Tamara Kennedy-Hill

Tamara Kennedy-Hill is currently the Director at Greater Portland. Tamara has extensive experience in the field, previously serving as the Executive Director at Green Meeting Industry Council from May 2008 to July 2013. During their time there, they oversaw operations, strategic planning, editorial review, board engagement, budgeting, program development, fundraising and advocacy. Tamara was also the staff lead on the conference program design for the annual Sustainable Meetings Conference.

Under their leadership, membership, strategic investors and chapter development scaled from 3 to 14 affiliate chapters with over 700 members globally. Tamara was also a strategic adviser, auditor and award presenter for the IMEX/GMIC Green Awards program, presented annually at IMEX Frankfurt. In November 2012, they were recognized by Smart Meeting Magazine as "one of the industry's most influential women breaking the glass ceiling."

In addition to their work at Green Meeting Industry Council, they also co-authored a text book chapter on Green Meetings for Michigan State University hospitality school (published 2010) and wrote the Foreword for "The Complete Guide to Greener Meetings and Events" by Samuel deBlanc Goldblatt, entitled `Why Meetings Matter`, published 2012 by Wiley & Sons.

Lastly, they led the design process for the educational roadmap including managing the development of an industry train the trainer program for the APEX/ASTM green meeting standards program. Tamara served on the board of the Convention Industry Council from 2011-2013 (now called Events Industry

Tamara Kennedy-Hill has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Portland in Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management, a Bachelor of Arts from Marylhurst University in Communications; Training & Development, and an Associate of Science - AS from Portland Community College in General Studies. Tamara also has a Certification from Marylhurst University in Certificate in Conflict Resolution and Mediation and a Certification from Events Industry Council in Certified Meeting Professional.