Four vie to fill vacant seat

Seek to mend hole left when board member Antwine died in July

Four people have applied to fill the vacant District 1 seat on the Anne Arundel County Board of Education, mending a hole left by the death of Candace Antwine this July.

Next the County Council will hold at least one public hearing that includes interviews with the candidates. A date has not been announced for the hearing.

The council is charged with filling the District 1 seat for the remainder of Antwine’s term, which extends to December 2024. Whoever is selected will serve for three years.

The applicants are Wei-Li Diana Ma, of Hanover, Chris Martin, of Severn, Carolyn Williams, of Linthicum Heights, and Gloria Dent, of Severn.

Williams, a Glen Burnie High School graduate, served as student member of the board from 2016 to 2017. She graduated from Howard University this May and is working as a volunteer assistant coach for the school’s women’s bowling team, according to her application.

Williams wrote on her application that her goals would be to create a respectful atmosphere on the board, to respect the perspectives of all students and staff and to rebuild trust between school leadership and the community.

Ma founded and runs Hippocampus Analytics, LLC, through which she is currently working on developing transparent and efficient ways to search large data sets, according to her application.

Ma said her goals are to integrate creative and critical thinking at every level, to make sure parents are connected with resources and to work with teachers and parents to ensure students become productive citizens, according to her application.

Martin is a youth pastor at Youth For Christ in Baltimore, according to his application. He is a retired Chief Master Sergeant for the District of Columbia National Guard, where he served 25 years. Martin graduated from Arundel High School.

Martin said his goals are to be an additional avenue of redress for teachers, to see test scores increase and to be a good learner through listening.

Dent served 26 years in the U.S. Army where she was an expert in aquisition and logistics. She now works as a consultant helping small businesses through her company Genergi, LLC. Dent said she would like to increase the number of magnet schools in the system, add more apprenticeships and add more custodial workers.

A fifth applicant, Joy Lawson, applied but withdrew from consideration Thursday.

The applications have been posted on the County Council’s website.