Office of Economic Development Impact Report Release

Remarks by President Ronald J. Daniels
Office of Economic Development Impact Report Release

Thank you, Alicia, and thank you to our panelists! What a wonderful moment to see everyone together and to hear directly from our partners about the work we are collectively undertaking.

I should start off with a confession. I am a Type-1 diabetic. I am the worst Type-1 diabetic. When I go home tonight, I will tell Joanne that it was institutional obligation.

Indeed, today’s proceedings are a wonderful testament to what makes Baltimore special and a moving reminder of the simple truth that so goes Hopkins, so goes Baltimore. And vice versa.

Johns Hopkins is so, so proud to call this city home. And over the last decade, we have doubled and redoubled our commitment to deepening and forging meaningful and lasting partnerships—like the ones we have seen today—with neighbors and community organizations to determine how best to galvanize our resources, our expertise, our optimism, our energy to meet the needs of this city and the hopes of its citizens.

The successes have been real and enduring.

We see it in investments and collaborations across our city, from East Baltimore, where the Henderson-Hopkins school is really thriving, to Station North, where the rejuvenated SNF Parkway Theatre welcomes audiences once more to see the latest blockbuster as well as the work of local film students.

We see it in the nearly 400 local businesses that have graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.

And we see it in the more than 2,400 Baltimoreans and over 900 returning citizens hired since 2015 through our economic inclusion initiative HopkinsLocal, which has also committed more than $270 million to minority-owned, women-owned, or disadvantaged business enterprise contractors.

All of this work has been supercharged and expanded through the launch of the Office of Economic Development in 2019.

Little did we know how opportune this timing was.

When our city was hit by the first COVID-19 wave, Alicia and her office, with colleagues across Johns Hopkins and our city, leapt into action to address the devastating impact of the virus on our neighbors, whether by working alongside over 20 local community partners to deliver more than 6 million meals to families, or forming the Johns Hopkins Health Education and Training Corps to teach K-12 students about the public health response to COVID-19.

And as you have seen today, this work goes far beyond the demands of the pandemic, from our partnership with Turnaround Tuesday and the expungement clinics that are giving hundreds of Baltimoreans the chance for a new beginning in employment, education, and housing; to the JHU Innovation Fund for Community Safety; to the JustUs dialogues with local business owners and entrepreneurs.

And as Alicia would surely say, we’re not going to let up.

To Alicia, thank you for your leadership, your vision, and your boundless commitment to Baltimore and its people. To the remarkable team in the Office of Economic Development – soon to be the Office of Economic Development and Community Partnerships – we are truly grateful for the work you do day in and day out to advance the aspirations of our city.

And to all of you, our friends, neighbors, and partners in this vital work: Thank you for all you are doing to create more equitable access to education, healthcare, and services here in Baltimore, and for caring so deeply about a brighter future for all Baltimoreans.

I am truly so excited about the work of this office and everything we are accomplishing together. I look forward to many years of collaboration ahead.

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