Tamara was born in Flint, Michigan in 1979. She received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2002. During her studies in China, while acquiring her bachelor degree, she earned a Certificate of Completion from the International School of Art in Hanghzou, China in Chinese Landscape Painting and Theory. It was in China, that major themes pertaining to nature and balance became the basis of her professional work. In 2003, she was invited to start the first experimental sound department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated 2005 with the first MFA in sound art in the United States.

Tamara has shown extensively nationally and internationally at prestigious institutions such as the 9th International Istanbul Biennial, The European Sound Delta in Paris, France (in collaboration with the Collectiv MU), Project Creo in St. Petersburg, Florida, The Digital Media Centre in Bracknell, England, artTransponder in Berlin, Germany, V2 Institute for Unstable Media in Rotterdam, Netherlands, ParaSite in Hong Kong, China, The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Stanford University in Palo Alto, Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, California, Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, California and G2 Gallery in Chicago, Illinios.

She was the recipient for the Eureka Fellowship 2011-2013 from the Fleishhacker Foundation, Elizabeth Skinner Award, The James Irvine Fellowship and has received scholarships to the Vermont Studio Center and the Djerassi Foundation. Tamara lives and works in San Francisco.