The Baltimore Sun

The Baltimore Sun’s 25 Women to Watch 2024: Best in advocacy, business and health

By Tracie Rawson, Baltimore Sun staff, Baltimore Sun,

6 hours ago

Meet the Baltimore area’s leading voices in business, activism, research and more.

Look for the 25 Women to Watch in a special magazine supplement in some editions of The Baltimore Sun on Sunday, Oct. 13. The women were honored with a celebration at the Baltimore Museum of Art on Oct. 9.

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Wanda Gibson Best

65, Executive Director, Upton Planning Committee

Wanda Gibson Best got her start as a community organizer at age 9, when she joined the 4-H club near her rural South Carolina home. She recently found an old photo of herself teaching a food preparation course to children. At the time, she was in middle school.

“4-H kind of framed who I am,” she said. “Every job I’ve ever had since then has always been about getting people to the next level.”

In 2008, after 20 years as an analyst for a $5 million food safety program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Best attempted to retire — only to be recruited immediately to guide the Planning Committee, a community development group.

She’s proud of a program that renovates houses and sells them for record prices — but that also helps local residents obtain subsidies and become homeowners.

“It’s hard work to improve the community while still stewarding the people who have always lived there,” she said.

Another project: overhauling a building at 1829 Pennsylvania Ave. that burned to the ground during the 2015 Freddie Gray uprising. Best persuaded the building’s owner to donate the structure, then raised $300,000 to restore it.

The new facility opened in August.

“It’s beautiful,” Best said. “It’s giving the whole community a lift.”

— Mary Carole McCauley

HyeSook Chung

54, President, Baltimore Civic Fund

Behind the scenes, HyeSook Chung is the woman at the center of the fight against some of Baltimore’s biggest challenges. At the helm of the Baltimore Civic Fund — the city’s nonprofit arm — Chung has led fundraising efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and uplift victims’ families and port workers in the wake of the Key Bridge collapse.

Since she got the call from Mayor Catherine Pugh some five years ago, Chung has grown the nonprofit’s staff and its impact, working with several mayors to supplement city projects with donor dollars. The list of projects includes workforce readiness programs for young adults, the city’s African American festival AFRAM, and those large blue recycling carts distributed to residents citywide.

One of the highlights of her job? Brainstorming creative solutions to fund deserving city projects that might otherwise fall by the wayside.

“I never say no. I want to figure it out, and in government, often, it’s a ‘no.’ And I don’t want government to be that way,” she said.

But her work happens decidedly in the background. As she puts it, “I’m the little secret that no one’s supposed to know about.”

— Christine Condon

Rachel Graham

52, CEO, Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts

Her job demands both a passion for the arts and a love of analytics, a mix that taxed her recent forebears. As the new CEO of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, Rachel Graham moves easily in both worlds.

“I am the intersection of creativity and intellectualism,” Graham said. Equal parts aesthete and Mr. Spock, she took over BOPA last spring in an effort, in part, to end lingering squabbles between it and city officials. A cultural maven as well as a professed “policy wonk,” Graham says her goal is to expand economic development via the arts and restore public trust in the 40-year agency, which produces such events as the Baltimore Book Festival, Artscape, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and the Baltimore Farmers’ Market.

Within two years, Graham said, “I want us to have moved past the point where every conversation about BOPA dredges up what BOPA was so that we can celebrate what BOPA is. I want us to be able to say that, as arts council for the city, we can use that leverage to attract visitors who come and invest in the city — and that we’ve forged partnerships to help Baltimore achieve the greatness that it is destined to achieve.”

— Mike Klingaman

Catie Griggs

42, President of Business Operations, Orioles

The first big splash the Orioles’ new ownership group made after taking over the team this season wasn’t on the field. Catie Griggs officially joined their front office in August as the first female president of business operations in club history, relocating back to the East Coast after three years of overseeing the business side of the Seattle Mariners.

“I was extremely impressed by her,” Mike Elias, the Orioles’ executive vice president and general manager, said in July. “I can’t wait to work with her, and I think it’s going to be a wonderful, fresh look and addition of somebody who’s kind of been at the top of the field, best practices, and a lot of skill and vision. All accounts are we’re going to be making some heavy changes to the ballpark here over the next several years, and I think she’s going to be perfect for that.”

Griggs, a 2022 Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 honoree, led Seattle’s efforts to host both the MLB All-Star Game and the NHL Winter Classic at the Mariners’ T-Mobile Park. As the Orioles’ “Next Chapter” under David Rubenstein gets underway, Griggs will be one of the chief decision-makers guiding the page as it turns.

— Matt Weyrich

Lane Harlan

37, Owner: Clavel, W.C. Harlan, Fadensonnen and The Coral Wig

Lane Harlan admits that picking one title to encompass the scope of her work can be a tricky endeavor. “Restaurateur” doesn’t quite cut it — she owns one restaurant, Clavel, but also several bars (W.C. Harlan, Fadensonnen and The Coral Wig). “Owner,” on the other hand, doesn’t really convey the role she plays in each of her projects. “You can be an owner and not have anything to do with your menus, which isn’t the case with me,” Harlan says.

Harlan is intimately involved in the details of all of her businesses, from the decor to the drinks list. A little more than a decade after opening her first bar, she’s hit her stride, landing features in national publications like Bon Appétit and earning a James Beard nomination for the mezcal program at Clavel. The allure is the experience she creates, whether she’s channeling Oaxaca, Mexico, or an officer’s club in the Philippines. “At the heart of everything we do is giving people the feeling that they are anywhere else,” she says.

Harlan and her husband and business partner, Matthew Pierce, tend to get the itch to dream up a new concept every two years; fittingly, they’re aiming to unveil their next experience — a small hotel in the fishing village of Lastres, Spain — in 2026.

—Amanda Yeager

Hilary Harp Falk

45, President and CEO, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Assisting her father, Dave Harp, on early morning trips in the 1980s to photograph the Chesapeake Bay for The Sun Magazine, Hilary Harp Falk discovered her passion. “We would go out on the bay, usually at sunrise or sunset, when the light was best,” she said. “And I fell hard in love with the Chesapeake Bay, its edges, the salt marshes — and also the people.”

She studied environmental science in college and took an internship at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Then, she worked for the foundation as an educator on Tangier Island. Her master’s degree took her to New England, but, before long, she found her way back to the bay.

Two-and-a-half years ago, she took the wheel at the Bay Foundation amid a key time for the cleanup, with a 2025 deadline looming for pollution reductions. It has since become clear that the bay states will fall short of their obligations, but the work isn’t finished, Harp Falk says. “I can’t think of a more important time for the organization to lead,” she said. “It is calling on elected officials to provide leadership at a critical time for the bay. It is honoring the past and all of the progress that’s been made, and also being very direct with the public about the challenges that remain.”

— Christine Condon

Chenire Harrell-Carter

50, Director of Community and Experiences, MAG Partners

Chenire Harrell-Carter feels personally connected to her role with MAG Partners, lead developer of the Baltimore Peninsula community sprouting on the once-industrial South Baltimore waterfront.

Since 2020, Carter has been the chief liaison between developers and six nearby South Baltimore neighborhoods, including her Cherry Hill birthplace, which was or still is home to five generations, including her grandchildren.

A former fundraiser for local nonprofits, Harrell-Carter manages developers’ agreements that have so far funneled $1 million in grants to counter disinvestment in the six neighborhoods.

Her family taught her to turn obstacles into opportunities. Her grandparents put down roots in Cherry Hill at a time when Black home buyers faced discrimination. One son now lives in that home.

Harrell-Carter sees growth of such opportunity for those who live, work and own or patronize businesses in current and future phases of Baltimore Peninsula.

“We really have an opportunity for people to build their story and become the first generation to say, ‘I lived and worked in Baltimore Peninsula,'” she said. “We build spaces, but we actually build places where people are able to build on their own dreams and foundations.”

— Lorraine Mirabella

Tiffany Harris

41, Vice President, Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors

Low housing inventory, high mortgage rates and a U.S. Supreme Court decision that changes how commissions for real estate sales are set and paid. Tiffany Harris picked quite the tumultuous time to help lead the group that represents just under 5,000 area Realtors.

The Walbrook Junction native, who will become the board’s president-elect in November, became interested in the industry when she herself entered the market and wanted to better understand the contract she would be signing. Ten years and six properties later, she now wants to give back and be “the voice for my colleagues” during this challenging time.

“They need to be able to articulate the value that they want to be compensated for,” Harris said. And consumers, now more than ever, need an agent that they can trust. “Do your research. Interview a few agents. Interview a few lenders,” Harris advised. And above all, try to tune out all the dire reports of affordability and high interest rates, and find a way to become a homeowner.

“Real estate is fluid,” she said. “The best time to buy a house is when you are ready to buy a house.”

— Jean Marbella

Nicole Beus Harris

50, Chairwoman, Maryland Republican Party

Nicole Harris was only 14 years old when her father tossed her a voter guide and asked which candidates and ballot questions she favored.

“I was like, ‘Dad, I’m only 14. I can’t vote.’ And my dad said, ‘I don’t care. You need to learn how to do your research.'”

Harris says her work in politics stems from her marketing background. She previously served in a lead administrative role with management consulting company Robert Half International Inc., before starting her own consulting company for businesses and, eventually, Maryland political campaigns. Harris is the wife of Maryland’s sole Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, who is running for an 8th term this fall.

As Maryland Republican Party Chairwoman, she says her biggest challenge is championing GOP candidates in a state where the party is outnumbered. But even in her personal life, she says, it’s possible to find common ground with people on the other side of the aisle.

She also urges listening to constituents — on or off the campaign trail.

“I’ve told all the members of the Republican Central Committees, the 24 jurisdictions, that they need to be listening to their neighbors and forming relationships at all times, not just when we need their vote,” she said. “Real leadership listens.”

—Brooke Conrad

Jordan Howard

42, Associate and Northeast Region Roadway Group Leader, A. Morton Thomas and Associates

Jordan Howard has always enjoyed maps and “the way things come together.” She’s worked on everything from highways to busy intersections during her 18 years in transportation engineering, but pedestrian improvements like sidewalks and bicycle lanes speak to her the most.

Those projects allow Howard, an associate with AMT Engineering, to use her problem-solving skills to “fulfill community needs and bring communities together,” she said.

Howard is working on a study for Baltimore County’s first “complete streets” project, which aims to make the Old Court Road corridor safer for users of all transportation modes. She is also leading a pedestrian improvement project for South Marlyn Avenue as part of the county’s “Essex Reimagined” initiative.

The premise — filling gaps in an existing transportation network — is easier said than done.

“If it was easy, somebody would have already done it,” said Howard said.

For example, there can be complex environmental constraints as well as overlapping issues with rights-of-way. Howard gets fulfillment from putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

Even more fulfilling — getting to see a project finished. That can take years, but even quick turnaround projects, like a roughly yearlong striping operation near the Vienna Metro station to install a bike facility, are “fun to see,” she said.

“I think that sometimes the projects that seem ‘small’ actually have the most impact on our local communities in terms of increasing connectivity and quality of life,” she said

— Dan Belson

Julia Jasken

President, McDaniel College

When Julia Jasken began her career at McDaniel College as an English professor in 2003, she had no idea it would eventually lead to her becoming the college’s 10th president. She’s the second female president in the college’s more than 150-year history.

Moving from a professor into various administrative roles, including developing and directing the Center for Experience and Opportunity, the college’s one-stop shop for experimental education and development, and serving as the college’s executive vice president provost, each of her past experiences has prepared her for her present.

She designed the college’s McDaniel Commitment, which emphasizes experiential learning and alumni connections, that guarantee every student, guided by a team of mentors, can tailor their educational path.

Jasken said she is proud of the new initiatives and programs that have been created at the college including the five-year strategic plan, “Reaching New Heights” during her three years as president and is looking forward to the construction of the college’s new learning commons in the future.

“I am excited about the opportunities that exist through our expanded community partnerships and seeing the growth of our new majors, including our Bachelor of Science in Nursing, along with the development of graduate programs, like the new Master of Science in Occupational Therapy.”

— Allana Haynes

Mayra Loera

42, Program Manager for Client Services, Esperanza Center

For years after moving from Mexico to New York in 1998, Mayra Loera struggled with many of the challenges that face economic immigrants to the U.S. – learning a new language, juggling jobs, never quite knowing whom to trust. Now her passion is helping others deal with such issues.

The Anne Arundel County resident heads a team that helps nearly 4,000 immigrants per year. Any given day can find her helping families with issues ranging from schools to health care to safety.

“Every day is kind of crazy,” she says. “There’s always someone who needs help.”

Loera, a U.S. citizen and mother of two, says many clients are undocumented. That, she says, is because the legal process is prohibitively long for desperate people and requires applicants to supply evidence of wealth they don’t possess.

Loera served as a crucial liaison for the families of the six men who were killed in the Key Bridge collapse. Backed by a grant from Maryland Tough Baltimore Strong, she visited their homes, helped relatives fill out applications for financial support, organized travel for overseas relatives and attended funerals.

“It was not in any job description, but I think there’s a reason I was there,” says Loera, a lifelong churchgoer. “God has divine purposes.”

— Jonathan M. Pitts

Sherry Nolte

54, Chief Executive Director, Harford Center

“My value for giving people a voice who are not typically heard or valued in society is my spark,” said Sherry Nolte, a social worker with over 30 years of experience in a variety of capacities. She has worked with the Harford Center for 10 years and works with over 100 adults with disabilities a year to help them find jobs, connect to resources and build career and life skills.

“I love my job because it is about making sure people have the choice to find meaning in their lives.”

This year, Nolte has assisted in the Harford Center’s growth in connecting more adults with disabilities to employment opportunities and outreach services. “I want to make sure people aren’t just included in their community, but that they feel a sense of belonging and value in society.” Outside of her work with the Harford Center, she teaches social work to both graduate and undergraduate students at Salisbury University. Nolte is also a licensed clinical social worker.

“It is very important to me that we as a society emphasize the need for mental health professionals because there is a lot going on and a lot of needs for support.”

— Matt Hubbard

Kimberly Matthews

44, Design Manager, Army Corps of Engineers

In her 16 years serving with the Army Corps of Engineers, Kimberly Matthews has learned how to keep things organized in times of crisis — she was deployed to Texas during response efforts for Hurricane Ike, and to the Florida panhandle during Hurricane Maria.

But work was “definitely different” this March when the design manager responded to a catastrophe in her hometown. Matthews, the corps’ current operations coordinator for the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse response, was tasked with moving the project along.

“We’re used to being in charge,” she said, noting that the Baltimore effort involved several different agencies and contractors working together. That’s where Matthews comes in — her job was to oversee the lines of communication, share updates, collaborate and set boundaries to ultimately move the mission forward.

Her team also had to be sensitive to the collapse being a tragedy, as six people died falling from the bridge when it was struck by a container ship in the early hours of March 26. The crews made sure to do their jobs “with dignity and honor,” she said.

But each little milestone of the response effort — like getting a large piece of truss out of the water, or seeing the first ships pass through — “really encouraged us,” she said.

That’s why Matthews loves what she does: “It makes a difference.”

— Dan Belson

Theresa McLaughlin

CMO Global Marketing, T. Rowe Price

In a marketing career at financial services firms, Theresa McLaughlin has managed product teams and helped drive revenue.

Her mission during the more than 25 years at Citizens Financial Group in Boston, TD Bank Group in Toronto and now T. Rowe Price in Baltimore, has boiled down to a key idea.

“I would say largely I have helped companies tell their story,” McLaughlin said.

In 2021 when she joined T. Rowe Price, the global investment management firm, the thinking was that the brand founded in the city in 1937 needed a refresh.

“It was not a broken brand,” she said. “For us, it was just getting on that front foot and telling our story.”

In February, T. Rowe launched a global campaign designed to boost name recognition and set itself apart from other investment management firms. TV and digital spots, a podcast series and a new website highlight an 85-year legacy and its professional expertise and “independent thinking.”

In June, the company announced a multi-year sponsorship with the Orioles, including jersey patches with the firm’s bighorn sheep logo on the club’s uniforms and T. Rowe Price signage above the center field scoreboard.

Consumers can expect additional campaigns outlining the evolution of investment and retirement products and services.

“It’s not just about returns,” she said. “People want us to help them make them smarter.”

— Lorraine Mirabella

Rita Rastogi Kalyani

48, Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

From an early age, Rita Rastogi Kalyani saw family members in India struggle with diabetes when she took childhood trips to the country where her parents grew up. The chronic disease wasn’t something she’d thought about focusing her career on until she entered the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she graduated in 2003.

Now a professor of medicine in the school’s Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism and a clinician scientist who sees patients at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Diabetes Center, Kalyani focuses on populations most vulnerable to complications from diabetes in her research, including older adults. She founded the Johns Hopkins Patient Guide to Diabetes website in 2016, co-authored two books for diabetics and hosts a monthly podcast.

In January, she’ll become president of Medicine & Science on the American Diabetes Association’s national board of directors — as only the seventh woman and the first South Asian American woman to do so, she said.

“The work that I do has been with the central focus of serving my community,” said Kalyani, who lives in Ellicott City with her husband and two teenage children.

“Diabetes affects people of all backgrounds, all ages, all genders, and all races and ethnicities.”

About one in every nine people in the U.S. lives with diabetes, she said, and it is a growing public health burden.

— Abigail Gruskin

Victoria Rodríguez-Roldán

35, Coordinator for State Autism Strategy, Maryland Department of Disabilities

Victoria Rodríguez-Roldán knows the autism world is “full of strong, very passionate personalities.” In her first year as Maryland’s coordinator for state autism strategy, part of her work has been dedicated to harnessing that energy into working together to develop the state’s first comprehensive plan for addressing autism needs. That means meeting with various groups throughout Maryland to determine what they need, whether it’s parents of autistic children living in rural areas or people of color with autism. The goal is to create a broad policy that integrates with state disability law and helps people with autism lead “self-directed lives.”

Rodríguez-Roldán’s favorite part of the job is holding listening sessions throughout the state to get a sense of what those disparate communities need.

“We try to listen to people who haven’t been heard yet, like communities of color [with autism], LGBTQ autistic people, rural people,” she says. “There’s a fundamental need to see autism or a developmental disability as neither scary nor worth of pity. Autism is not a tragedy; it’s part of the diversity of our community.”

— Lia Russell

The Right Rev. Carrie Schofield-Broadbent

49, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Maryland

It has been a whirlwind 18 months for the Right Rev. Carrie Schofield-Broadbent. The former longtime Episcopal priest from Upstate New York was elected to become the 15th — and first female — bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, assisted and learned from her predecessor, enjoyed consecration to her historic office, and infused the first months of her tenure with what constituents have acclaimed as an empathically visionary leadership style.

“This year we’re talking about our mission being a community of love,” said Schofield-Broadbent, whose resume includes experience in conflict resolution and congregation building. “‘What assumptions do we hold? What behaviors do we use to support that? How do we operationalize being a community of love?’ We’re working on equipping our parishes to be places of healthy dialogue and good, solid relationships as we look toward [the presidential election in] November and things get more tense.”

The new bishop, who took office April 27, says she’ll continue building on the legacy the diocese’s outgoing leader, the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, forged in addressing racial disparities inside and outside the church – and though it’s not her nature to politicize her status as the first female head, she understands its power.

“As a woman leader, I am embodying some avenues that are open now that weren’t open before,” she says.

— Jonathan M. Pitts

Kristi Smith

Maryland Region President, Howard Hughes

Kristi Smith is leading a 14-million-square-foot transformation of downtown Columbia through new apartment buildings paired with venues for the arts and dining scene. In the new Merriweather District, she has been contracting new tenants for the Howard Hughes development, including ENTAA Care and Prime Facial Plastic Surgery, as well as new restaurants and hangouts such as Bark Social, Kyo Matcha and Medium Rare.

“At Howard Hughes, we are proud to fulfill the dream for Downtown Columbia as a thriving city in a garden,” Smith said. “Downtown Columbia serves the community with accessible and modern places to work, entertainment and eateries to enjoy, and open green spaces to explore, all within a walkable community.”

Smith has worked in commercial real estate for over 20 years and was previously executive vice president of development at real estate investment firm JBG Smith, a Bethesda-based real estate trust. She was recently appointed to the board of NAIOP Maryland, a statewide association of developers.

Outside work, Smith said she has been focused on forging new relationships around Columbia.

“I’m honored to have the opportunity to continue the great work that has already begun here alongside our committed partners and community members.”

— Dillon Mullan

Kristie Snedeker

47, Vice President, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center

When it comes to advising ambitious women who want to advance their careers in the healthcare field, Kristie Snedeker often circles back to a mantra familiar to any followers of Sheryl Sandberg, the former chief operating officer of Meta: Lean in.

“Be open in speaking about what it is you desire to do or be,” Snedeker said, “because you never know who is looking for the next XYZ.”

That advice worked for Snedeker – who took over as vice president for the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center three years ago – in the early stages of her career. While working as a physical therapist at the University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute, Snedeker sought mentorship from female leaders within the University of Maryland Medical System. Through these relationships, she learned of job opportunities she would not have known of otherwise. Now, when an early or mid-career employee asks to grab a cup of coffee with her to ask for advice, she is happy to oblige.

“Oftentimes, people will ask, ‘Can I just grab your ear for 10 minutes?’” Snedeker said. “Those 10 minutes are really meaningful to me and meaningful to the other person. I have been able to connect people to their next step, and that is super fulfilling. That’s how I pay it forward.”

— Angela Roberts

Tammy Stinnett

50, Chairperson, Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee

As someone who likes to see quick results, Tammy Stinnett can’t seem to move fast enough as the Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee she chairs tries to expand its reach and capitalize on the buzz around this year’s elections.

“There’s an extra special excitement this cycle,” Stinnett said, naming Democratic candidates like Angela Alsobrooks for U.S. Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Stinnett has been a member of the 40-member committee since 2018 and its leader since 2022. After leading the group through its return to post-pandemic, in-person grassroots work, she’s focused on building out its field operation. This year, that means voter registration events, phone banking, door-knocking and — in a first for the city committee — a postcard-writing campaign to inform voters and encourage them to turn out.

“We don’t want to leave anyone out of the equation,” Stinnett said. “There are communities that need a little bit more engagement such as the young adults, returning citizens. We have a large population of Hispanic individuals. So we’re trying to focus and get into those communities and just let them know that we’re here and that their vote matters.”

— Sam Janesch

Ebony Thompson

46, City Solicitor, Baltimore City Law Department

Ebony Thompson is the first woman to serve as Baltimore’s top attorney. She’s also the first blockchain-specializing, karate-kicking, Marine veteran daughter of Baltimore to occupy the office.

Charged with finding solutions for Baltimore’s vacant housing crisis after joining the city in January 2022, Thompson, who studied blockchain technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spearheaded a project to log vacancies with the tool. A former litigator, she’s overseen the office as it changes posture from defendant to plaintiff. Baltimore has sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and ghost gun manufacturers under Thompson’s watch. The city’s lawsuit against opioid manufacturers heads to trial this fall.

A Baltimore City College graduate who once played women’s tackle football but now settles for karate, Thompson brings a charm to the job uncharacteristic of municipal attorneys. Exhibit A: The candy she deposits on the desks of her fellow Board of Estimates members. In the stately Baltimore City Hall, her boisterous laugh can be heard before she enters a room.

Mayor Brandon Scott, who selected Thompson, said her tenure will be historic not just because she is a woman, but because of her “passion, heart and tenacity.”

“She’s breaking glass ceilings for young girls from Baltimore and setting an example for every single young person in our city,” he said.

— Emily Opilo

Gabriella Waters

48, Director, Cognitive and Neurodiversity AI Lab (CoNA Lab) at the Center for Equitable AI and Machine Learning Systems at Morgan State University

Gabriella Waters sees artificial intelligence as a change agent for good. “My whole ethos is it’s meant to be a democratizing agent,” says the director of Morgan State’s Cognitive and Neurodiversity AI Lab (CoNA) at the Center for Equitable AI and Machine Learning Systems. The lab employs AI researchers, neuroscientists, psychologists and engineers to study AI and the intersections of cognition and neurodiversity, a term referring to how people’s brains interpret information differently and interact with the world around them.

The lab is researching cognitive digital twins, a kind of AI-powered computer simulation that allows scientists to replicate something in the real world, to eradicate bias in data collection. “Most AI that are trained have biases,” Waters says. “It costs money to obtain that data and preprocess it and clean it up.” Another project the lab is working on is an AI-powered platform to improve access for people with disabilities. Those two projects are indicative of Waters’s philosophy on AI, which she sees as a tool to “augment, not supplant human capability.”

“Right now, everything is driven by profit and humans are an afterthought,” she says. “But if we research it in that (democratizing) way, we can be better.”

— Lia Russell

Carey Wright

74, State Superintendent of Schools

“I am a classroom teacher at heart,” said Carey Wright, who started her career as an elementary school teacher in Prince George’s County, where she grew up. Her Maryland roots — she received three degrees from the University of Maryland — brought her out of retirement to steer the state’s 1,400 public schools through their largest education reform in decades.

She’s made big changes fast based on her past success boosting the second-to-last national ranking of Mississippi’s public schools to 21st in the country. Wright created a literacy policy making all Maryland districts use the science of reading — one of the most effective ways to teach children from all backgrounds to read. And she’s zeroing in on how to improve reading and writing skills for children in kindergarten through third grade.

Wright has stepped into the role as Maryland’s top education leader during a crucial moment. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a multi-billion education reform plan, seeks to transform the way students learn over the next decade. But the plan is very expensive and rumblings of criticism are growing loud. Wright is in lockstep with the Maryland State Board of Education and the state Accountability and Implementation Board to see through the plan’s many reforms and lobby against any funding cuts.

— Lilly Price

Caryn York

39, CEO and President, Baltimore Corps

Caryn York, born and raised in West Baltimore and a City College graduate, previously led the Women’s Prison Association in New York City, focusing on family reunification as well as barriers to education and jobs.

“I think a lot of folks see my work, and they look at me as a criminal justice advocate,” York said. “That’s not totally untrue. But what’s more is I’m a workforce advocate. I’m very focused on economic justice as one of the major civil rights issues of the day.”

In September 2023, York moved back home to take over Baltimore Corps, a nonprofit co-founded by Gov. Wes Moore that hosts a fellowship program for local HBCU graduates interested in local government and entrepreneurship.

“There was just this yearning in me to come home,” York said. “I’m a Baltimorean. I love being able to do work in my city on behalf of my city.”

York called Baltimore Corps’ recent 10-year anniversary a major milestone for the organization and said she is excited about continuing to help keep bright locals in the city with civic opportunities.

“Honestly and very unapologetically, I am always concerned with how we make Black or brown folks have the same opportunities when it comes to job opportunities with livable wages,” York said.