Influential Woman · Nonprofit

Tess Holcom

Associate Director of Operations, March For Our Lives

Washington, DC

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Bachelor's degree Degree 2021

Her Story

About Tess

I've been working in the nonprofit sector since August 2024, specializing in operations, administration, and compliance. In my current role at a gun violence prevention organization, I'm part of a tight-knit team of 19 people, and despite being relatively new, I've become the most senior person on staff, which has required me to rapidly develop institutional knowledge. My work is incredibly varied - I wear many hats depending on what the team needs, whether that's serving as a strategist, coder, or executive assistant. My typical day revolves around responding to news cycles, policy shifts, and community headlines. Right now, I'm heavily focused on our annual internal audit and coordinating with our board for upcoming meetings. I manage all vendor relationships, handle invoices and payments, and organize everything within our budget. I recently completed creating our 2026 budget, which was approved by the board - a significant professional milestone for me. I'm also responsible for onboarding new interns, including creating their day-to-day agendas, setting up their emails, and handling all their W-2 paperwork. The landscape in gun violence prevention has changed dramatically over the past two years, requiring extreme flexibility and creative thinking. While it feels like fighting an uphill battle with current policy shifts, I believe that makes the work even more important.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Tess

01What do you attribute your success to?

I think a large part of my success comes from my journalism teacher from high school. She really understood how headstrong I am, and she was very good about grounding me in how to use that quality in a productive way, especially when working with other people. She helped me channel my determination and strong will into something constructive that allows me to collaborate effectively.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I ever received was to serve your staff. Be the type of leader and the type of coworker that is needed in the space at the moment. We all have our default leadership styles and our default personalities, but especially in a small staff, you kind of have to be extremely adaptive to whatever is needed from you in any given situation. It's about being flexible enough to meet the needs of your team rather than sticking rigidly to one approach.

03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I would tell them to take up space. You are there for a reason, you're sitting in that room for a reason. Remember that. Be strong, believe in the words that you say, and know that you're smarter than you think. Don't shrink yourself or doubt your capabilities - you've earned your place and your voice matters.

04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

Starting with the opportunities, it is a very tight-knit community in the gun violence prevention space, and we're younger people in the organization, so people are always so kind to give advice or to learn from us. They're also open-minded with younger people, which is really wonderful, and you don't get that everywhere. As for challenges, the landscape is completely different than where it was 2 years ago. We definitely have to be flexible and think of things differently than I'm used to. The policy shifts are very different than what they were 2 years ago. It feels like fighting an uphill battle, but that doesn't mean we should fight it any less - it means we need to fight even more than before.

05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

Kindness is above everything else for me. You don't have to be nice, but you do need to be kind, with good intent behind it. Patience is also very important to me - there are just so many things that are outside our control, so it's okay that things take longer than expected. And I think being driven is crucial. Whatever drives someone to show up each day, to put forth the effort, to do their best work - we all have something different that drives us, but we all should have something that motivates us.

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