based advocacy for women. She is a senior advisor and former co-chair of the Green Leadership Trust.

Toles was appointed as Executive Director of the Maryland Environmental Health Network in February 2017, where she worked to eliminate environmental threats to human health. She created the Baltimore City Climate Resolution, which upholds the Paris Agreement and calls for 100% renewable energy use in Baltimore by 2050. It encourages the development of wind technology and disincentivizes incineration. The resolution was passed in June 2017. In 2018 she was awarded the Vermont Law School Social Justice Scholars Alumni Award. She also co-founded the Healthy Green Maryland Amendment Initiative to define healthy communities and provide multi-generational protections to defend against disproportionate climate impacts in the Maryland constitution.

In 2019, Toles joined 350.org as the North America Director making her the first African-American woman to hold this position in an environment or climate organization.

In 2021, Toles joined the EGA as its CEO and President. In 2021, Toles launched Climate Critical, a global support intervention for workers in environment and climate.

Toles has written for Rolling Stone, The Nation, Yes! magazine and Grist. She is a contributor to Politico‘s Long Game Forum on issues of environment, equity, energy access and climate justice.