Tamara O’Brien

Board Member

Pennsylvania

 

Tamara O’Brien is permaculture and native garden designer. She does consulting work where she fills many roles: garden facilitator, teacher, ecorestoration consultant, grant reviewer, mentor, coach and pollinator advocate. She is the founder and director of a nonprofit with the mission of providing education on native pollinator awareness, Plant it Further. Tamara is also the co-founder of the Western Pennsylvania Area Wild Ones Chapter.

She served three terms as president and is now Program Director and Symposium Chair. Additionally, Tamara volunteers in her region as a mentor for The University of Pittsburgh’s Plant 2 Plate community garden, Penn State Extension programs, PA Farm to School network, as well as growing plants for and hosting planting days with many school and community gardens. Tamara has had a life long relationship with Earth care, growing up hiking the woods in Western PA and spending time in the summer visiting her mothers family in Hungary on their biodynamic farm. There she spent many hours playing in the fields, happy when they had leftover watermelon on market days.

Tamara started her college education at The University of Pittsburgh but moved to Hungary in her junior year to finish her studies at The Corvinus University in Budapest. While she was mostly taking business classes she also took some classes in biodynamic farming. After college she worked in the family business as product manager for multiple holistic wellness spas in the Pittsburgh area.

It was not until 2020 that Tamara began her second career in Eco-restoration and Permaculture consulting; but she was always deeply connected to the natural world around her, understanding the value of growing her own food, choosing ethically made products and supporting local sustainable food systems. She planted her first permaculture garden in 2007 on the 8 acres she lived on with her family at the time and has created many abundant growing spaces since then. Tamara hopes to always be learning, sharing information and growing.