Tamika Spellman

Tamika began advocating in the early 90’s as a mouthy homeless transgender woman pushing for positive policy change for trans women in shelters in Washington DC. She continued her advocacy work in 2007 with Jefferson County AIDS in Minorities in Birmingham Alabama as a spokesperson for the I Am the Face of HIV Campaign, then finally started working with HIPS as a secondary syringe exchanger with trans femme and masculine people in June 2017 after being a client of theirs when the organization first opened its doors in 1993.

In 2018, Tamika was promoted to become the Policy and Advocacy Associate and in 2021 she became the Policy and Community Engagement Director for the HIPS Advocacy Department. She’s testified numerous times on behalf of HIPS at DC city council hearings, spoken on several harm reduction panels, and managed the SWAC coordinator, and a community organizer for the Decrim Poverty movement (DECRIMNOW). She also served as an advisor to the Sex Worker Giving Circle, the Chosen Few, and was a house leader and lead organizer for No Justice No Pride.

She is a member of the North Carolina Survivors Union, and held a seat as a board member for the Church Of Safe Injection-Bangor Maine, as well as a safety POD leader with the Anti Patriarchal Violence table under the M4BL movement, and a member of the Black Feminist Futures group. She also has featured OP ED’s in The Root and several on Medium, appears in several articles and is the recipient of an award from the Legal Society of Washington D.C. for work on the fare evasion bill.

She was also instrumental in the passage of a bill in Washington DC to decriminalize drug paraphernalia, and has become a featured speaker in the harm reduction arena as well as a consultant with lived experiences as a Sex worker and substance user. She has also advised congressional representatives Ayanna Pressely [on Sex Work decriminalization]  (The People's Justice Guarantee) and Ro Khanna  [about the effects of SESTA/FOSTA on consenting sex workers] (The Safer Sex Worker Study Act) on proposed legislation, and continues to consult members of congress throughout their legislative drafting process. And her newest venture is Grammy’s Place, a non traditional safe house for Black transgender women who may be substance users and or may be engaging with sex work.