Often life is full of changes – which can be a good thing!  With a beyond the box approach just about any challenge can be overcome. 

NJLA President Chris Carbone is pleased to announce that we have a change in our speaker for the President’s Program at Conference – Monday evening April 24^th at 6pm.    While we regret that we are unable to present SmallBizLady Melinda Emerson, we are very proud to host New Jersey’s own (and a former library employee) Tammy Tibbets, Founder and CEO of the education non-profit She’s the First.  We believe her mission and her values align strongly with our membership and her story makes a great prelude to the Libraries=Education message that will be presented by our Wednesday speaker Valerie Gross.

TAMMY TIBBETTS 

Founder & CEO

She’s the First

“A girl with an education is unstoppable.”

Tammy oversees business strategy, communications, development, and brand partnerships for the education nonprofit She's the First, which she founded in 2009. She is a sought-after TEDx and public speaker who keynotes events for corporations, students, and philanthropists.

In 2015 and 2016, Tammy led She's the First to million-dollar revenue years. She has attracted support from Glamour’s The Girl Project, NoVo Foundation, Andrew & Ann Tisch Foundation, Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, American Express Foundation, and Unilever, among others.

At age 23, Tammy had an idea for a social media-driven campaign that would inspire Millennials to fundraise for girls’ education in low-income countries. She shared her idea for She’s the First with a Facebook friend, Christen Brandt. On November 1, 2009, they launched it in the form of a YouTube video. That one video became a movement that now reaches millions and has changed life outcomes for more than 800 STF Scholars in 11 countries. 

Previously, Tammy worked for Hearst Magazines, where she founded three profitable digital properties for Seventeen.com and became Seventeen’s first social media editor, a position in which she earned top industry honors.

Tammy is a first-generation college graduate who attended The College of New Jersey, earning a B.A. in journalism, summa cum laude and recipient of the first-ever Young Alumni Award. Voted “Most Shy” in her high school yearbook, Tammy is anything but shy today. She is an outspoken, contagiously passionate leader who has earned a spot on the following lists:

• Forbes.com's 30 Under 30 in Education
• TIME.com's 30 Under 30: World Changers
• Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business 1000 (2014) & League of Extraordinary Women (2012)
• Marie Claire's 20 Women Changing the World (September 2014)
• Glamour's 20 Amazing Young Women at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards

Tammy is the 2013 recipient of Diane von Furstenberg’s People’s Voice Award and a 2016 Women's eNews 21 Leaders Award. One of her personal triumphs was finishing the NYC Marathon in 2014 and sponsoring nine STF Scholars in the process.

Tammy is from South Brunswick, NJ and, get this, a former employee of the South Brunswick Public Library!

We are beyond proud and excited to have Tammy Tibbetts with us at this year's conference, and we hope you're excited, too!

The 2016-2017 NJLA Conference Committee