The Maryland Black Caucus Foundation (MBCF) recently hosted its 29th Annual Legislative Weekend, themed “Advancing Access and Opportunity to Black Marylanders.” Hosting over 1,000 attendees in-person and online during the two days (November 22-23), the group covered a myriad of critical issues important to ensuring the future health and prosperity of Black families and Marylanders as a whole.
The Annual Legislative Weekend serves as a platform for policy innovation, community empowerment, and crucial dialogue around equitable access to opportunities in education, healthcare, housing, and more.
Friday’s event offered a series of virtual online sessions on an interactive platform enabling dialogue among community members and subject matter experts with black caucus members on a wide range of topics.
On Saturday, activities began with the “Business Over Breakfast” event presented to a “sold out” audience of business owners and professionals from across Maryland. The keynote was delivered by Reta Jo Lewis, President and Chair of Exim Bank, outlining opportunities for international trade between Maryland businesses and customers abroad. Her encouragement to “Get in the Game” served to inspire the crowd to engage the Exim Bank in exploring possibilities in the global marketplace.
Dereck E. Davis, Maryland State Treasurer, moderated a dynamic panel discussion on Government Contracting Opportunities with State Procurement. Panelists included Bruce Gartner, Executive Director, Maryland Department of Transportation; Y. Maria Martinez, Special Secretary, Maryland’s Office for Small, Minority, and Women Business Affairs; Tammy Thomas, Chief Development and Marketing Officer, Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO).
The conversation centered around outreach efforts by Maryland State Agencies to promote contracting opportunities to minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses and the importance of becoming certified for programs aimed at allocating contracting dollars for such firms. Members of the audience encouraged the agency officials to be more creative and ever more flexible in their pursuits to reach their targeted vendors.
The weekend culminated with the Awards Gala and Dinner held at the Maryland LIVE Casino & Hotel with “Tamilka Harris LIVE” as Emcee. This elegant evening brought together legislators, business, faith, non-profit, and civic leaders to acknowledge the achievements of the nation’s largest body of Black legislators and to honor entrepreneurs, and corporate, and political leaders.
Among the awards presented on behalf of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland was the Caucus Chairwoman’s Award, presented to Maryland General Assembly Speaker of the House Delegate Adrienne Jones (District 10); Senator of the Year Award, presented to Senator C. Anthony Muse (District 26); and Delegate Aletheia McCaskill (District 44B) was recognized as Delegate of the Year. A special “Exemplary Leadership Award” was bestowed upon former Maryland Delegate and Baltimore City Council President, the Honorable Nick Mosby.
Awards were also presented by the Maryland Black Caucus Foundation to Brian Pieninck, President/CEO, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield of Maryland and Emerick Peace, President, Keller Williams Preferred Properties of Upper Marlboro (Prince George’s County) as Outstanding Business Leaders.
The Foundation President’s Harriet Tubman Award was presented to Dr. Aminta Breaux, President, Bowie State University. Community Service Awards were given to Dr. Amin Flowers, Life Church Ministries of Baltimore and Costello Wilson, III, Creating Opportunity Within Our Community (COWOC) of Prince George’s County. The final award of the evening was the Trailblazer Award, presented to Bishop Craig, owner of Craig Coates Couture in Annapolis, Maryland.
The evening’s dinner and ceremonies ended with an after-party featuring DJ Quicksilva, host of the Quicksilva Morning Show on Baltimore’s 92Q.
