Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was first elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1995 at age 25, the youngest person ever elected to the City Council. She is currently serving her third term in the City Council and her first term as Council President.

During her first term, Rawlings-Blake was the lead sponsor of successful legislation to eliminate illegal dumping in Baltimore, as well as the lead sponsor of successful legislation to address the police misconduct of racial profiling.

As Chair of the City Council’s powerful Budget and Appropriations Committee, Rawlings-Blake secured funding for increased after-school opportunities for Baltimore’s youth and the City’s Healthy Neighborhood Initiative. Likewise, she used her position as Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee as a catalyst to demand changes in our school system and to demand more accountability from the City’s public safety agencies. She is regarded as “work horse and not a show horse” by her peers.

In 2006, Rawlings-Blake changed the tenor of the annual budget process by ensuring the voice of the City Council was heard during budget negotiations between the Executive Branch and the associated agencies. As a result of her leadership, the City Council was empowered during the annual budget process. Most importantly, the citizens of Baltimore City are now assured that their fiscal needs will be met.

Born on March 17, 1970, Rawlings-Blake is a proud 1988 graduate of Baltimore’s Western High School. In 1992, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1995; the same year she was elected to the Baltimore City Council.

Council President Rawlings-Blake honed her legal skills as an attorney with the Baltimore Office of the Public Defender, representing the “poorest and least among us” in very vulnerable situations.

As Council President, she chairs the City’s Board of Estimates, which oversees and administers the fiscal policy of the City. The Board of Estimates conducts formal hearings on City agencies’ operating and capital budget requests. The Board is also in charge of awarding contracts and supervising all purchasing by the City.

Council President Rawlings-Blake is a member of the Federal Bar Association and the Maryland State Bar Association. She also serves on numerous boards and commissions, including the Baltimore City Human Services Commission, Live Baltimore Home Center, Maryland Science Center, National Aquarium in Baltimore, Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, Living Classrooms Foundation, Baltimore Hotel Corporation, Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, Park Heights Community Health Alliance, and Khepra Group. Rawlings-Blake is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Epsilon Omega Chapter and a former At-Large Member of the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys.

Council President Rawlings-Blake has been honored with numerous awards. Most recently, The Daily Record selected her as one of "Maryland’s Top 100 Women." The National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs named her one of Baltimore’s "Young Women on the Move." She has received the "Hearts of Love Recognition Award" from Aunt Hattie’s Place, and the "Passing the Torch Legacy Award" from Baltimore African American Real Estate Professionals.

In January 2007, her colleagues on the City Council elevated then Vice-President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to President of the Baltimore City Council. As provided by the City Charter, she will fill the unexpired term of former Council President Sheila Dixon, who became Baltimore’s Mayor upon Governor O’Malley’s election.

A member of Douglas Memorial Community Church, Council President Rawlings-Blake lives in Baltimore’s Coldspring neighborhood with her husband Kent Blake and their young daughter Sophia.