Tamara, why the heck are you doing this anyway? Who are you and where did you come from?
Originally published: August 10, 2013
Tamara Rubin
Tamara Elise Rubin (born: Tamara Elise Budgett; November 20, 1969) is an American Environmental Activist and Documentary Filmmaker. Tamara’s children were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005 and she has since dedicated her life to the cause of childhood lead poisoning prevention in an effort to prevent what has happened to her children from happening to other children. In 2011 and 2014 she won awards from a consortium of U.S. Federal agencies (EPA, CDC, HUD, USDA, USDoE, & FDA) for her advocacy work focused on the area of childhood Lead poisoning prevention.
In January of 2018 she founded Lead Safe Mama, LLC a woman-owned small business focused on childhood Lead-poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety (www.TamaraRubin.com / www.LeadSafeMama.com). The work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been covered extensively in the international news with highlights being coverage of Tamara’s work finding Lead in modern toothpaste products (2025), Lead in Stanley Tumblers (2023), Lead in Fidget Spinners (2017), and more.
Family History
Rubin was born in Saginaw, Michigan to Helene Nancy Glickfeld and Harvey Wakeham Budgett, Jr.. Helene & Harvey were each born in San Francisco in 1942. they started dating in High School and later attending The University of California at Berkeley together in the mid-1960. Helene initially pursued an undergraduate degree in architecture, switching her major to ceramic arts after taking a class with the renown Peter Voulkos. Helene and Harvey were married in San Francisco on January 29, 1966 (divorced c.. 1978)
Harvey was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War and (to avoid the draft), enrolled in university in Syracuse, New York to work towards a graduate degree in Forestry. While in Syracuse, Helene taught junior high school art (Syracuse Junior High School). The couple welcome their first child – Tamara’s Sister, Jennifer Ellen Budgett, on May 26, 1968 in Syracuse.
Harvey (ironically) got a job with Wickes Lumber to help support the family while he attended graduate school. In 1969 Wickes Lumber transferred Harvey to a position at their Saginaw, Michigan location. Helene continued teaching art in Saginaw, and Tamara Elise Budgett was born in Saginaw, Michigan on November 20, 1969. Wickes then reassigned Harvey to their Braintree, Mass location, and the family moved to Massachusetts in 1970. After living in Braintree for about one year, – in 1971 Tamara’s family relocated to the historic town of Hingham, MA, (founded in 1635!) where she spent her youth.
Early life and education
1969-1987
Tamara went to Hingham’s Plymouth River School for kindergarten, Foster School for grade 1 through 6, Hingham’s Central Junior High School for grades 7-8-9, graduating from Hingham High School in May of 1987 at age 17.
In high school Tamara participated in the Drama Club, International Thespian Society, Debate Team, French Club and Math Club. She received her varsity letter in competitive math. She also founded the Hingham High School Cycling Team, which held race practices in Wompatuck State Park and participated in local road criterium races and events around Massachusetts. A favorite story: In her first ever criterium race (c. 1985) she placed second out of all of the women in the race (on a run down junker bike she got for $10.00 at a yard sale). For placing second, she was awarded a prize of a new pair of leather and mesh cycling gloves! Punch line: there were only two women in that race!
During her years in school in Hingham she participated in as many theater productions as possible: West Side Story, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, The Little Toy Dog (ensemble award winning), and more.
While still in high school Tamara attended Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, New York) for their 1986 summer semester — with a focus on performing arts (mask & clown work / Commedia dell’arte and open-air site-specific performance) and creative writing.
Outside of school she participated in many other community activities. She was a member of Boy Scouts of America via the Explorer Scouts (Scituate Chapter). She participated in performances with the Young People’s Summer Theater of Scituate (Barnum) and the Weymouth Company Theater (The Trouble with Angels).
Growing up in Hingham created an indelible impression on young Tamara, instilling in her an appreciation for historic architecture and later — thanks to a high school program in which 15 and 16-year-olds helped “preserve” some of Boston’s oldest historic residences by stripping and removing layers of old paint and wall paper — she developed a passion for architectural integrity and environmentally safe-practices in renovating historic structures.
Early Work History
Tamara’s mother, Helene Glickfeld became the primary breadwinner for their small family by the time Tamara was about four years old. Tamara’s father left (and her parents were divorced), c. 1977. Tamara began working for her mother’s business at a very early age. Helene’s business was first called “Pots, Inc.”, and later became “Designs By Helene”. Helene’s college class with Peter Voulkos changed the path of her life, fostering both her work as a ceramic artist (with pieces displayed in many museums in the late-1960s and early-1970s), and as a business owner creating and selling practical and decorative ceramic pieces (from sculptures of mushrooms, to planters for house plants, to dish ware / mugs / plates / mirrors, and later – handmade ceramic wind chimes.
With no financial support from Tamara’s biological father (Harvey), the family lived in relative poverty. There were often days (and weeks) with little-to-no food in the house. At one point German exchange student was removed from the home because she complained to the student-exchange agency that the family did not have enough food in the home. As a result of the family’s financial position, both Jennifer and Tamara began working for the family business (and pursuing other ways to earn money as well) at very young ages. Jennifer delivered newspapers with an early morning paper route, and Tamara babysat. Most of the money they earned was contributed back to the family – as they would use the funds they earned to buy groceries and other daily essentials (walking the mile to the grocery store – and back – on their own to buy groceries as young as 7 or 8 years old).
Tamara started babysitting for other young children in the neighborhood when she was just 8 years old, earning $1.00 an hour. By the time she was 10 years old she was riding her bike all over town (up to 5 miles each way) for regular babysitting jobs that paid $2.00 an hour (typically at least two or three days a week). This is the riding that later resulted in her participating in competitive cycling! During the summer of her 10th year she started an informal daycare, babysitting for 4 children at once (from three families) – where all four families brought their children to her home for $2.00 an hour, so she was earning $8.00 an hour to help with groceries. [Note: at 10 years old, she looked older – so it’s very likely the families she was babysitting for did not realize how young she was!]
The family’s pottery business started out fairly small, with booths at fairs and festivals on the weekends and throughout the summers. Tamara and Jennifer would attend every festival with their mother literally from just after they were born.
The caption on this photo reads: Thursday, June 3, 1971 – Tamara Budgett, 18 months old, gets a big thrill out of trying to interest a passerby in buying one of her mother’s handicrafts during yesterday’s opening of Crafts at Copley Square. This Exhibit is sponsored by the Back Bay Assn. and the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. It is also helped by the Mass. Assn. of Craftsmen and the Institute of Contemporary Art.
As the business grew, Pots, Inc. started selling at wholesale gift shows around the country – including the New York Gift Show, the Boston Gift Show, and Gift Shows in Los Angeles and Dallas. With the wholesale business growing (with new clients including Filenes, and Disney Parks), Helene needed help packing and shipping the pottery. When Tamara was about 7 or 8 years old her mother started paying her 25 cents an hour to help prepare the packing area for shipping the pottery. This was Tamara’s first “official” paid job for the family. It consisted of collecting old newspapers from everyone in the neighborhood and opening up the newspapers flat on a workbench so they would be prepped for wrapping pottery.
Once Helene’s business focused more on wind chimes than practical pottery (under the new name “Designs By Helene”) Tamara – in addition to helping with sales at events and festivals -helped with some of the tasks related to production (hand painting, assembly, packing) – but found her talents were more suited to managing the business and doing design-related work. By the time Tamara was 15 years old she was helping with the development of product pricing sheets and brochures, she was also the top sales person for the business at all of the gift shows across the country (skipping school to travel with her mother to attend the shows). In November of 1985, when she turned 16 (and got her driver’s license) she began managing the businesses holiday booths at malls from Cape Cod to Maine – driving thousands of miles during the holiday season – overseeing and delivering inventory, training booth staff, managing payroll, designing booth presentation, etc.
In 1986, Tamara’s sister Jennifer got accepted to Dartmouth College. This was a turning point for the family and the family business (and for Tamara personally). Jennifer’s acceptance to Dartmouth provided Helene with access to more “affordable” computers to help run the family business — specifically Apple Computers. As soon as Jennifer was accepted to Dartmouth the family became eligible to purchase the latest Apple Computer at a discount through a program with the school. This was one of those new “portable” computers – as it came with a carrying case!
With this new opportunity (a computer with more capacity and functions than what she had worked with previously), Tamara began to help Helene move all of the documentation for the family business to computerized files. She primarily worked with Excel (which was introduced for the Apple platform in 1985) and developed creative ways to use Excel for nearly every aspect of the family business. Through this program Helene connected with and became friends with Randy the “Assistant Director of the Continuing Education & Conferences” at Dartmouth.
This is how – In 1987, when she was just 17 years old, Tamara was invited to Dartmouth College to co-teach (with Helene) a computer class for Dartmouth graduates. The class was focused on teaching Dartmouth Graduates (who were mostly now Wall Street executives) how to use Excel on their Apple Computers to support their work.
1987-1990
College Years
After high school, in the summer of 1987 Tamara spent the summer riding her bike 2,400 miles around Europe and then in the fall of 1987 moved to New York City to study stage-acting (with Broadway’s Circle In The Square and the Experimental Theater Wing, through New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts UG Drama program).
In December of 1990 she completed her coursework for a degree in theater and, in 1991 received a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Through NYU, she studied mask and clown work with the Theatre du Soliel in Paris as well as with the legendary circus arts master Hovey Burgess. She also attended a summer semester (1988) at Dartmouth College, taking courses in Philosophy, Psychology, and Biology while working as the front-of-house manager for the school’s theater (The Hop) and volunteering as assistant stage manager for Dartmouth’s production of Henry IV, Part 1.
Always passionate about the health and well-being of children, Tamara supported herself through college (1987-1991) by babysitting and nannying for many of the young families within the burgeoning visual arts community in Manhattan, including Pamela Glasscock, Tony King, Nicollete Reim, and others.
Post-College
1990-1994
In 1991 Tamara moved to Marin County, California, and discovered it was a bit tricky making a living as a circus arts performer. She decided a career path with a bit more security might be warranted and completed coursework for a Master’s in nonprofit administration at the University of San Francisco in 1994. (One day, she hopes to eventually complete her graduate degree! This is sort of a running family joke, as her plan was to be the first in her immediate family to receive a graduate degree, but life intervened prior to completing her thesis — with just one chapter left to go.)
1994-2001
In 1996, after giving birth to her first son, Colescott, Tamara launched a nonprofit fundraising and special event planning consultancy (“Budgett Consulting” — a play on words based on her maiden name, Tamara Budgett), so she could work part-time and spend time with her son.
2001-2005
In April 2001 she met her future-husband Leonard Rubin, and they were married in May! Len and Tamara connected over bicycles and Len’s equal passion for environmental causes (including what was at that time still considered by many to be a bold dream: To explore and expand the boundaries of an intentionally car-free life in the U.S., which prompted the small family’s move to the growing bicycle mecca of Portland, Oregon in 2002). Tamara and Len’s second son, A.J., was born in July 2002, and Avi (their third son) was born in January 2005. (The couple’s fourth son, Charlie Parker, was born later in 2008.)
2005 & Later
Lead Poisoning
In 2005, with an expanding family, the Rubins decided to refinance their home so they could take some equity out and make home improvements. Their neighbor and mortgage broker told them that, in order to get the best loan, they would need to repaint the exterior of their home so it looked good for the appraisal. After interviewing nearly a dozen contractors, the Rubins chose a painting contractor who said he was certified in the Lead-safe work practices required to safely repaint the exterior. Unfortunately, he lied — they later learned he had failed the Lead-safe work practices certification exam. In fact, the contractor used the most dangerous methods possible to prepare their home for painting (open flame torch burning, dry scraping, and pressure washing) and their children were instantly poisoned.
Unwilling to settle living with the pervasive societal ignorance around everything related to childhood Lead poisoning (and unwilling to see future generations of children poisoned as her children were), Tamara vowed to change the narrative around the issue and increase awareness so that some day in the future all children would be spared this wholly preventable man-made environmental illness.
In the years since her children’s poisoning more than a decade ago, she has become an internationally recognized and award-winning* Lead poisoning prevention advocate, author, and documentary filmmaker.
- In 2008, she began her personal advocacy site, mychildrenhaveleadpoisoning.com.
- In 2009, she became certified in using a Niton XRF (see the certificate HERE) and has been conducting independent consumer goods testing since that time.
- From 2009 through the present, she created and developed the largest international online network of support and information for parents (about childhood Lead poisoning prevention and related subjects) using social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.
- In 2011, she began directing and producing the documentary feature film MisLEAD: America’s Secret Epidemic. It is currently in post-production.
- In 2017 and 2018, Tamara formalized her independent consumer goods testing and Lead poisoning prevention advocacy work by creating (and officially becoming) “Lead Safe Mama.”
(Article continues below video.)
MisLEAD: America’s Secret Epidemic, Trailer from Tamara Rubin on Vimeo
Since then, Tamara has created an unprecedented web and media presence (including on social media) for Lead poisoning prevention in an effort to bring this message to the world:
Lead-poisoning was not “solved” with the 1978 ban on Lead in residential paint.
Tamara is committed to educating every parent about this wholly-preventable environmental illness that causes permanent brain damage in young children, yet still today conservatively costs the United States more than $50.9 billion annually!
Through her advocacy work, Tamara often reaches more than 100,000 people online each month and has personally helped thousands of families create safer homes and environments for their children.
For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since July 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for six product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
- All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
- Please check out our press page to see some of the news coverage of our work, linked here.