Talbot County Council Selects Four for Board of Education Redistricting Commission
At the request of the Talbot County Council, the Talbot County Democratic Party submitted six citizens of our County for consideration by the Council to serve on the Talbot County Board of Education Redistricting Commission. Of these six nominees from each Party, the County Council selects four to serve on the Commission.
We put forward a strong, diverse group of Talbot’s citizens that are truly representative of the County in which we live. Thank you to all our nominees and to the four who will be stepping up to serve their community!
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Megan Berman was born and raised in Talbot County and has always prioritized helping others in our beautiful community. In 2018, after a ten-year career in the environmental industry, Megan decided to shift her full-time job to raising and guiding her twin daughters, both of whom are now enrolled in the Talbot County Public Schools system.
Megan is very active in the volunteer community in Talbot County and follows school-related issues with great interest and attention. Megan’s daughters are both set to attend Pre-Kindergarten at St. Michaels Elementary School this Fall, and she is more than happy to volunteer her time to help determine what the school system her daughters are only just beginning their journey with will look like over the next ten years. Invested in the educational success of her daughters, Megan routinely monitors school board meetings and education-related issues in the County.
Megan is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park. From Megan: “I would be honored to be selected for this Commission and help create a fair and logical districting plan for the next ten years.”
Dr. Edward “Ed” Delaney is an accomplished educator, consultant and administrator with an earned doctorate and more than forty-five years of university teaching, research, and administrative experience. He is recognized for his experience in organizational development, strategic development, strategic planning, and public policy analysis. Ed’s professional experience in educational institutions includes serving as Assistant Vice President for Planning and Research at George Mason University, as well as the Deputy Director of the Institute for Educational Transformation at George Mason. At the federal level, Ed served as a Senior Fellow within the National Center for Education Statistics for the U.S. Department of Education.
Since moving to Trappe decades ago, Ed has become very active in the local community. He has served in a variety of positions on the Board of Directors for Waterfowl Chesapeake since 2004 and served a term on the Board of Directors for Shore Leadership. Ed also served as Executive Vice President & CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center for the Wildfowl Trust of North America.
Ed received his MA in Adult Education from Manhattan College, his MA in Human Relations and Social Policy from New York University, and his Ph.D in Higher Education and Organizational Studies from New York University. With a career in education administration and data analytics under his belt, Ed can provide a unique, professional perspective in advance of the Commission’s goals. From Ed: “I believe the key to success will be building consensus around the goals and objectives of the Commission. If the Council believes I have something to contribute, I am happy to serve.”
Keasha Haythe is an economic development veteran with almost twenty years of experience managing economic development organizations, structuring commercial deals, and securing financing for local and regional businesses. A native and lifelong resident of Talbot County, Keasha is committed to bringing opportunities back home and serving her community. She has worked on development-related projects across the State of Maryland and was appointed by Governor Hogan to serve on the Maryland Partnership Marketing Board. She has also served as President of the Maryland Economic Development Association. From the tens of millions of dollars in local, county, state, and federal investments she has secured over her career, there is a good chance Keasha’s hard work and dedicated efforts have helped grow the businesses and communities you personally rely upon and reside in!
The proud mother of a TCPS graduate, Keasha understands the value and importance of equitable access to a high-quality education. Years ago, Keasha established The Foundation of HOPE to serve underprivileged girls in the sixth grade attending Easton Middle School. The program covers topics such as dealing with low self-esteem, bullying, social media, workforce development, economic and community development, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and much more. Keasha has served on the Superintendents Advisory Council, the Chesapeake College Advisory Council, and has volunteered within Talbot’s schools as a Character Counts coach.
Keasha received her Associates of Arts degree in Business Administration from Chesapeake College and is expected to receive her BA in Political Science from Arizona State University in 2021. She has received numerous professional certifications and received the 2015 NAACP Harriet Tubman Medal of Honor, the 2015 Daily Record’s Top 100 Women Award, the 2014 Ministers and Citizens for Change Honors Award, and was featured in What’s Up Eastern Shore’s ‘Movers and Shakers under 40’ publication. From Keasha: “As a lifetime resident of Talbot County, it is an honor to be asked to lend my experience and knowledge of the County to the Board of Education Redistricting Commission.”
Maxwell McCall is the Talbot County Democratic Party’s student nominee for the Board of Education Redistricting Commission. When he’s not diligently studying to uphold his perfect GPA at Easton High School or helping his mother at their local small business, Chesapeake Blooms, Max is your standard Generation Z ‘jack of all trades.’ He’s volunteered at both the Waterfowl Festival, as well as the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science at Horn Point Laboratory, is an experienced web developer, is a member of an investment club that has taught him valuable lessons in how to weather a storm of COVID-related stock volatility, participates in both the Debate and It’s Academic clubs in his school, and volunteered as a cameraman for the 2019 Plein Air festival.
What originated as a curiosity, morphed into a hobby, and developed into a skillset, Max has dedicated hundreds of hours to data analysis and political mapmaking. Over the past year, Max has designed 372 alternate congressional districts across 27 states with 250K population limits. He has mapped, colored, and calculated precinct-level election data on the statewide, federal, and presidential level for 4 separate elections and has done the same for county-level election date for statewide and presidential elections across 1,021 counties and 15 states.
A senior at Easton High School, Max is a member of both the National Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society. He will be attending Vanderbilt University in the Fall of 2021. From Max: “I've tried to make the best of my COVID-19 lockdown by learning as much as I can about politics and I've found mapping elections to be a great way to do that. I hope to be given the opportunity to continue learning, as well as offer the skills and time I can, in service of the Commission.”