Maryland Humanities Council Welcomes Five Local Leaders to 2016 Board of Directors
The Maryland Humanities Council (MHC) welcomed five new leaders to its Board of Directors at its recent annual fall retreat on October 9. New additions include a former chair of the Maryland State Board of Education with an extensive educational background, an attorney-turned-community advocate, an investment services professional, a vice president at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, and a University provost and geographer.
MHC also welcomed Circuit Court of Baltimore City Judge Stephen Sfekas as its new Board Chair at the meeting. Dr. Lenneal Henderson stepped down as Chair after five outstanding years of service. Nancy Rogers, a retired humanities professional, was also newly appointed to serve as the Board’s Treasurer.
Phoebe Stein, Executive Director of the Maryland Humanities Council, said: “We are thrilled to welcome these talented and passionate individuals to the Maryland Humanities Council Board. I know each will make a unique and invaluable contribution to our mission to engage all Marylanders in lifelong learning in the humanities.”
Board members’ primary responsibilities include strategic planning, approving and monitoring the organization’s programs and services, ensuring effective fiscal management, fundraising, selecting and orienting new Board members, allocating grant funds, fundraising, and promoting MHC’s activities. Members serve without pay and are eligible to serve up to three three-year terms.
New Board Members:
Mary Kay Finan, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Frostburg State University; Former President of Maryland State Board of Education
Mary Kay Finan is a Professor Emeritus of Frostburg State University where she served as a member of the Education faculty from 1991 – 2010. She was the Coordinator of the Elementary and Early Childhood programs and taught the Elementary Science Curriculum, Methods, and Assessment course and the Leadership Seminar. Dr. Finan taught elementary school for 13 years in Allegany County before joining the faculty at Frostburg. She received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Loyola College, a master’s degree in Reading from Frostburg State University, and earned a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland.
Dr. Finan is a program reviewer and auditor for the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) and a member of the Board of Examiners and a CAEP Site Visitor for the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). She is also a member of the Boards of the Archdiocese of Baltimore Child Abuse Review, the Allegany Arts Council, the Frostburg State University Foundation, and the Allegany County League for Crippled Children.
Lisa Jablonover, J.D., Community Volunteer and Advocate
Passionate about finding ways to help people in poverty increase their stability, Jablonover is an active member of the Howard County Board to Promote Self Sufficiency and serves on several of its committees. Jablonover was instrumental in the County’s recent adoption of the Bridges Out of Poverty model for reducing poverty in her community. This framework offers a two-pronged approach: Helping people in poverty identify and increase the resources they need to gain self-sufficiency and helping service providers identify and remove institutional barriers to client success. Jablonover is an attorney who previously practiced in the areas of estate planning and probate. Since deciding to stay home to raise her two sons, she spends a great deal of time volunteering in the community for local agencies and organizations including: Bridges to Housing Stability, Making Change, the Howard County Department of Citizen Services and the Howard County Department of Corrections
Jablonover earned her BA in English from the University of Michigan and her law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She lives in Howard County with her husband and two teenage sons.
Tiffany Mcghee, Partner and Head of Institutional Investment Services for Momentum Advisors
Tiffany Mcghee has been in the financial services industry for over 13 years. She is a partner and head of institutional investment services for Momentum Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisory Firm. In her role, she oversees fiduciary investment and advisory services for the firm’s corporate and non-profit retirement plan clients. Before her work with Momentum, Mcghee worked as an institutional consultant with TIAA-CREF, managing a portfolio of educational pension clients in the Mid-Atlantic region. Mcghee also managed institutional mutual fund relationships in the private bank and broker dealer sales channels at T. Rowe Price. She managed a portfolio of clients totaling over $6 billion which included global institutions such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch. Mcghee began her career at Merrill Lynch where she built a $40 million dollar wealth management practice. Mcghee holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from Morgan State University. She is a Certified Financial Manager and holds FINRA Series 7 and 66 2 registrations in addition to maintaining her licenses in life and health insurance. Mcghee is dedicated to helping everyday people create extraordinary wealth. Throughout her career she has worked to decode investing and financial planning for her clients to help them enjoy the retirement they deserve. She is passionate about financially empowering economically distressed groups through education in an effort to bridge the gap. This dedication can be seen through her work with the Baltimore Urban League’s Know Your Money program, her consistent achievement of perfect client service ratings at TIAA-CREF and the pro bono financial planning work she does in the community. As an entrepreneur, Mcghee understands how challenging it can be to start and grow a small business, so she is dedicated to helping other new entrepreneurs be successful through networking and sharing knowledge.
Mcghee has learned a great deal about special education in Maryland through the experience of her daughter’s diagnosis of Dyslexia. She has become passionate about advocating for children with language based learning differences and empowering young girls to be confident leaders. Mcghee does Crossfit five times a week and is training for her first half-marathon.
Sally Miller, Vice President of Operations, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
Sally Miller is the Vice President of Operations for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. Miller’s areas of responsibilities include benefit administration, project support and development, enrollment and billing, financial and claims administration for the large group national market. Miller has a degree in Business Administration from ACM. She prides herself with contributing to the growth in jobs in Western Maryland and has over 30 years of insurance experience, 25 of which has been with CareFirst. Miller works closely with various vendors across the country to optimize processing efficiencies and capitalize on business opportunities. She sits on multiple workgroups with the Blues Plans, of which the primary goal is to develop innovative and strategic concepts to enhance the customer experience. Her area of responsibility is the national market for large group business, (employers in excess of 200 lives). Miller’s book of business is responsible for approximately 20 million claims processed annually.
As a Rotarian, Miller is very involved with community with a goal to enhance awareness on wellness and preventative care She is also active in many charities across Western Maryland which include but aren’t limited to United Way, Salvation army MS and Breast Cancer awareness. Most recently Miller has been accepted as a member of the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce. From a personal perspective she and her husband of 30 years, Jeff, have 4 children that are very active in 4H, volleyball, baseball and football. She enjoys golfing and a variety of outdoor activities.
Dr. Joseph Wood, Provost, University of Baltimore
Joe Wood is a geographer whose academic work focuses on the North American cultural landscape. He holds degrees in geography from Middlebury College, the University of Vermont, and The Pennsylvania State University. He has taught cultural and urban geography at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; George Mason University, where he chaired the Department of Geography and Earth Systems Science and served as Vice Provost for Academic Affairs; and the University of Southern Maine, where he was provost and interim president. He came to UB as provost in 2009. At UB, Dr. Wood teaches in history and public affairs. Dr. Wood’s publications, some funded in part by the NEH, explore the New England village as invented tradition, historic preservation of warehouse districts in Midwestern cities, the idea of a National Road in antebellum America, contemporary Vietnamese place-making in American suburbs, and emergence of a landscape of civil society. He is an active book reviewer for professional journals in geography, cartography, history, and architectural history, an elected fellow of the American Antiquarian Society, and a long time councilor of the American Geographical Society. He also teaches about East and 3 Southeast Asia, was a visiting professor at South China Normal University, and has been an American Geographical Society Travel Program lecturer in Cambodia and Vietnam, where he served as an Army combat engineer. Among various civic commitments, Dr. Wood chaired the Omaha Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission and served on preservation boards in Omaha and Washington, DC.
He is the higher education co-chair of the Baltimore Coalition for Urban Education (CUE), a collaborative effort of greater Baltimore higher education institutions with City Schools to enhance the academic achievement of Baltimore’s children. He is also a member of the Aspen Institute-Baltimore Racial Equity Workgroup, and serves on the Mayor’s Journey Home Board—the commission to end homelessness—and on Associated Black Charities advisory groups focused on education and workforce development. Dr. Wood and his wife Diane, a professor of education at Towson University, live in Baltimore City.
The five new members join the existing 21 members of MHC’s 2016 Board of Directors. They are: The Honorable Stephen Sfekas, (Chair), Baltimore City; Diedre Badejo, Baltimore City; Elizabeth Cannon (Vice Chair), Garrett County; Barbara Clapp, Baltimore City; Elizabeth Cromwell, Frederick County; Rhonda Dallas*, Prince George’s County; Albert Feldstein, Allegany County; Michael S. Glaser; St. Mary’s County; Silvia Golombek (Secretary), Baltimore County; Lenneal J. Henderson, Jr., Baltimore City; Pete Lesher*, Talbot County (Government Liaison); Hilary Miller, Montgomery County; Adrianne Noe, Montgomery County; Maarten L. Pereboom, Wicomico County; Matt Power, Prince George’s County; Cynthia Raposo, Montgomery County; Thomas B. Riford, Washington County; Nancy Rogers (Treasurer) Montgomery County; Keith Stone, Baltimore City; Lindsay Thompson, Baltimore City; and David Wise, Anne Arundel County.