10-15-2023 Women to Watch - Flipbook - Page 18
25 WOMEN TO WATCH
Samara L. Firebaugh
Dean and provost, U.S. Naval Academy
The U.S. Naval Academy named Samara L. Firebaugh, 49, as the
new academic dean and provost in April. Firebaugh, who stepped into
the role in July, oversees the academic programming for the approximately 4,400-member Brigade of Midshipmen and nearly 600 faculty
members.
She came to the academy in 2001 to teach electrical engineering and
has moved up the ranks, becoming chair of the Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department and later the associate provost. Firebaugh
says she sought a leadership role because she wanted to make an impact.
As provost, her goal is to be a relationship builder and to further the
mission of the institution. She is focused on “truly growing a community here.”
Outside the classroom and provost office, Firebaugh has received
several academic and professional awards, including the 2022 Navy
Superior Civilian Service Award.
— Caitlyn Freeman
BARBARA HADDOCK TAYLOR
Faith Leach
Baltimore City administrator
“I didn’t know I would fall for Baltimore so hard and so fast, but here
I am,” Baltimore City Administrator Faith Leach told the City Council
at her confirmation hearing in March. Since her arrival in 2021 by way
of the private sector, Leach has been one of the most visible members
of Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration and led some of his highest-priority initiatives.
In the aftermath of a deadly shooting downtown involving a confrontation between a driver and squeegee workers cleaning windshields
for cash, Leach spearheaded the city’s Squeegee Collaborative, which
brought together city leaders to steer youths toward alternative employment.
Now in Baltimore’s fledgling city administrator role, Leach, 40, is
expanding her efforts to take on some of the city’s most persistent
bureaucratic challenges, including water billing, a notoriously slow
procurement system and recycling collection. It’s an unenviable task
at times, but as Leach told the City Council, public service is a calling.
“We get to be messengers of hope for our communities. We get to be
purveyors of justice and agents of change,” she said. “We get to use our
lives, we get to use our very existence, to make the lives of others better.”
— Emily Opilo
18 | 2023 | WOMEN TO WATCH
AMY DAVIS
