The Center for Student Diversity invited Tamika Tremaglio to speak to students about her life’s work, specifically her focus on kindness and inclusion. Tremaglio is on the Board of Trustees at the Mount and is a managing principal at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services. The Director of CSD, Leon Dixon, started off by welcoming everyone who came to listen to her inspirational story and experience.
Tremaglio grew up singing in the church, granting her an understanding of religion, race and the spirit of inclusion at a young age. This is a part of her family history and her grandparents attended a segregated high school. Tremaglio studied Business and Finance at the Mount and then she went on to attend University of Baltimore for her MBA in Finance. She received her Juris Doctorate of Law from the University of Maryland School of Law. She currently works as an audit tax advisory and legal and financial consultant. Tremaglio was honored in the Washington Business Journal. She was ranked among the top 100 most powerful women in Washington. She was also featured in Essence magazine.
Tremaglio was raised by a single mother in southern Maryland. It was clear to Tremaglio that education was going to make a difference in her life so that she could accomplish her goals. She refers to the critical support that her family members gave her, quoting the common phrase “it takes a village to raise a child.” Her support system pushed her to go above and beyond and to exceed expectations.
She loved her time at the Mount where she helped create a dance team and an LSAT practice program. Being at the Mount taught her to aspire to do things and to think outside the box. During her time on campus, she was inspired to lead a life of significance. She remembers that since she was five she wanted to be a lawyer, but she also loves numbers and entrepreneurship. This gave her a bit of an edge over other lawyers and it’s something she was passionate about. The Mount taught her to ask for things she wanted if they were not readily available.
She first started working with a big six firm and a year later she moved to a forensic accounting position. Tremaglio confronts her fears with the mantra “face everything and rise instead of forget everything and run.” Tremaglio is the first African American woman who became a managing partner and is running a firm in the greater Washington D.C. area. She thinks of her position as something that is simultaneously incredibly challenging and a gift that gave her a platform.
Tremaglio stressed how important it is to have empathy for others and she gave an example of how she arranged for thousands of masks to be sent to marginalized communities in the Washington, D.C. area. She concluded with the advice for students she wants to offer: to be authentic, be brave, do not compare yourself to others, remember that the best leaders live in service to others, have integrity in everything you do and to remember that you are not a mistake.