Alumna Stephanie Rawlings-Blake ’95, Mayor of Baltimore City, delivered the keynote address, May 14, during the Hooding Ceremony at Maryland Carey Law.

Rawlings-Blake has a long career in public service. At 25—the age at which she graduated from law school—she won a seat on the Baltimore City Council, the youngest person ever to be elected to that office. She represented the residents of West and Northwest Baltimore for 12 years before serving as City Council President from 2007 to 2010, when she was sworn in as mayor. She was elected to that office in 2011, with 87 percent of the vote. The Mayor was also an attorney with the Baltimore Office of the Public Defender from 1998 to 2006. 

"We are enormously honored to have a leader of Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s stature join us as we celebrate our graduates’ professional and academic achievements,” said Maryland Carey Law Dean Donald Tobin.  

The Baltimore native is vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and a recipient of the First Citizen Award from the Maryland State Senate, an honor given to those who have made government work for the benefit of all. The Daily Record named her one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women in 2007 and 2011; the National Congress of Black Women and the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs have also honored her.

Rawlings-Blake is a 1988 graduate of Baltimore’s Western High School. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Oberlin College before enrolling at Maryland Carey Law.