29 Facts About Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's mother is a retired pediatrician and her father is a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates, where he represented the 40th district, Baltimore City.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had two siblings: one brother, brother Wendell Rawlings and one sister, Lisa Rawlings.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake later returned to Baltimore to attend the University of Maryland School of Law, where she earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1995.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1996 and to the federal bar in 1997.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is an alumna of the Baltimore Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound Center and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Epsilon Omega chapter.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is a former at-large member of the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys.

From 1990 to 1998, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake served on the Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee, and in the 1990s she served as the Annapolis lobbyist for the Young Democrats of Maryland.

In 1997 Stephanie Rawlings-Blake began serving as an administrative law attorney with the Baltimore City office of the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, which offers free civil legal services to Maryland's low-income residents.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake went on to serve as a staff attorney with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in its Southern District from 1998 to 2006.

In 1995, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became the youngest person ever elected to the Baltimore City Council.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake represented the council's District 5 from 1995 to 2004 and District 6 from 2004 to 2007.

From 1999 to 2007, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake served as vice president of the Baltimore City Council.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became President of the Council on January 17,2007, when then-City Council President Sheila Dixon became mayor.

On June 14,2007, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that she would seek a full four-year term as council president.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's platform included improving education and reducing crime in the city.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake won the Democratic primary with 49 percent of the vote.

Consequently, following Dixon's resignation on February 4,2010, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became mayor of Baltimore City.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake went on to seek a full term as mayor in the 2011 mayoral election.

In September 2015, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2016 mayoral election, stating, "It was a very difficult decision, but I knew I needed to spend time focused on the city's future, not my own".

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake received criticism for her handling of the 2015 Baltimore protests that were prompted by the death of Freddie Gray on April 19,2015.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was criticized for waiting too long before asking the state for help.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was appointed secretary of the Democratic National Committee in January 2013, serving under Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake gaveled in the 2016 Democratic National Convention, where she served as one of 23 superdelegates from Maryland; Stephanie Rawlings-Blake did not endorse any candidate at the convention.

When Stephanie Rawlings-Blake took office Baltimore City had approximately 16,000 vacant buildings, resulting from a half-century of population decline.

In November 2010, in an effort to reduce urban blight caused by vacant structures, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake introduced the Vacants to Value initiative.

In 2015, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became the first mayor to appear in the musical Chicago, appearing in a one-night performance on March 4,2015, as an ensemble performer throughout the night.

In 2007 and 2011, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was honored by the Daily Record as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was named as a Shirley Chisholm Memorial Award Trailblazer by the National Congress of Black Women, Washington, DC Chapter and as an Innovator of the Year by the Maryland Daily Record.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is a recipient of the Fullwood Foundation Award of Excellence, the National Forum for Black Public Administrators' Distinguished Leadership Award, the Maryland State Senate's First Citizen Award, and the Baltimore Black Pride ICONS We Love Award.