Michael Steele
King Chair in Public Policy is the former Maryland lieutenant governor and the first Black person elected to MD statewide office.
Biography
Groundbreaking political figure Michael Steele is the Gwendolyn S. and Colbert I. King Chair Endowed Chair in Public Policy. He develops programming to illuminate the intracacies of politics, voting, policy making, and civil service. In 2003, Steele made history when he became the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland, making him the highest-ranking African American Republican elected to office and the only African American lieutenant governor in the nation at that time. He was selected to serve as chair of the Republican National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a national political party, and was a founding member of the Republican Leadership Council.