Baltimore Attorney, Career Educator Named to BCCC Board of Trustees

(October 1, 2019) – Baltimore City Community College announces Lelia Parker, Esq. and Leonor Tannhauser Blum were recently appointed to the college’s Board of Trustees by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.

Parker is a member of the Litigation Department of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP’s Baltimore office, where she has a general litigation practice and handles complex commercial disputes. Previously, she worked as a law clerk for retired Judge Clayton Greene Jr. of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

An Argentina native, Blum is the founder and director of Adelante Latina!, a free after-school academic enrichment and college preparatory program for underprivileged and promising Latina sophomores who attend Baltimore City public high schools. She is also a professor emerita of Notre Dame of Maryland University, where she taught history and political science for more than 30 years.

In 2017, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation establishing 12 realignment tasks for BCCC to make comprehensive improvements to its operations, programs and services to students. The legislation included the appointment of all new members to the college’s Board of Trustees.

Chaired by Kurt L. Schmoke, Esq., BCCC’s Board of Trustees is comprised of nine members who are each appointed by the governor. Schmoke, president of the University of Baltimore since 2014, also served as the mayor of Baltimore from 1987 to 1999.

“As chair of Baltimore City Community College’s Board of Trustees, I am certainly pleased to welcome Trustees’ Blum and Parker to our board,” Schmoke said. “BCCC continues to make significant progress toward fulfilling the realignment tasks set by the state, and our new trustees are a welcome addition. No doubt, the breadth of experience, talents and passion both women bring will serve the college, our students and the city and state well.”

Parker earned her law degree in 2017 from the University of Baltimore School of Law and was a legal intern at the corporate headquarters for Special Olympics, where she worked on risk management issues for the organization's 2015 Summer World Games. A resident of Baltimore, she also holds a master’s degree from the University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Social Work. Earlier in her career, she worked as a clinical case social work manager for Baltimore City Public Schools.

Blum, of Baltimore, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia University School of Journalism and also holds a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She was recently named a finalist for Baltimore Homecoming Inc.’s 2019 “Homecoming Hero Awards,” an annual program that recognizes communal and nonprofit leaders, activists, artists and innovators who are making a positive impact.