Perhaps it should be no surprise that former Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer attributes her management style to the Girl Scouts. Well before women were fully accepted in business schools or other corporate management programs, the Girl Scouts of America was one of the few institutions where young women in the 1960s could develop their leadership skills. For Ellen Moyer, fresh out of Penn State, it was an ideal place to hone in her approach to collaboration and outreach.
Those skills proved to be essential as Moyer become civically engaged. Even as a mother of five, she joined her then-husband Roger ‘Pip’ Moyer as an active partner during his years as mayor from 1965 to 1973, which included the turbulent 60s. She eventually ran for public office herself and was elected alderman for the city, and in 2001 became the first woman to be elected mayor, an office she would hold for eight years.
In her interview with the Spy, Ellen talks about those early years and her long-standing commitment to participatory civic engagement. Throughout her tenure, she insisted that citizens play an active role in protecting the Annapolis environment, community policing, and preserving its historical nature. Those early initiatives, unprecedented at the time, are now firmly embedded in the Annapolis ethos, placing it among the country’s most progressive communities.
While the former mayor is concerned that city bureaucracy’s creeping nature is threatening the importance of community engagement, she remains confident that the city that she helped build with withstand the test of time.
This video is approximately thirteen minutes in length. The Spy is grateful to the Baltimore Sun’s archives for the historical images included.
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