In November 2021, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) community and guests gathered for the inauguration of Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, as the seventh president of UMB. Dr. Jarrell stepped into this role in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, guiding critical efforts to address this global health crisis with world-changing vaccine research, treatments, community service and outreach, and leadership across the state and beyond.

Under Jarrell’s leadership, UMB remains one of Baltimore’s most powerful anchor institutions and continues to effect real and lasting change by improving health, creating wealth, and advancing social justice in the city, the state, and around the world. This is particularly true in today’s COVID-19 climate.

 

Central to President Jarrell’s vision is that UMB expand on its success by motivating students, faculty, and staff to embrace the university’s core values, which are rooted in service, a commitment to Maryland, and ultimately improving the world. UMB inspires passionate people to apply solutions to the pressing problems facing humankind, and its health care, human services, and law professionals create innovative solutions where others see only problems.

“When I look at UMB, I see an environment that encourages innovation and creativity,” Jarrell says. “I’m surrounded by students and employees who are committed to improving the health and well-being of the people in our community and around the state. That is the magic of UMB, and it’s the secret to our great success.”

 

To maintain UMB’s standing as Maryland’s premier human services institution, these are President Jarrell’s priorities:

• Commitment to excellence in education. UMB works to attract, retain, and educate the best and brightest scholars, staff, and faculty through efforts such as the President’s Initiative on Education, scholarship programs that create opportunities for more students, and by remaining an employer of choice.

• Commitment to working for equity and justice. UMB accepts the responsibility to help improve the health and well-being of underserved populations in Maryland by expanding access in areas of need across the state, supporting our Community Engagement Center, and fostering educational programs to support opportunity and advancement for disadvantaged communities.

• Commitment to statewide collaborations. UMB is maintaining and growing its strong partnership with the University of Maryland Medical System, sustaining and propelling innovation through its collaboration with the University of Maryland, College Park under the MPowering the State initiative, and expanding relationships with other key institutions across Maryland.

• Commitment to innovation and discovery. UMB is preparing for the future with a strong focus on innovation and discovery. The university is expanding its $682 million research enterprise, strengthening its community-based research activities, and developing more interdisciplinary research programs and projects.

Through these efforts, UMB achieves its mission to improve the human condition and serve the public good of Maryland and society at large through education, research, clinical care, and service. Amidst unprecedented challenges in today’s world, UMB is evolving and developing critical innovations toward changing the future today.

 

UMB is Maryland’s public health, law, and human services university, a leading U.S. institution for graduate and professional education, and a prominent academic health center that combines cutting-edge biomedical research and exceptional clinical care.

The university enrolls more than 7,200 students in six nationally ranked professional schools and its interdisciplinary Graduate School, conferring most of the professional practice doctoral degrees awarded in Maryland each year. Serving as a powerhouse economic engine for Maryland, UMB delivers care and services that spur growth, and, in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and affiliated physician practices, the university stimulates nearly $8 billion in economic activity each year, generating 17,000 jobs and yielding $13 in economic activity for each $1 of state general fund appropriation.

UMB provides direct health, employment, legal, educational, and social services to underserved communities and impacts the future by addressing the needs of the most vulnerable populations and fostering the next generation of leaders in innovation, discovery, outreach, and economic impact.

To learn more about UMB, visit www.umaryland.edu.

Mayor Catherine Pugh’s personal attorney is expected to announce her resignation at a press conference this afternoon.

After visiting Pugh at her Ashburton home Wednesday, Steve Silverman, the mayor’s lawyer, said he intended to hold a press conference Thursday afternoon at his downtown office. “At that time, I will be in a position to tell you her intentions are moving forward,” Silverman told reporters gathered outside Pugh’s home yesterday.

The scandal-plagued mayor, elected to her first term in 2016, has been on paid sick leave since April 1 following a bout of pneumonia.

The Baltimore Sun reported later Wednesday evening that City Solicitor Andre Davis had drafted a resignation letter for Pugh and handed it to Silverman before the lawyer visited with the mayor. Also Wednesday, roughly two dozen people gathered in front of Pugh’s home for a prayer vigil for the 69-year-old mayor.

Pugh, who has been embroiled in scandal since The Sun broke the story that the University of Maryland Medical System, upon whose board she sat, authorized $500,000 in purchases of her self-published Healthy Holly children’s book series.

FBI and criminal-division IRS agents raided Pugh’s Ashburton residence, another home owned by the mayor, City Hall, and a nonprofit once led by Pugh last Thursday morning. The mayor is also under investigation by the state prosecutor’s office.

The mayor’s book deals, made with companies with business before either the city or state of Maryland, began when she was a state senator. To date, it’s been alleged that $800,000 from sales has been funneled through her Health Holly limited liability company. In the wake of the charges of corruption and self-dealing, the entire 14-member City Council—save Council President Jack Young, the acting mayor in Pugh’s absence—Gov. Larry Hogan, Baltimore City’s contingent of state delegates, Comptroller Peter Franchot, and the Greater Baltimore Committee have called for Pugh’s resignation.

Three Pugh aides—Gary Brown Jr., Poetri Deal, and Afra Vance-White —have been fired by Young since Pugh took leave. Two of the mayor’s key staff, Karen Stokes, the city’s top lobbyist, and chief of staff Bruce Williams, are also no longer employed.

Since the revelations of Pugh’s book deals, there has been discussion among the city’s leaders about amending the Baltimore’s charter and the state constitution to enable the removal of a sitting mayor. As it stands, only a criminal conviction can trigger a Baltimore mayor’s removal from office.

A proposed charter amendment sponsored by District 8 Councilman Kristerfer Burnett last week would enable a three-fourths majority vote of the city council—after an investigation—to remove a sitting mayor. If passed by the council, the amendment would go on the ballot in November 2020 and need to be approved by voters.

The city council is also looking at other legislation that would shift some of the balance of power from Baltimore’s strong-mayor system to the council. Fourth District Councilman Bill Henry is sponsoring a charter amendment that would lower the majority of council members necessary to override a mayor’s veto from four-fifths to two-thirds. The council is also considering a third charter amendment that would provide members more authority in the city budget process.

The scandal surrounding Mayor Catherine Pugh and her “Healthy Holly” children’s books gained more national attention last night.

A segment on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver devoted almost five minutes to breaking down the events of the past week surrounding the mayor and money she received from the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) as part of book deals over the past several years.

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Oliver poked fun at the content of the books and Pugh’s misspelling of one of her main character’s names. He also lampooned a press conference Pugh gave in which she discussed her idea for a Healthy Holly kids’ clothing line.

Watch the segment below, where Oliver calls the scandal “truly remarkable.” (As a warning, there is some explicit language.)

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced Monday that she will be taking a leave of absence, citing her health. A number of city and state politicians have expressed growing concern and distrust in her holding the office at all.

According to a press release yesterday afternoon from the mayor’s office, she has been “battling pneumonia for the past few weeks.” Physicians have advised her to take time to recover and focus on her health. According to The Sun, Pugh will continue to be paid her $185,000 salary.

“At this time, with the Mayor’s health deteriorating, she feels as though she is unable to fulfill her obligations as Mayor of Baltimore City,” reads part of the release. “To that end, Mayor Pugh will be taking an indefinite leave of absence to recuperate from this serious illness.”

The Baltimore City Charter states that if the mayor is unable to fulfill her obligations as mayor of Baltimore City, the President of City Council is to step in as ex officio mayor. As such, City Council President Jack Young will take over during the interim of Pugh’s absence. Young has said he has no plans on running for mayor in 2020 and intends to run for City Council President again.

Pugh is currently under fire after revelations of a $500,000 children’s book deal with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS). Pugh served on the UMMS board while receiving payments for book orders, tallying a $20,000 net profit from each deal. She has since resigned from the board.

Pugh also recently gave back $100,000 from a 2018 book deal with UMMS. The order for 20,000 copies from the mayor’s Healthy Holly children’s series had not yet been filled due to the illustrator suffering from illness.

The Sun reported that Kaiser Permanente also paid Pugh more than $100,000 to purchase copies of her books from 2015 to 2018. Pugh oversees and controls the city’s spending board, and awarded the health insurer a $48-million contract to provide health insurance to city employees from 2018 through 2020, with options to renew.

The announcement from the mayor’s office came hours after Gov. Larry Hogan asked the office of the state prosecutor to begin a criminal investigation into the allegations against Pugh.

There have also been calls for Mayor Pugh to resign among growing scandal. State Comptroller Peter Franchot, City Councilman Zeke Cohen, and City Councilman Ryan Dorsey have all expressed these sentiments. Congressman Elijah Cummings, who supported Pugh in her election campaign, said he supports the investigation into her book deal with UMMS. As does Baltimore City’s senate delegation in the General Assembly.

“Baltimore City is more than just one person, or one mayor,” the city senate delegation wrote in a statement. “We, as Baltimoreans, first and foremost, must hold our City’s officials to the highest standard. Our state cannot sustain any further erosion of trust in our institutions.”

Pugh was elected mayor in 2016—winning the Democratic primary by securing 37 percent of the vote—and would be up for reelection in a Democratic primary next year.

Mayor Catherine Pugh’s most recent $100,000 children’s book contract with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS)—a deal made in 2018—has been cancelled and she has returned the money amid a deepening ethics scandal, according to spokesmen for the mayor and the UMMS.

The most recent 2018 UMMS contract for 20,000 more copies from the mayor’s Healthy Holly children’s series had yet been fulfilled because the book’s illustrator had been ill, Pugh spokesman James Bentley told Baltimore magazine.

A member of the UMMS board since 2001 before her recent resignation, Pugh entered into five children’s book contracts with the hospital network since 2011, totaling $500,000. Those contracts were each for a purchase of 20,000 of her self-published Healthy Holly children’s books at a cost of $100,000—in which Pugh netted $20,000 in profit from each deal.

When asked if the mayor has considered returning any or all of the $400,000 from the previous four contracts—or her $80,000 in profits—Bentley said he did not know. UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg declined to answer a question regarding whether there have been discussions between the UMMS board and Pugh about returning money from previous contracts.

Baltimore City state Sen. Bill Ferguson, a Democrat considered a potential mayor challenger in 2020, has called on Pugh to return the money she’s received back to medical system. Baltimore City state Del. Brooke Leirman called the debacle “appalling” in a tweet. “It just keeps getting worse . . . I can’t even decide what the worst part is,” Lierman wrote.

Tuesday, The Sun reported Pugh—through her book company, Healthy Holly LLC—has made $7,040 in state political contributions since 2015, including a $5,000 contribution to her own campaign. Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski’s campaign, which received $1,000, said they planned return the money. Baltimore City state Sen. Jill Carter, who introduced legislation making it illegal for board members to profit from contracts with the hospitals they govern, is looking to donate the money to charity.

Asked Wednesday if she would release her tax returns, or tax documents for her company, Pugh told The Sun she would not “because I did everything right.” She referred to the inquires a “witch hunt.” Pugh did not attend the weekly Board of Estimates meeting at City Hall on Wednesday, nor did she hold her usual post BOE press availability.

Anne Fullerton, spokeswoman for the Baltimore City Public School System, said BCPSS received a shipment of Pugh’s children’s books between 2011 and 2013. Documentation for that shipment hasn’t been located, however. Fullerton told Baltimore that the books had not been sought by the school system, nor were they used as part of any curriculum. She could not say how many books the school system received, but said roughly 8,700 currently sit in a school warehouse and that there were no immediate plans to distribute those books.

In the meantime, Pugh’s top communications consultant said he would not renew his contract with the mayor when it expires at the end of the month.

In an emailed statement to Baltimore, attorney Stephen Burch, chairman of the board of the University of Maryland Medical System, said he takes “very seriously the concerns raised regarding Board members that have business relationships with UMMS.”

Burch said along with accepting Pugh’s resignation, he has accepted the resignations of UMMS board members John Dillon and Robert Pevenstein. The Sun broke the story last week that nine members of UMMS board have business deals with the hospital network, which they oversee. Dillon reported his health care consulting firm received $300,000 from 2017 and 2018 contracts. Pevenstein reported that his technology firms received more than $150,000 through UMMS contracts in 2017. He reported his son made more than $100,000 from UMMS in 2018. In 2014, according to The Sun’s reporting, UMMS provided $25,000 to the Gov. Larry Hogan and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford’s inaugural committee.

Burch also said he has requested three board members—August Chiasera, Francis X. Kelly, James Soltesz and Walter Tilley, Jr.—to take an immediate voluntary leave of absence while the UMMS board reviews their governance and transparency practices.

M&T Bank executive August Chiasera has reported $7.4 million in revenue for the bank from UMMS contracts over the past two years. Former state Sen. Francis X. Kelley’s insurance company has reported $4.4 million in revenue from UMMS revenue over the past two years.