By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com

AFRO News, Associated Black Charities and 48 other Maryland companies and non-profit organizations were honored on March 19 by Executive Alliance, a non-profit that promotes the advancement of women in executive positions, for their respective efforts to ensure women are represented in their C-suites and board rooms. The event was held at the Maritime Center in Linthicum Heights, Md.

Dr. Frances “Toni” Murphy Draper (left), CEO and publisher of AFRO News, and Denise Dorsey, the AFRO’s former production manager, pose for a photo with the AFRO’s Executive Alliance Honor Roll award on March 19. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy of Dr. Frances “Toni” Murphy Draper

Along with the honor roll announcement, Executive Alliance unveiled their “Annual Census Report of Women Board Directors.” 

“The landscape for women’s representation on boards is sobering,” said Ellen Fish, chief researcher of Executive Alliance’s Annual Census report, in the report. “Companies are poised to undo many of the gains that women and people of color have fought for over the past decades.”

The report found that with the 47th president in office equity, inclusion and diversity efforts rolled back under the current federal government and dissuasion for it in the private sector, the growth rate for women in executive roles in Maryland has stagnated.

Since the president was elected on Nov. 5, 2024, businesses in the private sector have been dropping their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, reducing the amount of hiring initiatives that encourage female and racial representation in executive leadership positions and boards.

Requests for diverse board candidates have diminished from often to sporadic.

But the report also points out a positive trend in Maryland. Gov. Wes Moore’s office has appointed 3,371 people to the state’s boards and commissions, 50.5 percent being women, 50 percent being minorities and 29 percent of whom are female minorities. The report also points towards the 50 organizations that are still supporting women in Maryland by ensuring females are in leading positions in their companies.

For all 50 awardees, at least 30 percent of each company or non-profit organization’s executive team leaders and 30 percent of their board of director positions are filled by women.