Category: Uncategorized

Esther Mitchell is the Master Gardener Coordinator for Prince George’s County, MD and a Program Planner for the Department of the Environment for the past 10 years where She responds to all types of questions and problems regarding plant identification and their habitats, insects, plant diseases. She helps train residents to become Master Gardeners and provide many outlets for volunteer service to attain certification.

Esther teaches a variety of horticultural topics throughout Maryland counties. She also delivers presentations on horticultural subjects at library plant clinics, community and homeowners associations, and garden clubs. Guided by Esther's expertise and knowledge, several community gardens in Prince George’s County were established. She has assisted residents, homeowners associations, community gardeners, Councilpersons and Town Mayors on their beautification programs, and she works with schools, nonprofits and faith based groups to help establish various types of gardens. She has presented professional development courses on planting and maintaining school garden to more than 200 teachers and has worked with schools to help establish vegetable and flower gardens.

Esther has been featured on many radio programs, and she has been quoted in several national and local newspapers on various horticultural subjects and has appeared on NBC4's Rooted in Your Community. She was instrumental in getting the county tree renamed to the Willow Oak.

Esther enjoys teaching youth and adults about the joy and pains of gardening. She believes that you learn life’s basic lessons in the garden.

Tracy Lloyd McCurty, Esq. is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Black Belt Justice Center (BBJC), a legal and advocacy nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and regeneration of African American farmlands and land-based livelihoods through effective legal representation, advocacy, and community education.

For more than a decade, McCurty has served as a legal advocate on a range of issues disparately impacting the African Diaspora community; however, her most cherished work has been in service of multigenerational farm families living on the land in the rural South. In addition to serving farm families and cooperatives, McCurty has provided legal representation to numerous community-based farm organizations that serve diverse farmers and rural communities, including the Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, the National Immigrant Farming Initiative, and the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network (SAAFON).

Before launching the Black Belt Justice Center, McCurty served as the Policy Advisor for the Rural Coalition, a national coalition of 70 community-based organizations representing diverse farmers and farmworkers. In that role, she led coalition efforts to ensure complete implementation of the equity provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill. To ensure maximum participation of African American claimants in the In re Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation (“Pigford II”), she drafted and submitted legal memoranda to assist the federal court in its deliberations regarding the coordination and implementation of the Pigford II settlement agreement.

McCurty has demonstrated leadership in her field of work through her participation in several national farm and food equity conferences and symposiums including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food and Community Gathering, the Professional Agricultural Workers Conference (Tuskegee University), the Critical Race Studies Symposium (UCLA School of Law), and the International Food Sovereignty Forum (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace). Additionally, she is the co-coordinator and co-author of the Black Agrarianism chapters featured in the 2017 Food First publication, Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons.

McCurty earned her Bachelor's of Science at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and her law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill School of Law. She is licensed to practice in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Georgia, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Conference of Black Lawyers.

Violet King is an urban farmer, educator and herbalist who has been working to bring healthier food options and farming/gardening and nutrition education to youth and adults who live East of the River for the past five years.

Her work focuses on empowering youth and adults by teaching them how to grow and prepare their own food using sustainable and agro-ecological farming practices.

Violet is passionate about growing medicinal herbs and pollinator plants and promoting land stewardship in order to facilitate healing between people of color and the land.

Mandela Jones is co-founder of ROOTS Africa, a non-profit that connects academic institutions and experts in the U.S. to farming communities in Africa. The organization's mission is to combat hunger and poverty in Africa.

Mandela graduated from The University of Maryland, majoring in Agriculture and Resource Economics with a concentration in Business Administration. His interest in ROOTS Africa started after returning from a farming apprenticeship where he read books and articles on family-owned and African agriculture. Since then, Mandela has been working on ways to improve agriculture at home and abroad.  When he heard about the idea behind ROOTS, he knew he needed to get involved in order to better grasp what his peers in Africa face in agriculture and to develop his problem-solving skills.

ROOTS Africa promotes and leverages collaborations between academic institutions to strengthen agricultural extension services, encourage entrepreneurship, enhance youth engagement in agriculture and increase the productivity of local farmers in Africa. Through the ROOTS Student Club and Global Classroom programs, youth and experts can initiate, support and  advocate for wholistic approaches to community development.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Symone Johnson's interest in marine science started when she participated in the High School Volunteer Program at the National Aquarium. That experience led to her attending Hampton University, where she graduated with her B.S. in Marine and Environmental Science. During undergrad, Symone began to work with youth in her free time, specifically in the Mentoring Young Scientists Program held at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. Symone also played a major role in planning and leading sessions at the Teen Environmental Conference, held in Hampton, VA in 2011 and 2012. Symone received the NOAA Educational Partnership Program Undergraduate Scholarship and completed two internships at NOAA facilities. The last internship under this scholarship program sparked Symone’s interest in sharks, so she attended Delaware State University for graduate school studying Sand Tiger sharks in Delaware Bay.

At the end of her graduate career, Symone was selected as a recipient of the Sea Grant John A. Knauss Fellowship and spent one year in NOAA’s Office of Education. Upon completion of the Knauss Fellowship, Symone accepted a position at the National Aquarium as the B-WET Project Coordinator. This program brings Baltimore City Public School sixth graders to the Aquarium campus to complete a set of water quality activities to investigate what lives in the Baltimore Harbor.

Symone also provides professional development and ongoing support for the teachers of participating students to ensure that they are prepared to teach the pre-lesson and post lesson. Symone has introduced a new internship within this program between the Aquarium and local colleges and universities in Baltimore including Morgan State University, Coppin State University, and Towson University.

Currently, Symone manages the education programs at National Aquarium. Aside from her position at the National Aquarium, Symone also works for NOAA as a targeted recruiter into their undergraduate scholarship programs and fellowships. She hosts an online web-based educator video resource called Ocean Today, Every Full Moon. This resource is designed to be used by informal and formal educators, and the general public, to share the many fascinating aspects of the ocean. Collections are released each month (on the full moon) and topics range from “Endangered Ocean” and “Animals of the Ice” to “The Remarkable Horseshoe Crab” and “Maritime Archaeology.”

David Harrington is President and CEO of the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce. In this role, he is the primary advocate, policy advisor and spokesperson for more than 600 businesses. He has led the Chamber to a “Top 15” regional ranking as determined by the
Washington Business Journal.

Prior to joining the Chamber, David completed fifteen years of public life commencing as Mayor of Bladensburg, Prince George’s County Council Member and Maryland State Senator. During this extensive period of public service, David was President of the Maryland Municipal League, National Chair of Economic Development with the National Association of Counties and Chaired the Maryland State Task Force on Physical Education. He has been twice awarded the Phyllis Newman Award for nonprofit advocacy, Human Services Coalition Legislative Award, Hurston/Wright Ella Baker award, Legislator of the Year from the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, and Economic Development Award from 100 Black Men.

David serves on the Board of Directors of Meyer Foundation, Community Forklift and serves on Robert Wood Johnson’s National Advisory Council. Presently his Chairs the Bowie State University Board of Visitors, the Board of Anacostia River Keeper, CommonHealth ACTION; Consumer Health Foundation; and the Prince George’s County Redevelopment Authority. At Harvard University, David was a faculty member at its Summer Institute on Reading, Writing and Civic Education and at the University of Maryland, he served as Associate Director of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership. Presently, David is adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland Global Campus.

David holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Howard University and completed graduate work at Miami University of Ohio. He is a resident of Prince George’s County for more than 30 years and is married to Cheryl, business owner of Shortcake Bakery in Hyattsville, Maryland. They have two sons: Stephen, Director of External Affairs at the Greater Washington Partnership and a graduate of Morehouse College and Brown University and current ; and Christopher, Manager and Research Editor at MuniCap, and a graduate of Dickinson College with a MBA/MPP from University of Maryland Smith Business School.

David is a proud grandfather of two wonderful grandchildren.

Larry Glover is a Senior Partner at Breakthrough Marketing Technology. He is a marketing and communications executive with experience in multiple forms of media, strategy development; market planning and communications. He has worked with national and global advertising agencies and for clients including Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola. The U.S. Army, and Sara Lee Corporation.

Since 2015, his firm has specialized in Energy Strategies For Urban Communities providing practical guidelines to improve efficiency for buildings in urban centers. Larry has been a leader is promoting the use of use data to assess and track energy performance and its impact on communities of color. The company also provides strategies to engage private-sector partnerships with technical service providers to implement energy reduction communication plans.

As part his efforts in Energy Efficiency and Workforce Development Larry worked with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to develop and execute a model public, private, labor partnership for energy efficiency. The initiative garnered united support from legislators, educators, faith leaders and government agencies.

Larry has lectured as a multicultural subject matter expert. He has held board positions on marketing and advertising industry associations and was appointed to chair a state insurance regulatory agency.

Living a passionate life and inspiring others to wellness is David Girton’s life’s purpose. A U.S. Air Force veteran and long-time Maryland resident, David is a nationally-televised fitness pro and Coach to organizations including the NAACP’s Leadership 500 Conference. David is also the thought leader and creator of the successful Facebook group, WE Dig Green, a community of Healthy Lifestyle enthusiasts. He was also a 2015 Baltimore Sun's Fitness Heroes nominee.

David believes that a holistic approach founded on mastering the fundamentals – positive mindset, sustainable eating habits, quality rest, and managing stress - all lead to a lifetime of healthy habits that can be passed on and impact generations to come.

An avid mud and obstacle racer, David has utilized his fitness expertise and enthusiasm to create the SOULdier workouts; routines designed to prepare athletes to take on the rigors of outdoor mud and obstacle courses such as the Savage Race, Spartan Race and Tough Mudder events, in which he has completed. David’s strengthening and conditioning workouts in The LaB at LiveNow Fitness drive athletes to stronger Results.

Kameron Feggins is a senior at Morgan State University studying Family and Consumer Sciences expected to graduate in the spring of 2020. During the spring semester of his junior year, he interned with the National Aquarium under the What Lives in The Harbor program.

After his internship, Kameron accepted a paid position as an Education Aide. His goal is to someday open a community center in his hometown of Philadelphia that will make positive change in impoverished communities around the city.

Since he and his family purchased property in the historic Town of Eagle Harbor some 40 years ago, Mayor James D. Crudup has been an involved citizen. After first serving as the president of the Citizens Association several decades ago and then, serving two terms as a Commissioner in the Town, he finally assumed the leadership positon of Mayor.  Now, in his fifth and last term as Mayor, he is extremely proud of what he and the board of commissioners have accomplished. At the top of that list of accomplishments, he is most proud of the Town’s designation as a Sustainable Community by the state of Maryland in 2018.

Mayor Crudup is a visionary leader and the first Mayor of the Town to develop a strategic plan. He is passionate about sustaining the Town’s historic heritage while navigating the difficult challenge of moving from a seasonal, sleepy, black resort beach Town to a vibrant year-round sustainable community.