Tami Tolpa is the owner and artist behind Tolpa Studios, and has over 10 years of experience creating compelling, instructive, and accurate images for science and medicine. Her professional background includes creative communications work for biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical companies, advertising agencies, e-learning providers, hospital marketing departments, publishing companies, and individual physicians. Her expertise is in digital illustration, 2D animation, as well as interactive media. Her work has been published in Scientific American Magazine, The Journal of Reconstructive Surgery and Technology Review.

Tami earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in medical illustration (with a minor in interactive media design) from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Tami has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art and a BA in Environmental Studies from the State University of New York at Binghamton. A native of upstate New York, she moved to the west coast in 1998, working on staff at several medical education companies in the San Francisco bay area, including Artemis Creative, Inc., a prestigious Palo Alto graphic design studio. In early 2005, she devoted herself full-time to her own business, providing national and international clients with high quality visual solutions for any budget.

Tami has received recognition for her illustration and animation, incuding several Rx Club awards, selection as a semifinalist in the National Science Foundation Visualization Challenge, Awards of Excellence and Certificates Of Merit from the Association of Medical Illustrators, a feature in the Macromedia Showcase, as well as recognition published in the Journal of Audiovisual Media in Medicine.

Tami is actively involved in both the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the Association of Medical Illustrators, where she was elected to the Board of Governors in 2007. Tami also serves on the scholarship selection committee for the Vesalius Trust. In addition to her work with the AMI, Tami has served as an adjunct faculty member in the design department of Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA.