Teach For America recruits shine in troubled schools.
It's the plot of countless movies: naive rookie teacher strives to make a difference, but struggles to reach her inner-city students. This is not how one would describe the typical experience of a Teach For America corps member in Baltimore, however. For one thing, these teachers don't just strive to make a difference, they actually do—and have been for 15 years.
Take Sarah Orao. In her...
Baltimore City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is the daughter of one of the state’s most legendary politicians. But she’s shown enough skill, judgment, and smarts on her way to City Hall to prove that she’s capable of creating her own legacy.
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has been trying to fix Baltimore since she was six years old.
"If a kid was walking down the street and dropped a Popsicle stick or a candy wrapper," recalls her mother, retired pediatrician Nina Rawlings, "she would chase after them and make them pick it up and tell them, 'We have to keep our city clean!'"
"In the household, she never ever lost an argument," her mom...
The unpredictable, incomprehensible, and hilarious wisdom of kids.
Never a mommy, but now a nana. That’s me.
It’s a bit unusual, perhaps, but I never had kids of my own, and I married a man with children. Now, those children have babies of their own, making me a rather young nana. I’ve gained a lot from this experience. Learning how to put on diapers and get kids in car seats is only the beginning. Another discovery? Just like old-time TV host Art...
Loyola College's Joseph Ganem crunches bad data.
Will politicians show you charts and graphs that don't tell the whole story? Can real estate agents mislead you with numbers? Can a low-interest credit card actually cost you more?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Joseph Ganem wants to beat them at their own game. "What I am trying to do is get people to think about numbers in a different way," says the associate professor of physics at Loyola College. "I...
In an age of athletic steroid scandals, white-collar bodybuilders are giving the sport a good name.
Dr. Lisa Auckland, a 14-year veteran of the Maryland Poison Center, spends her workdays helping save lives and avert disaster. But the most remarkable aspect of Aukland's life isn't her day job, her doctorate, or her Ph.D. It's that the 49-year-old is the world's fourth-best female bodybuilder.
"I'm a walking billboard for working out," says the boulder-shouldered Aukland. "People stop me...
The head of the Greater Baltimore Committee on missing Trent Dilfer, his dream job, and why he’ll never be all wet.
No, it’s not the BDC or the BCF or the EAB. It’s the GBC, a consortium of civic leaders dedicated to “strengthening Greater Baltimore’s business climate.” President and CEO Don Fry sets the record straight—and finally explains who reads all those annual reports they put out.
Where did you go to school?Bel Air High School, Frostburg State University, and University of Baltimore School of...
Dr. Andrés Alonso is shaking things up—and making a few enemies—as he tries to fix the long-ailing Baltimore City school system.
Andrés Alonso made his priorities clear on day one.
It was June 13, 2007. After a top-secret, months-long search for a new CEO for the Baltimore City Schools, Alonso was being introduced to an excited overflow crowd gathered in the board room at school headquarters.
After a rousing introduction by board chair Brian Morris, the bearded, bespectacled Alonso stepped to the microphone. He...
What happens when you’re die-hard Republican red—but your beloved is true Democratic blue?
The phone’s ringing at ezStorage in Owings Mills, and a delivery man is waiting for a signature. But Lori Brazill is on far too much of a roll to answer the phone. She’s railing about a variety of topics: welfare (“you’re responsible for yourself—stop leaning on everybody else”), Social Security (“it was built to be a supplement”), and healthcare (“it’s something you earn”). She stops mid-...
The singer and activist on bobby socks, Maya Angelo, and second cousins twice removed.
Internationally acclaimed gospel, jazz, and soul singer Lea Gilmore is also a well-regarded advocate and spokesperson for civil rights. She calls herself the “singing policy wonk.” We call her “delightful.”
Where did you go to school?It is a curious thing about Baltimore. Whenever we are asked where we went to school, we automatically know it means what high school we attended. I went to Mercy...
Towson's Anne Wallace crusades against identity thieves.
Twice a week, Anne Wallace drives from her Towson home to Baltimore’s Penn Station, and catches the MARC train No. 513 to Washington, D.C.—one of 20,000 commuters who ride the MARC every day. That’s roughly the same number of people helped over the past four years by the nonprofit D.C.-based Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC), where Wallace has served for four years as executive director—and...
