On March 10, 2008, Assemblymember Joe Coto and the California State Assembly will honor Tamara Alvarado as the 23rd Assembly District “Woman of the Year”. The California State Assembly’s “Woman of the Year” program honors eighty dynamic women who work to make their communities better places to live. They are chosen by the Assemblymembers of each of California’s eighty Assembly districts. The honorees are recognized during a ceremony in the Assembly Chambers and presented with a framed resolution.  A celebration reception is held upon adjournment of the floor session.

Tamara is currently the Executive Director of MACLA, (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana), a non-profit organization formed to showcase multicultural art. Tamara has done an outstanding job of increasing support for the organization in the community. MACLA has operated without a deficit for the last 11 years and has increased its budget by 500% in five years, growing at the rate of approximately $100,000 a year in increased income.

She is extremely active in the visual arts community and in many other community activities in San José. Prior to working at MACLA, Tamara worked as a community partner at the Washington United Youth Center. The Guadalupe Washington Neighborhood is a community that has faced multiple challenges familiar to immigrant, monolingual communities. In that setting Tamara forged many unique partnerships to further enhance the lives of the youth and their families. From 1999 through 2003, she directed the efforts of Catholic Charities of San José. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Performance Network as well as a founding member of First Voice, the South Bay’s Forum for multicultural artists and arts organization. She is the Co-Chair of the “Creative Urban Center” of First Act, a regional initiative launched in 2004.