Chief Judge Wanda Keyes Heard ’79, political science, was drawn to UMBC by the intimate class sizes and impressive credentials of the political science faculty, but quickly grew to love the campus and remained an on-campus student throughout her undergraduate days.

Today, she is the first female Chief Judge in the history of the 8th Judicial Circuit, appointed to the position after serving the citizens of Baltimore City as a Circuit Court Judge in Baltimore for 19 years. Though 40 years have passed since her time at UMBC, she credits her time as an undergraduate student for her professional successes today.

Chief Judge Heard will receive the UMBC Alumni Award for Outstanding Alumna in Social Sciences at a ceremony on October 4.

Former UMBC professor and advisor Philip Brenner encouraged her as a student, leading her to an internship during her junior year for the Honorable Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. It was her internship with Congresswoman Chisholm that provided the confidence she would need to pursue a career in a field then dominated by white men.

“I refused to let anyone say ‘no’ or ‘it’s not possible,’” she said. “There was no glass ceiling I could not break.”

Over her 36-year career, she has received numerous awards and accolades, though she cites receiving the Thurgood Marshall Award for Judicial Excellence by the Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP in 2013 as one of her greatest professional successes.

“My greatest challenges occurred during the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s when faced with and overcoming
the false limitations being placed on me merely because of my race and gender.”

– Baltimore City Circuit Court Chief Judge Wanda Heard ’79

Well known for mentoring law students, interns, and new attorneys, she has mentored more than 25 students from UMBC. She volunteers her time advising and judging mock trial teams for area students, including a now-famous trial program for elementary and middle school students designed to develop critical thinking and civic engagement.

An active UMBC alumna, she is a member of UMBC’s 1966 Society, supporting fundraising efforts for the Second Generation Scholarship, which provides support to outstanding UMBC undergraduates who have demonstrated a commitment to the advancement of minorities. She also remains an active member of the Beta Alpha Tau Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Chief Judge Heard, who resides in West Baltimore with her aptly-named dog Justice, said she considers watching her daughter Whitney grow into an independent, vibrant, and successful young woman her proudest personal achievement and greatest joy.

– Amy Dalrymple

* * * * *
REGISTER TODAY: Join us Thursday, October 4, to celebrate these individuals at the Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall.

See the full list of 2018 Alumni Award honorees here.

Faculty and staff can learn more about what disability, the interactive process, and accommodation are about, as well as challenges that affect the connection with campus resources in this dynamic session being held on October 23, 2018 at noon.  

Diversity is a core value that enhances our work as well as our academic arenas, and being able to welcome, respect and effectively interact with our campus members with disabilities is essential. 

Providing reasonable accommodation is part of UMBC's core value, and the Office of Accessibility and Disability Services staff has designed this training to explain the process and offer expert guidance.

This training provides faculty and staff with information to understand disability and inclusion, along with basic and intermediate skills for navigating the accommodation request and referral process. The training will also identify campus processes and services that support faculty, staff, students and visitors with disabilities. 

Join us as we explore strategies for inclusion that enhance diversity on the job.

*For more information, or to request a disability-based accommodation, please contact Stephanie Lazarus via 410-455-5745 or slazar@umbc.edu with your request. 

Offered through a partnership between the Office of Accessibility and Disability Services and the Department of Human Resources in support of Disability Awareness Month.

Space is limited and registration is required.  Registration deadline is Friday, October 19th!  Register  via the Training site linked below.

NEW for this fall semester!  To help you GET READY TO BE HIRED, the Career Center has scheduled four workshops that will help to familiarize you with various interviewing methods.  These events are meant for all UMBC students (graduate and undergraduate) whether hoping to secure an internship, job or survive a graduate school interview.

T. ROWE PRICE:  Behavioral Based Interviews

Monday, September 10
Noon – 1:00 pm
Commons 331

FACEBOOK Tech Talk:  Technical/Coding Interview

Tuesday, September 11
5:00 – 7:00 pm
University Center 312

UMBC CAREER CENTER:  Surviving a Group Interview

Thursday, September 13
5:00 – 6:00 pm
Commons 331

FDM GROUP:  Video Interviews

Thursday, September 20
5:00 – 6:00 pm
Commons 331

On September 19, 2018 we’ll be hosting The Black Ladies Brunch Collective, a group of Maryland-based poets whose mission it is to “promote and inspire the voices of Black women,” and on February 18, 2019 we will present novelist Michael Downs. Our focus this year is on writers who actively build and sustain Baltimore’s unique literary community. Complete bios of our guests are below.

All readings are in the Skylight Room, Commons, at 5:00 pm. Book signing and refreshments to follow the event.

Our goal is to make the arts come alive at UMBC, so that literature is experienced as a vibrant, interdisciplinary form of creation, expression, and civic engagement – for everyone. This year we are pleased to count a wide range of diverse departments as our sponsors, including:  Africana Studies; The English Department; The Dean of CAHSS; Dresher Center; Mosaic Center; Gender and Women’s Studies; History; Sociology and Anthropology.

BIOS for 2018-19 English Department Reading Series

BLACK LADIES BRUNCH COLLECTIVE

The Black Ladies Brunch Collective (BLBC), founded in 2014 in Washington, D.C. The group’s mission is to promote and inspire the voices of Black women—who have been, as a population, historically marginalized and silenced. BLBC recognizes the artistic work of Black women, and encourages and fosters collaboration between them. BLBC serves the whole artistic community but specifically aims to inspire under-privileged/under-represented/women of color. BLBC wishes to serve as a model for other black women writers who desire to create social and professional communities that not only support their creative development but also enrich and maintain their spirits.

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of Haint, winner of the 2017 Ohioana Poetry Book Award, a Cave Canem fellow, and member of the Black Ladies Brunch Collective. She is the poetry coordinator for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Her website is www.poetsandparents.com.

Katy Richey’s work has appeared in Rattle, Cincinnati Review, RHINO and The Offing. She received an honorable mention for the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and has received fellowships from Fine Arts Work Center, MD State Arts Council and The Cave Canem Foundation.

celeste doaks, a poet and journalist, is the editor of Not Without Our Laughter, and author of Cornrows and Cornfields. Doaks, a Pushcart prize nominee, received her MFA from NC State University. Currently, she is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Delaware.

Tafisha A. Edwards is the author of The Bloodlet, winner of Phantom Books’ 2016 Breitling Chapbook Prize. She is the Poetry Editor of Gigantic Sequins. Her poems have appeared in The Offing, The Nashville Review, Phantom, West Branch Wired, The Atlas Review and other print and publications.

Saida Agostini is a queer afro-guyanese poet and activist.A Cave Canem graduate fellow, her work is featured or forthcoming in Origins, Drunk in the Midnight Choir, the Black Ladies Brunch Collective's anthology, Not Without Our Laughter, pluck!, The Little Patuxent Review, and other publications.

MICHAEL DOWNS

Michael Downs, a Hartford native, is the author of The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surgeon Dentist, his debut novel from Acre Books. Earlier works include The Greatest Show: Stories, inspired by the true story of the Hartford, Conn., circus fire, and House of Good Hope: A Promise for a Broken City, named a finalist in memoir for the Connecticut Book Award. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a professor of English at Towson University.