Mary’s Professional and Public Service
Mary Washington’s life-long commitment to urban communities began in Philadelphia, where she was born in 1962, grew up and graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls (Girls’ High). The eldest of six children and the daughter of two health care professionals, Washington has worked and organized in Baltimore for most of the last two decades. She now lives in the Ednor Gardens-Lakeside neighborhood of Baltimore.
Washington launched her activist career in college as she protested Reagan-era policies, registered voters in Newark, NJ as part of 1984’s Rainbow Coalition Freedom Summer and organized Pennsylvania college students to establish progressive and minority organizations on their campuses. As an undergraduate, she also served as state president of the Commonwealth (Pennsylvania) Association of Students, a lobbying organization for students in Pennsylvania state colleges and universities. She received her B.A and a teaching certificate from Antioch University in 1987.
In 1989, Washington moved to Baltimore to begin her doctoral studies in the sociology of education at The Johns Hopkins University. She earned both an M.A and a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins, receiving her doctorate in 1997. Washington’s political work continued throughout her graduate studies as she served as president of Johns Hopkins’ Graduate Student Association. As president, she helped make the GSA more responsive to the needs of the community beyond the bounds of the university as she oversaw the GSA’s award of the seed money used to found the Community Mediation Center, an important community service agency that has grown and thrived ever since.
In the fall of 1996, Washington joined the faculty of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. as an assistant professor in sociology. At Lehigh, she taught courses in statistics, race/gender/sexuality, and social inequality and worked with students to form Lehigh Aware, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for students to volunteer in nonprofit organizations that serve the lower-income communities surrounding the university.
Washington won a post-doctoral fellowship to the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. At Penn, she not only continued her research on population statistics and the racial dynamics of the U.S. Census but decided to use her expertise in sociology and her analytical skills to inform the work of elected leaders and public officials by becoming a demographic consultant for the State of Maryland. Since that time, Washington has consistently worked to create and lead programs and activities that make a difference in urban communities and help hold public officials accountable.
As the founding director of Baltimore’s HousingStat program, Washington worked to make Baltimore’s Housing Department more responsive and more accountable to the needs of city residents. She later brought her passion for public accountability to the nonprofit sector, working as Interim Director of the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance. Washington also served as president of the Abell Improvement Association for two years and as a construction captain for the “Our Playground at Stadium Place” project on the old Memorial Stadium grounds.
In 2007, Washington made an early and enthusiastic commitment to back Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. She organized the volunteers who worked at Obama’s huge pre-primary rally in Baltimore in February 2008 and spent most of 2008 campaigning for Obama in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia. She also coordinated volunteers and logistics for Obama’s Whistle Stop in Baltimore to celebrate his inauguration.
Today, Washington’s professional and volunteer work focuses on urban environmental education and on improving the quality of life and the sustainability of Baltimore’s neighborhoods. She serves as the associate director of a major nonprofit group that works to restore the urban environment, teach city residents about the environment and expand their recreational opportunities, In this role, Washington manages complex relationships among scientists, community groups and government organizations, helps city communities grow greener and helps educate children about the importance of sound environmental stewardship. She also works to provide training and employment in green careers to city youths and adults.
Washington’s work gives voice to her deep commitment to social and environmental justice as it displays her remarkable ability to bring people from all walks of life together to solve city problems. Washington’s great skills in linking people to resources and in managing relationships among sometimes-conflicting constituencies are a big part of the reason her work has done so much to help Baltimore become a healthier, safer, more sustainable city.
Washington continues to devote much of her time to community service. She serves as an appointed member of the Baltimore City Commission on Sustainability, the panel that drafted the Baltimore City Sustainability Plan in 2009 and now oversees its implementation. She is also a member of the Baltimore City Green Jobs Coalition.
A life-long Progressive Democrat, Washington is also pleased to serve as a member of the Maryland Democratic State Central Committee. She is one of the seven people who represents the 43rd District on that committee and she helped establish its Early Voting Task Force.
Washington has long been a forceful advocate for voting rights and fair elections. She has worked for many years to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to vote and that every vote counts. In 2006, she organized the city-wide training of election judges sponsored by the Baltimore City Board of Elections and the University of Baltimore’s Schaefer Center for Public Policy and she continues to work as an election trainer for that program.
As she works to see that every vote counts, Washington is also working to ensure that every person counts in the 2010 Census. As a member of Baltimore City’s Complete Count Committee, Washington strives to see that all city residents are counted so that the city can receive the federal funding it needs for essential programs and services and get the full representation it deserves in Annapolis and in Washington.
Mary Washington now wants to take her 25 years of public service to the Maryland House of Delegates. As a delegate, her experience linking communities to resources, her deep commitment to the health, education and economic welfare of city residents and her highly informed approach to community organizing and progressive politics will make the 43rd District and Baltimore City a healthier, stronger, and more vibrant home for us all.
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