Executive Team

Tamara D. Fischer serves as Executive Chair of the Board of Trustees. She served as Chief Executive Officer of the Company from 2020 to 2023 and served as Chief Financial Officer from inception in 2013 to 2020.

Before joining NSA, Tamara served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Vintage Wine Trust, Inc., a real estate investment trust focused on assets in the U.S. wine industry, from 2004 to 2008. She continued to serve Vintage Wine Trust as a consultant through its dissolution in 2010 and served in various other consulting positions until becoming involved with NSA. From 1993 to 2003, Tamara served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Chateau Communities, Inc. (NYSE: CPJ), one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the manufactured home community sector. She remained at Chateau through its sale in 2003. Prior to joining Chateau, she served as a member of the audit staff at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Tamara is a member of the Executive Board of Governors for Nareit and serves as Chairman of the national Self Storage Association.

Arlen D. Nordhagen is a co-founder of NSA and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees. He served as Executive Chairman of NSA from 2020 to 2023, Chairman from 2015 to 2020, Chief Executive Officer from inception in 2013 – 2020, and President and Chief Executive Officer of SecurCare from 1999 to 2013.

Arlen has over 30 years of experience in the self storage industry, beginning in 1988 when he co-founded NSA's predecessor, SecurCare Self Storage. In addition to SecurCare, Arlen was a founder of MMM Healthcare, Inc., the largest provider of Medicare Advantage health insurance in Puerto Rico. He has also served as managing member of various private investment funds and held various managerial positions at DuPont (NYSE: DD) and Synthetech, Inc. (NYSE: GRA).

Arlen graduated with high distinction from Harvard University with a Masters in Business Administration and graduated summa cum laude from the University of North Dakota with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.

David Cramer was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in April 2023. Before assuming his current role, Mr. Cramer served as President and Chief Operating Officer since July 2022 and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from April 2020 to July 2022. In addition, he has served as the Chairman of NSA’s Best Practices Committee since its inception.

David has more than 24 years of experience in the self storage industry beginning in 1998 when he joined SecurCare Self Storage, the predecessor company to NSA. At SecurCare, he served as Director of Operations from 1998 to 2005, Chief Operating Officer from 2005 to 2013, and President and Chief Executive Officer from 2013 to 2020. Prior to joining SecurCare Self Storage, David worked for Target (NYSE:TGT) for 12 years where he held several operational and managerial positions.

David currently serves as a board member for the Storage Business Owners Alliance Tenant Insurance program (SBOATI). SBOATI is an insurance product that was created by self storage owners for self storage owners.

As our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Brandon S. Togashi oversees all financial functions for the Company including treasury, capital markets, accounting, and taxation. In addition, Brandon serves as Chairman of the PRO Advisory Committee. Prior to his appointment as our CFO, Brandon served as our Chief Accounting Officer beginning in January 2017, and previous to that served as our Vice President and Controller since joining the Company in December 2014.

Previously, he served as Vice President of Corporate Accounting at DCT Industrial Trust, a publicly traded industrial REIT, and Senior Manager at KPMG in the accounting firm's audit and advisory practice.

Brandon holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Colorado State University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Will Cowan serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of NSA.  He currently oversees all aspects of NSA’s strategic initiatives, including acquisitions, dispositions, investor relations, risk management, insurance and internal audit functions for the Company.

Previously, Will served as Managing Director in the Real Estate, Gaming, Lodging and Leisure Group of Jefferies LLC, leading the US coverage efforts for self storage, multifamily, industrial and net lease sectors. He joined Jefferies in 2012 after working in the Real Estate, Gaming and Lodging Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. During his 15 years in investment banking, he was closely involved in over $160 billion of advisory and capital markets transactions for public and private real estate companies.

Prior to investment banking, Will served in the 25th Infantry Division of the United States Army and rose to the rank of Captain. Will holds a Master of Business Administration from the Darden School of Business at University of Virginia where received the Faculty Award for Academic Excellence. He also received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Davidson College and was awarded an Army ROTC scholarship.

Tiffany Kenyon was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer in January 2023. Before assuming her current role, Ms. Kenyon served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel since January 2022 and Senior Vice President and Senior Legal Officer from May 2018 to January 2022.

Prior to joining the Company, Tiffany served for ten years with MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P., most recently as Vice President, Law, where she focused on commercial transactions, finance, and corporate and securities matters. Prior to joining MarkWest, she was with Greenberg Traurig, LLP from 2000 until 2008 where she focused on real estate, corporate and securities matters.

Ms. Kenyon received her J.D. degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Melissa Cameron was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer in April 2024. Before assuming her current role, Mrs. Cameron served as Senior Vice President of Customer Acquisitions since 2021, and Vice President of Marketing from 2018 to 2021.

Melissa has over 25 years of digital marketing experience. Prior to joining the Company, Melissa served for over five years at Extra Space Storage (NYSE: EXR), most recently as Senior Director of Digital Marketing, where she led the digital marketing and customer experience teams. Before Extra Space, from 2005 through 2012, Melissa worked at a New York-based digital marketing agency as a Sr. Digital Marketing Consultant and then as Vice President of Client Services.  

Melissa holds a bachelor's degree in commerce with a concentration in marketing from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.