The Center Club is proud to announce that four local women will be honored at the annual Women in Business Trailblazers in Education Awards Dinner on Tuesday, May 2 from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. The Club will recognize these leaders for their unique achievements in improving Baltimore’s education community.
This year’s honorees are Nancy Grasmick, former Maryland State Superintendent and education advocate; Mary Ann Hewitt, executive director of the Maryland Council on Economic Education; and Bobbi Macdonald, executive director of City Neighbors Charter School. The Club will also honor Yasmene Mumby, director of strategy at Leadership for Educational Equity, with its Rising Star Award.
Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick, PhD, Maryland’s first female state superintendent of schools, is known for her strong focus on student achievement, teacher quality, and public school funding. Some of the pioneering policies enacted throughout Dr. Grasmick’s 20-year tenure include instituting an explicit pre-K-12 curriculum, developing statewide assessments, and holding schools and school systems accountable. Under her leadership, the state of Maryland received one of the federal government’s coveted Race to the Top education grants (2010), worth up to $250 million to continue building upon a solid record of school reform. In addition, for a fourth straight year, Education Week’s 2012 Quality Counts report ranked Maryland’s public school system first in the nation.
Mary Ann Hewitt is the Executive Director of the Maryland Council on Economic Education, a non-profit whose mission is to assure that Maryland’s school children leave high school equipped with economic and financial literacy skills and knowledge. Mary Ann was appointed to the Maryland State Department of Education’s Financial Literacy Advisory Council. The Advisory Council was charged with the task to develop and implement personal financial literacy curriculum standards in all k-12 public schools in Maryland. She also serves on the Academy of Finance Board in Howard County. Currently, she chairs the program committee for the National Conference of Council on Economic Education.
Bobbi Macdonald is the founder and executive director of City Neighbors Charter School. She was selected by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as one of 16 leaders from across the country for the Children and Family Fellowship. Bobbi serves on the Advisory Board of Convergence: Re-imagining Education Project, on the Board of Directors of Hamilton Bank and is past Chair and founding member of the Maryland Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the Baltimore Education Coalition. Previously Bobbi taught early childhood education and kindergarten in two University child development laboratory schools, and served as literacy trainer for Head Start and the Children’s Literacy Initiative.
Yasmene Mumby began her career as the 7th and 8th Grade Social Studies teacher at KIPP Ujima Village Academy and is a trained Community Organizer through the Industrial Areas Foundation and their local affiliate, BUILD: Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development. She also served as co-chair of the Baltimore Education Coalition (BEC) and helped push the passage of up to $1 billion in funding to improve school facilities for Baltimore’s 85,000 students in Maryland legislature. Currently, Yasmene develops current and former teachers as organizers as they strive to impact broad policy change in their cities. This fall, Yasmene will begin her doctoral studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The Center Club was established by a group of Baltimore business and community leaders in 1962, the same year as the completion of the first building in the new Charles Center. The mission of The Center Club was to provide a private dining and meeting place that exemplified the spirit, revitalization and growth taking place in downtown Baltimore. At a time when country clubs and business dining clubs were exclusive, The Center Club was the first of its kind to open its doors to members, regardless of race, gender and religion. That spirit is alive today, providing the business community with a facility that offers the highest quality food and service in a congenial atmosphere. Serving over 2,000 members, The Center Club now occupies the 15th and 16th floors of 100 Light Street, and offers members private meeting rooms, numerous special events, and reciprocal privileges with 100 private clubs in major cities worldwide.
