Influential Woman · Public Affairs Communications

Tamara R. Hartley

Deputy Director, Communications, Franklin County Office on Aging

Reynoldsburg, OH

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Howard University (3 years) Degree Bachelor's Degree Degree Dual-Discipline Master's Degree in Marketing and Communication

Her Story

About Tamara

I've been in public affairs communications for about 15 years, and it's been a rollercoaster ride with ups and downs, but I love the storytelling aspect of what I do. I've worked in different capacities - in private sector, corporate, and now in government. My day-to-day involves handling communications for executives, managing news media inquiries, and on the government side, I get those quite often. I start every day with media monitoring, going out to see what the headlines are and what the world is talking about, because so much of that affects who I am and what I do every day. Then I go with the flow of what everyone else has going on, providing talking points for events, radio interviews, and those types of things. One of my most notable achievements was having the opportunity to produce publications and work with some of the brightest people. I've had great interviews with everyone from Gladys Knight to Oprah Winfrey to Bill Cosby at one point. I really got to dig into other people's success, and that storytelling was some of my best work. Personally, I also run a coaching business under my name, Tamara Rochelle, where I help busy women and busy moms who are so full of responsibilities that they don't have time to concentrate on themselves. I help them regain that time and energy and confidence to take action on some of the things they want to do for themselves.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Tamara

01What do you attribute your success to?

I think that I love what I do, so having a love for it has kept me engaged. But I also think just being open and having good mentors in the space has been crucial. I do a lot of things on my personal side as well - professionally I do marketing communications, but personally I do coaching and things like that on the side. I don't think I'd be where I am without being open and having some of the best mentors. I don't know if you're familiar with Les Brown, the motivational speaker, but he is a wonderful mentor and friend. I think that he really has just instilled a lot in me from the business perspective that I've really used in my personal and professional life.

02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I would say to never stop learning. I am a lifelong learner, and there's always new things to learn. Just because you're more seasoned in your career doesn't mean you can't learn from others, whether they are younger than you or whether they've been more seasoned than you are. Always learn from other people, so just to be a lifelong learner and to always be open to that.

03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

The opportunity is that we just live in a constantly changing news cycle, a constant media cycle. There's always news, there's always activity. I really think that's a great opportunity because people are looking for stories to tell, and if you have clients who are looking for opportunities to tell their stories, I just think you have more of that today. I think the opposite is that the media landscape has changed so much that it's changed my industry a little bit. A lot of times, building those relationships with media - I just don't have all of those relationships that I used to have because people are no longer in the industry anymore. So it's a constant rebuilding, constant relationship building, making sure that you're networking and that you're in the loop. I think that's more challenging now than it was before.

04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

I think integrity is super important to me, making sure that the storytelling is accurate, that it's not biased but accurate, and factual. I think integrity is a big one for me. I would say integrity is one of the big things for me, for sure.

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