2024 BLACK MARYLANDERS TO WATCH
CHAD STEELE
Chad Steele and his family were at a hibachi restaurant in Hunt Valley in 2016 when a family at a nearby table overheard him talking about leaving the next day for the Super Bowl.
When Steele said he worked for the Ravens, a boy at the other table started glowing over the jersey and autographed picture of wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. he’d received for Christmas. Seeing the reaction, Steele handed his phone to the boy: Smith was on the other end.
“What did that cost the Ravens?” Steele says.
As the son of an Army colonel, Steele moved 14 times growing up, so community has always been important. “Some of them I was accepted, some of them I wasn’t,” he says. Which is why he finds his role with the Ravens so rewarding.
Whether it’s connecting the media to the team, or connecting with fans, relationships and having an impact are what matters most to the father of two, said Steele: “That’s the best part.”
HEIDI M. ANDERSON President, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
Heidi M. Anderson became president of the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, one of Maryland’s four historically Black colleges and universities, in 2018.
The university in Princess Anne has seen increased enrollment during her tenure, along with HBCUs nationwide. Additionally, the school saw its first U.S. News & World Report ranking in 2023 after the publication listed it as one of the top historically Black colleges and universities in the nation..
“One great year of rankings does not make a great university,” Anderson said in a news release. “But our sustained rise in the rankings indicates that we are on the right trajectory of performance. Our rise in the rankings is a reflection of the quality of our students and faculty and the commitment of our leadership team to sustained excellence.”
Anderson earned a doctorate in pharmacy administration. She was the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M University-Kingsville from 2015 to 2017. She served as provost and vice president of academic affairs at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015.
KATRINA CALDWELL Vice provost for diversity and inclusion, Johns Hopkins University
Katrina Caldwell had a busy first month when she joined the Johns Hopkins University in 2020 as vice provost for diversity and inclusion. In addition to being in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, a swastika was found in a campus building.
Caldwell has 30 years of experience leading colleges and universities’ diversity missions, primarily in Chicago. As DEI initiatives are scrutinized as a zero-sum game at a national level, Caldwell remains clear-eyed that diversity means everyone deserves to be in environments that support their goals, needs and what they need to feel safe to thrive.
Higher education institutions, whether public or private, have a responsibility to change the conditions of their community, especially if that community is marginalized, Caldwell said. Community members, in conversations with Caldwell’s office, have said they want a stronger, mutually beneficial relationship with the university.
“It’s not about just giving out money,” Caldwell said. “It really is about building relationships.”
She’s leading Hopkins’ $6 million, fiveyear Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, which evaluates the institution’s culture and advances future goals in areas like research, health equity and academics. Hopkins just completed a yearlong campuswide climate study that will be presented in February.
— Lilly Price
CHRIS SIMON Founder, BLK Swan and BTST Services
Baltimore foodies have likely heard of BLK Swan, the trendy Harbor East restaurant and nightlife spot that Chris Simon opened in 2021.
What they may not know is that Simon has also found success in a very different field: mental health treatment.
Simon, who has a master’s degree in social work from Morgan State University, founded BTST Services in 2008, inspired by a job working as a mentor in group homes. The company offers psychiatric rehabilitation, medication management and therapy to clients throughout Maryland.
Sixteen years in, BTST has nearly 300 employees and offices in Baltimore, Lanham, Frederick and Hagerstown. Simon has partnered with celebrities like Taraji P. Henson and Charlamagne tha God to destigmatize mental health treatment.
The company is poised to expand after a recent investment by Webster Equity Partners. Simon declined to share a dollar amount, but said he wants to offer services outside of Maryland next.
He’s getting ready for growth on the restaurant front, as well. In February, he opened Prim & Proper, a restaurant and social club in downtown Baltimore with chef Calvin Riley and partners Berry and Janell Clark of Papi Cuisine. Simon’s vision is for the restaurant to bring an upscale experience to the downtown dining scene.
“I’m always working to fill the void,” he said.
MAJ. GEN. JANEEN BIRCKHEAD Adjutant General, Maryland National Guard
Where “opportunity meets preparation” is how Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead describes her 30-year military career.
Before assuming her current post as adjutant general of Maryland, the two-star Army general came from a family that prized community service and civic engagement. As a teenager growing up in Snow Hill, her mother, civil rights icon Fannie Ward Birckhead, urged her daughter to serve her community, from raising money via bikeathons to volunteering as a candy striper at Peninsula Regional Hospital in Salisbury.
Now, as the only Black woman leading a state military, Birckhead oversees 6,000 Guard members and civilian, federal and state employees as they navigate everything from operating COVID testing sites to preparing Marylanders for natural disasters and beefing up the state’s cybersecurity infrastructure.
Service is a “part of who I am at the grassroots level,” she said. “I see that in this role I’m able to impact people’s lives for the better.”
ANGELA CRENSHAW Director, Maryland Park Service
Angela Crenshaw called her role as the first Black woman to lead Maryland’s Park Service “astounding” — but she also understands the responsibility of restructuring an agency that, in her words, has had “a trying year and a half, two years.”
Crenshaw was named the park service’s acting head following the arrest of former Gunpowder Falls manager Michael Browning on rape charges. He was convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense.
Crenshaw was officially appointed park service director late last year.
“What’s that saying? ‘Life comes at you fast,’” she said.
Crenshaw started at the Department of Natural Resources in 2008 in its Boating Services division and became a park ranger in 2013.
As she moves the Park Service forward, Crenshaw wants to be available to her staff to provide a safe and welcoming environment for rangers and visitors, noting Maryland’s “history of segregation” on its public lands.
“I know that sounds simple, but it hasn’t been in the past — the recent past and way back,” said Crenshaw.
— Hannah Gaskill
WARREN C. HAYMAN Former Morgan State University educator
Warren C. Hayman has shaped generations of students through his decades in education.
“My motivation for my work is helping students of color to succeed in school and in life at all levels,” Hayman said in an email.
He had a 42-year career in public education, and retired in 2004 from the leadership of Morgan State’s education department.
He then joined the school’s Urban Educational Leadership Program, which prepares future leaders, as a program coordinator until retiring again in 2021.
Along with his work at Morgan, Hayman was on the Baltimore County school board for 10 years. He has been the president of the Dunbar High School advisory board for the last 10 years.
Hayman said his greatest accomplishment was helping develop the Dunbar High School Health Partnership, which pairs Dunbar students with Johns Hopkins resources. The program has produced doctors, pharmacists, college professors and nurses, among other professionals.