Tam Welch (they/them) is the program coordinator of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences focusing on community outreach and visitor experience.

With an MFA in dance performance from the Ohio State University, Tam comes to the IAS with 20 years of community organizing and event planning from the Cantú Queer Center, and community resource centers at UCSC, and as the Asian American Coordinator from the Ohio State University. 

In 2015, Tam was lead Investigator and co-author of the report on Queer Students of Color: Experiences and Engagement based on survey findings and recommendations for the improvement of visibility, inclusivity, and retention of Queer Students of Color at UCSC.

Tam co-founded and stewards the Bitter Cotyledons collective, a group of cultural workers/artists centering, archiving, and sharing the stories of queer Asian American Pacific Islander community through the lens of ancestral foodways while uplifting the relationship between Asian plant cultivation and queer/api community as a creative method of resilience. 

Tam is a core organizer of the AAPI of Santa Cruz collective work to uplift local work, community and racial topics, and in 2022, co directed the first Asian American Pacific Islander heritage festival for Santa Cruz county. Tam loves to travel, explore nature, garden, culinary arts, and is parent to one fabulous human and one fur baby. 

Email:  tamw@ucsc.edu