L.A. Focus
by D.T. Carson
As president of the Orange County Community Foundation, Tammy Tumbling plays a pivotal role in in the annual distribution of nearly $100 million to non-profits. However, what truly makes her story extraordinary is her journey through the kind of childhood adversity most would have found it hard to overcome.
Raised in a Compton single-parent household during the crack epidemic of the 1980s, Tammy experienced hardship firsthand. By the time she was in the fourth grade, she had already spent a year in foster care due to her mother’s institutionalization from mental health issues and by 17, she was a teen mom. Rather than allowing society’s narrative of teen moms to dictate her worth, she focused on being the best mother she could with her own mother.
“At the time, it was a lot, but everything happens for a reason,” Tumbling recalls. “What we didn’t know is God had a bigger plan.”
Two years later her mother passed away at the age of 54 of an aneurysm leaving her and her four siblings as orphans. Tumbling took on the mantle of the head of household stepping up as caretaker for her siblings as well as her own two-year-old. She was just 19.
