On November 2, 2017, the Leadership Southern Maryland (LSM) Class of 2018 participated in the third of nine educational sessions – Education – sponsored by the College of Southern Maryland and Charles County Public Schools. The day was hosted at the James E. Richmond Science Center at St. Charles High School in Waldorf, Maryland. Lead Advocate Katie O’Malley-Simpson LSM’16, director of communications/ media relations for Charles County Public Schools, gave the introduction and welcome along with Advocate Larisa Pfeiffer LSM’16, community relations coordinator for the College of Southern Maryland. The first topic of the day was “How do we serve ALL students?”, a discussion led by Glennis Daniels-Bacchus, associate director of disability support services for the College of Southern Maryland and Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator for its La Plata Campus. She and her transition team explained the process of helping high school students understand and utilize the services available to them under the Americans with Disabilities Act in the college realm and the workforce. This was followed by a tour of St. Charles High School and a demonstration of the Science Center’s planetarium. Dr. Maureen Murphy, president of the College of Southern Maryland, wrapped up the morning with a presentation on the college and all of its successes.

In the afternoon, Drew Carter, student member of the Board of Education of Charles County facilitated a panel of students from the tri-county area. Students discussed positives and negatives of their high school education like class rank, grade recovery, and college preparation. Carter also presided over a panel of representatives for the superintendents for Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties. The class members had a chance to hear about the public school systems’ budgets, facilities, competences, assessments, and challenges from Lisa Bachner, director of curriculum and instruction, St. Mary’s County Public Schools; Linda Gill, executive director of schools, Charles County Public Schools; and Kimberly Roof, director of student services, Calvert County Public Schools. The day was rounded out with an overview of unique educational opportunities facilitated by Larisa Pfeiffer LSM’16 and included presentations about the Summit Learning Platform (Kelley Adams, principal at Plum Point Middle School), SMCR, Inc., (Bonnie Elward, executive director), Southern Maryland Studies Center (Anna Kephart, coordinator), Southern Maryland Higher Education Center (Jason Morgan, regional director for Eastern Maryland & Regional Center Operation for UMUC), Southern Maryland Higher Education Center (Dr. Mel Powell, executive director), and St. Mary’s College of Maryland (Dr. Christine Wooley, chair & associate professor of English).

Leadership Southern Maryland is a nine-month tuition-based program and is designed and dedicated to educate and inspire a diverse group of current and emerging leaders to create collaborations and partnerships to impact the community needs of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties and incorporates a cross-section of the region to include diversity of geographic location, profession, ethnicity and gender.

Leadership Southern Maryland is a 501(c)(3) organization by the Internal Revenue Service (EIN#26-2989381).  Contributions are deductible as charitable contributions to the extent permitted by law.

For more information, please contact the Helen Mattingly Wernecke, Executive Director Leadership Southern Maryland, 240-725-5469 via email helen@leadershipsomd.org