Tamara has been no stranger to adversity. From the day she was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1971 to a father who was 29 years her mother’s senior and married with five children, she has been fighting the odds ever since. Tamara’s family called several places home from the Salvation Army to living with relatives or her mother’s friends to small low-rent apartments. During these nomadic periods Tamara had been molested by male relatives on several occasions. Her family finally settled in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, NY, where her and her three brothers shared the duties of caring for her sick mother who had been diagnosed with bone cancer. By the age of nine, Tamara had lost her father whom she barely knew to pancreatic cancer and five years later on the same day, Tamara’s mother also lost her battle with cancer and passed away after a long illness. Tamara and her brothers were separated and she was isolated from them. This proved to be a difficult time as Tamara lived in unpleasant Cinderella-like conditions with her cousin who had offered to take care of her.

When she was 18 and fed up with her living conditions she moved in with her then boyfriend two months before finishing school. Tamara defied the odds of her family members who predicted that she would follow in her mother’s footsteps by dropping out of school when she graduated with honors from high school. She then enrolled at Baruch College studying accounting. Things took a turn for the worst when her boyfriend became physically abusive. In 1992, she took a major risk and dropped out of college during her sophomore year to pursue a singing career with Sisters with Voices (SWV).

SWV was groundbreaking for several reasons including their unique sound at the time and their male patterned style but most of all because for six years SWV delighted fans with a string of funky music from their platinum albums and number one singles such as Weak, Right Here/Human Nature, I’m so into you, Anything and Can We.

Success didn’t come without a price. During SWV’s reign on the music charts they battled mismanagement, a label that was unprepared to handle their immediate success and tensions within the group that ultimately proved to be devastating enough to tear them apart.

After the success and ultimately the demise of SWV, Tamara relocated to Los Angeles to pursue acting and eventually return to school and work toward completing her degree. Eventually, Tamara planted her feet in Nashville, TN where she completed her degree requirements and is now an alumna of Belmont University in Nashville where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Tamara also has several new titles to add to her name these days; Wife, Mom and Author. She was married on June 20, 2004 to Eddie George, gave birth to her first child on April 4, 2005 and will publish her first book with her best friend Katrina Chambers, Player HateHer: Why Can’t Women Just Get Along? (Amistad/Harper Collins) next year.

Today, Tamara is determined to make a difference. Realizing that her life is a testimony for others to be encouraged from, she wants to spread the word. She enjoys seeing the look of surprise on the faces of young girls when they realize that she is a work in progress and not a perfect being. “I believe that people should know that everyday is a new day to grow and heal for me. The pain didn’t happen over night and neither does the healing. Everyday is a healing day for me and I want to help others see their way to and through this journey” says Tamara.