Sister Tamara W. Runia

First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency

Throughout her life, Sister Tamara (Tammy) W. Runia has held a variety of callings—stake scripture class instructor, counselor in a stake Relief Society presidency, leader with her husband of the Australia Sydney Mission—but she has spent most of her service with the Young Women.

“I’ve loved every calling I’ve served in,” she Sister Runia, who has also served as a stake Young Women president. But, she added, “I have to say I feel at home with the Young Women.”

Sister Runia said she has been to Young Women camp more than 20 times. One year she was even asked to attend as camp cheerleader.

She wants all young women to know how much their Heavenly Father loves them. That love is “wide as the sky, deep as the ocean,” she said. Heavenly Father, she added, “wants them all back home.”

She said feeling that connection will be life changing for young women “because it has been for me.”

Sister Runia was born on March 2, 1961, in Concord, California, USA, to Vincent Alma Wood and Gail Hilton Wood. She grew up in Walnut Creek, California.

She was a freshman at Brigham Young University studying broadcast journalism when she met R. Scott Runia. They married in May 1981 in the Oakland California Temple. They have seven children and now live in Provo, Utah.

Sister Runia was sustained during April general conference as the First Counselor in the new Young Women General Presidency. She will begin her service August 1.

In addition to her service in the Church, she has spent 20 years on the board of the Food and Care Coalition in Provo, which provides resources for homeless and low-income people.