Tammi Wallace

Favorite Female LGBTQ Community Hero
Best Female LGBTQ Business Person
Most Prominent  Female LGBTQ Activist

Tammi Wallace (she/her), co-founder, president, and CEO of the Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, has a reputation for being one of the hardest-working advocates in Houston. Her award-winning strategic thinking, work ethic, and ability to comprehend Harris County’s power structure is impressive, and the result is a more equitable and prosperous future for LGBTQ Texans.

“Working with small businesses, large companies, and their employee resource groups in supplier diversity, as well as the 35+ nonprofits that we have in the Chamber, is the work that literally gets me up every day,” says Wallace. “Leading the Chamber and really working every day to be a strong voice and advocate for LGBTQ+ and ally-owned businesses is literally what fuels me.”

Wallace rejects the familiar Jack-of-all-trades label in favor of “Jill-of-many-trades” due to her varied professional experiences. “I spent about 14 years in financial services and then had the good fortune to start my journey in terms of advocacy by working on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community in some volunteer roles. I’ve been involved with the LGBTQ+ community for over two decades and volunteered on some early campaigns, including Annise Parker’s, and got the political bug,” Wallace explains.

This led her to work on Ellen Cohen’s campaign when Cohen ran for the Texas House of Representatives, serving as Cohen’s chief of staff for her 2008 and 2010 House campaigns. Then in 2011, Wallace began working as the chief growth officer for KIPP Public Charter Schools in Houston, but was laid off due to the Texas State Legislature slashing the education budget by $5.4 billion. This prompted her to start her own business in 2012 and create a space where she could combine her skills in government, community engagement, project management, and more.

“In 2015, I read an article in reference to the 2017 Super Bowl in the Houston Chronicle that said you could get certified as an LGBTQ-owned business,” Wallace recalls. Famously, the NFL made a commitment to support diverse-owned businesses in the markets where they were bringing the Super Bowl, commencing that initiative in San Francisco in 2016 and in Houston in 2017.

“I figured out that if you’re a member of your local affiliate LGBTQ+ Chamber, then your certification fee would be waived,” Wallace says. However, there was a major problem: Houston didn’t have an LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce. “So that led me on the path to co-founding the Chamber along with Gary Wood. And I will tell you this has been almost 10 years of my life now. It is what I see as my “mission match”—this intersection of business and community. It truly is pulling in education, political policy, business, and all the work that I’ve done in various aspects of my career.”

Wallace’s work has earned her other awards, but being recognized with a 2024 Gayest & Greatest award offers her something unique. “These are the awards that mean so much to me because they are coming directly from the community,” Wallace notes. “People are taking the time to cast their vote, and they’re checking your name. It is an acknowledgement of the work that I’m doing. It’s incredibly, incredibly powerful to know that people recognize that.”

She also appreciates the validation this award offers the Chamber itself. “It’s like a stamp when people see this, both inside and outside of the community,” says Wallace. “It will cause people to go, ‘Oh, wow, the Chamber is doing the work. Maybe I should check them out.’ So it helps us increase the visibility for the work that we’re doing.

“Thank you to OutSmart for continuing these awards year after year and highlighting remarkable people in our community that are doing great things, are supportive of the community, or who have inclusive businesses,” Wallace concludes.

For more info, visit linkedin.com/in/tammiwallace.