Looking into 2024: Board of Trade updates in the new year!

Category: Latest Updates

Looking into 2024: Board of Trade updates in the new year!

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OFFICERS & NEW MEMBERS

2024 Officers

Meet our 2024 Board of Trade officers! At the forefront is Steve Proctor, President and CEO of G.S. Proctor & Associates, who steps into the role of 2024 Board Chair. Together with Steve, this dynamic leadership will continue to guide the Board of Trade as we navigate new intricate and rewarding challenges, promising higher impact and a strengthened network within our community. Embracing these hurdles with the same vigor that defines us, we’re geared up to tackle them head-on, leveraging our experiences and collective strength to make an even greater difference.

See our full list of Board Members here

New Members

In 2023, we welcomed over 30 esteemed organizations, enriching our community and elevating the Board of Trade to new heights. As we anticipate the exciting opportunities of 2024, our existing members are integral to our success. If you know of an organization that should be part of this thriving community, take action! Reach out today to explore the benefits of joining the Board of Trade community.

See our full list of Member Organizations here

NEW EVENTS & PROGRAMMING

Mid-Winter Dinner at Washington National Cathedral

Join us on March 13 at the Washington National Cathedral for our premier event, the 104th Mid-Winter Dinner, presented by PNC Bank. This exclusive black-tie event is your chance to connect with business, government, and community leaders outside the office. Experience a pre-dinner cocktail reception, followed by a seated 3-course dinner, creating valuable connections with key players in the region. Don’t miss this extraordinary night of camaraderie and collaboration – secure your spot now and elevate your presence at the heart of the action!

Get tickets and register here

Regional Policy Leadership Series kicks off with DC Mayor Muriel Bowser

We are pleased to welcome Mayor Muriel Bowser next week at our in-person Regional Policy Leadership Series event on January 17. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion addressing critical issues within DC’s Central Business District. Mayor Bowser will delve into pressing topics such as efforts to enhance public safety, WMATA’s budget-related impacts, and the ongoing challenge of downtown revitalization amidst the prevailing work-from-home dynamic affecting businesses in the District.

Register here for this event

EVENT CALENDAR: View more events and professional opportunities

DID YOU MISS THIS?

Annual Meeting Recap

The Board of Trade’s 2023 Annual Meeting at MGM National Harbor was a resounding success! Our outgoing chair, Jermaine Johnson, and 2024 Chair, Steve Proctor, outlined some noteworthy highlights, such as a remarkable 90% member retention rate, an expansion of policy efforts, and strategic plans to address the significant funding gap for WMATA. Presenting sponsor Kaiser Permanente’s Ruth Williams-Brinkley shared their alignment with the Board of Trade and our mutual mission to build healthy communities. Deborah Rutter of the Kennedy Center emphasized the pivotal role of the arts in public safety, featuring discussions on its economic impact and community well-being. A compelling table read from ‘Enough: Plays to End Gun Violence,’ crafted by playwright Niarra C Bell, ignited a panel on crime prevention with MPD’s Chief of Police, Pamela Smith. As we approach 2024, our focus remains on tackling new challenges, advocating fervently, and implementing targeted initiatives to keep our region competitive, engaged, and inclusive.

Click here to read more about this impactful event

Regional Attorneys General

The Board of Trade brought together the Greater Washington region’s attorneys general in mid-December to discuss important issues and topics surrounding Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Topics ranged from the ongoing Meta lawsuit, the impacts of artificial intelligence, and how our top legal officials in Greater Washington are combating the epidemic of crime in the region.  

Click here to read and watch more

Regional Attorneys General Policy Discussion addresses Meta Lawsuit, AI Ethics, and Crime Solutions in Greater Washington 

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The Greater Washington Board of Trade’s Regional Policy Leadership Series brought together Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in discussion with Uber Technologies’ Senior Public Policy Manager Michele Blackwell about topics ranging from the ongoing Meta lawsuit and artificial intelligence to combating the epidemic of crime in the region.   

AG Brown discussed key priorities around consumer protection and public safety, ranging from the Meta lawsuit and antitrust regulations to regulation around handgun qualification and addressing mass incarceration and recidivism, even indicating that he will be seeking to form a regional coalition among his colleagues on the call to create a task force in the mold of Illinois’ recent organized retail theft task-force to begin tackling the problem more holistically and collaboratively across the region.   

In the way of consumer protections, Brown delved into antitrust legislation around minimum price setting in Maryland and expressed a commitment to continuing to pursue a collaborative relationship with the business focused on the prevention of abusive behaviors rather than over-regulation and litigation. Conversation then shifted to the Meta lawsuits being pursued by 41 attorneys general across the nation and the need for social media platforms and the tech industry to take age gating and verification seriously so that kids are protected from some of the tactics that have become a vital part of monetization of social media platforms.   

In a discussion on violent crime, Brown pointed out that youth crime is actually on the decline with the very important exception of carjackings and gun violence and that wrap-around services in concert with a more pointed approach to prosecuting those crimes will be pivotal parts of any solution going forward. When asked how the business community can help, he suggested that continued investment in young people to get them off the streets and to inspire them with what their futures can look like through internship and mentorship will play a major role in preventing the cycle of criminality that plagues the region. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS0y8C7BY3I

AG Schwalb primarily focused on DC’s Cure the Streets broad approach to combating violent crime in the District and consumer protections around the Meta Lawsuit, as well as the District’s proposed legislation regarding the use of AI algorithms in the making of important life decisions for residents.   

Discussion of DC’s Cure the Streets program centered around the need to make people feel safe in the face of some disturbing trends around violence in the city. As the crimes associated with first offenses worsen and traditional prosecution has not seemed to be able to fix the problem, wrap-around services to keep children off the streets by providing after-school programs, jobs, internships, and mentoring may represent a viable path forward. Schwalb indicated that point as a way in which the business community is poised to get involved and have a major impact on both public safety and the lives of many of the District’s young residents.   

Discussion of the Meta lawsuit and protection of DC’s youth from business practices that may negatively impact young minds transitioned into discussion of DC’s proposed regulations around the use of AI, big data, and algorithms in the making of important life decisions when Schwalb acknowledged the importance of balancing the major benefits that many of these technologies can bring to residents with concerns around the data privacy and data set biasing endemic to them. He expressed his office’s desire to create guard rails that will prevent the technology from going over the line and doing harm rather than opening up access to products and services to a broader scope of the population.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyN9NTkj2E8

AG Miyares discussed, first, Virginia’s cease-fire program designed to combat gang violence throughout the state by intervening immediately within communities to avoid the retaliatory cycle of gun violence before it can begin and focusing on the prosecution of the disproportionately small number of repeat offenders, ~5%, who commit ~50% of crime in the Commonwealth. He, like his colleagues, pointed out that the business community can take a major role in preventing that cycle by providing pathways for young people to better themselves and develop relationships with the private sector, getting them out of bad situations associated with their being unsupervised after school and allowing them to envision themselves in positions and roles which may never have occurred to them.   

Miyares then moved on to the discussion of consumer protections in the Commonwealth, again reiterating the need to provide age-appropriate guard rails for children on social media platforms while still allowing for the social connection that they so desire before moving into discussion of his recent opposition to the increasing of greenbelt fares, expounding on the AG’s office’s role as the voice of the people in issues of consumer protection within the Commonwealth.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urv9ebDZv_Q

Our Regional Attorneys General RPLS webinar was the last one of for 2023. During the 2023 year, we held six RPLS virtual policy discussions, including discussions with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Regional Police Chiefs and Regiona Labor Leaders from DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

In 2024, we look forward to continuing to connect the business community to information directly from policymakers through our Regional Policy Leadership Series, ensuring that our members have the best up-to-date knowledge about how the region’s governments are planning for and reacting to a constantly changing environment.   

This Regional Policy Leadership Series webinar was presented by Uber Technologies. Supporting Sponsors of the event series are Comcast, First National Bank, Fox Rothschild LLP, Giant Food LLC, G.S. Proctor & Associates Inc., Holland & Knight LLP, McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, McGuireWoods LLP, and MGM National Harbor. Thank you for supporting the Greater Washington Board of Trade and our region’s business community.     

GWBOT’s 2023 Annual Meeting highlights Growth, Arts Advocacy, and Community Collaboration around Public Safety

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The Board of Trade’s 2023 Annual Meeting, presented by Kaiser Permanente, was held on Dec. 12 at the MGM National Harbor Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and recapped a year of growth for the Board of Trade. The meeting brought together nearly 300 members of GWBOT to celebrate recent accomplishments, look at the year ahead for the organization, and discuss the importance of the arts to the Greater Washington community, specifically in the context of violent crime, as it has become such a prominent area of concern in the region.  

From the Stage:  

Board of Trade President & CEO Jack McDougle, outgoing Board Chair Jermaine Johnson, and incoming Board Chair Steve Proctor started with discussions of what the Board of Trade has accomplished over the past year and where they see the organization moving over the next. This included sharing a 90-percent member retention rate for 2023, the growth of our policy and advocacy department to push forth and make an impact on our members’ positions in the region, how we will work with our partners to address the critical $750 Million funding gap for WMATA/METRO, and how we will continue to address growing public safety issues for regional businesses. The annual meeting also allowed a vote to confirm the upcoming GWBOT Board of Directors and introduce new 2024 Board Officers as part of the excitement for our organization heading into the new year and how we can enhance our impact, grow membership, and maximize member engagement.

Click here to view more pictures from Annual Meeting

We also had the pleasure of hearing from Ruth Williams-Brinkley, President at Kaiser Permanente Mid Atlantic States, on the great work Kaiser is doing to build healthy communities in our region before handing the discussion off to Deborah Rutter, President of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, who introduced the primary topic of conversation around the vital importance of the arts to the region, remarking on the enormous value of arts and culture for the region’s businesses, as well as the role that access to the arts plays in the mental and general wellbeing of the rest of the region’s communities.  

In discussing what the region might look like without museums, arenas, theaters, and gathering spaces that shape the civic lives of residents, Deborah discussed a recent National Endowment for the Arts and Americans for the Arts poll in which 86% of respondents say that the arts vastly improve their lives in their communities and that arts in the non-profit sector make up a $13.8 Billion chunk of the DC economy and around $50 Billion regionally. Concluding that arts and entertainment are not luxuries but that they are necessary for prosperous communities, she mentioned some of the Kennedy Center’s community outreach work, including the National Symphony Orchestra’s ‘In Your Neighborhood’ program, which largely centers around bringing access to the arts to Ward 5 across non-traditional settings, and grassroots organizations participating in programs like the Cultural Caucus, which provides space and funding for local communities to curate the arts programming that they care about.  

Deborah’s focus on art for non-art outcomes led to the presentation of a table read for playwright Niarra C Bell’s The Smiles Behind, a play born out of Enough: Plays to End Gun Violence, a program that asks teens to submit short works around gun violence and provides a platform for young artists.  

The performance was followed by a panel discussion in which Jack, Niarra, Deborah, and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department discussed violent crime in the region as contextualized by the play. Jack, moderating the panel, started the discussion with a personal anecdote about his experience with violent crime in the region before passing the discussion to the panelists. Chief Smith discussed her background, including how she came to be an integral part of the national law enforcement community and some of the broad impact that she has seen community-centric cooperative policing have on DC’s residents. 

Deborah discussed her experiences with the large-scale defunding of arts education shortly after the start of her career. She reflected on the critical role that arts education and arts educators had on her life during her formative years before transitioning into a discussion of how the Kennedy Center represents a unique local and national platform for every form of art within the region and how its significant role has been an enormous part of the region’s cultural focus on the arts.  

Niarra then discussed how increasing rates of gun violence can hit close to home in communities that aren’t expecting it and how such an instance led her to get involved with theater and later into arts advocacy and remarked on the importance of giving a platform to young voices as a part of the conversation about criminal justice reform.  

The conversation then shifted more toward violent crime prevention as Chief Smith expressed a desire to partner with the Kennedy Center to help educate new officers and create a more humane policing community by sharing art like The Smiles Behind with new officers. She went on to discuss the arrest of 10 juveniles involved in a carjacking ring (an alarming issue in the District) and the impact that new programs like Operation ATLAS and the District’s new gun trafficking unit have had since their creation on the crime rates in the region. Also, Chief Smith spoke about future programs like the District’s crime center, which will be reaching out to the region’s business community to provide CCTV access in concert with the Mayor’s plan to double the number of CCTVs in the District, a measure which has substantially reduced crime elsewherel. Chief Smith concluded by discussing the importance of holding youth accountable and avoiding a culture where juveniles feel untouchable by the law.  

Niarra echoed Chief Smith’s sentiments about the necessity of holding juveniles accountable, further discussing how the lack of accountability can lead to many of the problems communities can experience wherein bystanders can be grouped in with bad actors before Deborah concluded the discussion by calling out Duke Ellington High School’s gun violence support group, recently featured in the Washington Post, as being an incredible example of community support of those impacted by the region’s pandemic of violent crime.  

Thank you to all our members for contributing to the work of the Board of Trade that helps our region and business community to stay competitive, engaged, productive, and inclusive to all who live and visit! 

In 2024, we anticipate fresh challenges coupled with abundant prospects. Drawing from our enduring legacy in this region, the Board of Trade is unwavering in its dedication to amplifying your achievements and bolstering our region’s competitiveness. We’ll advance this by nurturing stronger connections, advocating more powerfully across federal, state, and local arenas, conducting in-depth analyses, and rolling out specific programs and initiatives. 

Stay up to date on Board of Trade events here: https://www.bot.org/events 

Thank you to our sponsors for supporting our 2023 Annual Meeting and continuing your support for the Board of Trade and our vital work in the region:

Greater Washington Board of Trade and Greater Washington Partnership Host 2023 Capital Region Transportation Forum focused on Future of Transportation and WMATA

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On November 30th, the Greater Washington Board of Trade (the Board of Trade) and the Greater Washington Partnership (the Partnership) hosted the 6th annual Capital Region Transportation Forum. This annual event brings together the Capital Region’s transportation leaders – from Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia – to discuss shared challenges and opportunities that require multi-jurisdiction collaboration. This year, the discussion centered around the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) fiscal challenges and regional efforts to overcome them. 

The Partnership and the Board of Trade work together to ensure the region is advancing comprehensive and strategic transportation investments that will keep our economy moving. An efficient, accessible, and reliable transportation system is essential to ensuring businesses and residents can thrive.   

We kicked off the morning by celebrating many of the region’s transportation wins from the past year, including the relaunch of the Baltimore Red Line, Metro’s post-pandemic ridership recovery and historic levels of service, as well as record-breaking ridership on Virginia’s passenger trains. Most notably, WMATA’s $750 million operating budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, remains a major challenge facing the region and we urged leaders and elected officials to work together toward a sustainable solution.  

Charting the Path to Sustainable Mobility 

The event opened with Dr. Cinzia Cirillo, who is a professor and the interim director of the Maryland Transportation Institute at the University of Maryland. Dr. Cirillo discussed recent research from the Maryland Transportation Institute regarding persistent traffic and congestion in the Greater Washington region despite the prevalence of remote work. She also shared the data science behind those insights, and how such models can be invaluable tools for decision makers going forward to forecast usage, expected impacts, and externalities of future infrastructure projects. “[Monitoring congestion] is not enough, because in order to make investments, we need to be able to predict the consequences of our actions, or no action,” Cirillo said. 

SEE MORE PICUTURES FROM OUR EVENT HERE

Randy Clarke: State of the Metro Address  

Randy Clarke, the General Manager and CEO of WMATA, updated the audience on WMATA’s current financial crisis. The transit agency, which is facing a $750 million operating budget deficit, has been working toward reforms, cost savings, and service cuts to help bridge its funding gap. Clarke outlined the major factors contributing to the agency’s deficit, including decreased ridership post-pandemic, inflation, and the depletion of COVID subsidies. If a funding agreement is not defined in the coming weeks, the immediate consequences could include significant service cuts and layoffs. “The state of Metro is strong but highly uncertain. We need to choose as a region what we want Metro to be,” Clarke said.  

Clarke presented various budget scenarios with the worst-case scenario requiring drastic cuts to bus and rail services, longer waiting times for commuters, the shutdown of numerous bus lines, and early shutdowns of the Metrorail system. Equally concerning is the huge number of WMATA employees that will face the prospect of layoffs and hiring freezes if funding is not secured. Layoff notifications and the hiring freeze could begin in January 2025, with impacts to service starting to show during DC’s busy cherry blossom season next spring. 

Panel: Regional Transportation Leaders Panel 

A panel discussion, moderated by WUSA9 anchor Lesli Foster, brought together the transportation leaders from DC, Maryland, and Virginia to discuss recent progress and collaboration on regional transportation initiatives. The panelists, Virginia Secretary of Transportation W. Sheppard Miller III, Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld, and Interim Director of the District Department of Transportation Sharon Kershbaum, shared insights on their administrations’ respective visions and shared regional priorities. Safety was stressed as a top priority across the region. All three secretaries emphasized their shared focus on reducing roadway injuries and fatalities.  “We lost over 1,000 people last year on our roadways. The problem is that we’ve gotten used to that fact,” said Sheppard Miller III.  

WMATA was another key concern and topic of discussion. The uncertain future of WMATA services, escalating costs, and impacts on service are creating instability across the region. “The importance of WMATA to Maryland and to the region cannot be overstated. It’s what makes us competitive nationally and internationally. We cannot let it fail, but we also have to work with our financial realities. We’re going to have to make some hard choices,” said Paul Wiedefeld. The panel explored how each administration is working to ensure stability for WMATA, its funding partners, and the broader community that relies on its services “WMATA’s survival is the District’s survival. The District is really trying to drive demand [for transit] because that is a lever that we have. Priority bus lanes have been key to that.” said Sharon Kershbaum. 

The Partnership and the Board of Trade were honored to host 200 leaders to discuss foundational issues for our region’s ability to grow and thrive. Thank you to Lesli Foster for serving as our moderator, all our panelists and presenters, and a special thanks to this year’s sponsors: Georgetown University, EXP, HDR, HNTB, Transurban, Aon, EY, and Lyft. We will continue to convene and look for opportunities to partner with the leaders who joined us at the 2023 Capital Region Transportation Forum to ensure the region continues to make the long-term investments needed to ensure this region remains one of the best places to live, work, and build a business. 

Watch the full 2023 Capital Region Transportation Forum here.

To watch and share clips from the 2023 Capital Region Transportation Forum, check out the below videos from our YouTube page:

WMATA (Metro) General Manager Randy Clarke discusses transit system’s $750 million funding gap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2JQdLMXgV4&t=217s

Capital Region transportation leaders discuss Metro funding and traffic congestion in DC, MD, and VA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGoIJqYfPOg&t=2s

Maryland Transportation Institute shares traffic research for the Greater Washington region

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpJgO63Ac2Q

October policy dicussions engage Board of Trade members with regional labor leaders and state senators

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GWBOT’s Regional Policy Leadership Series (RPLS) events bring together key policymakers and officials to discuss some of the most important issues facing the region’s business community. Last month, the Board of Trade and our partners held two policy conversations, one with regional labor leaders and another with Virginia and Maryland’s Senate Presidents. In each of these discussions, topics ranged from workforce, education, disruptive technology, and the future of both economic and environmental sustainability.

The first event was a labor-focused discussion expertly moderated by Mac Tisdale, President Mid-Atlantic Region at First National Bank. It brough together Sec. Portia Wu, Dr. Unique N. Morris-Hughes, and Sec. George Slater to discuss topics across the labor and workforce landscape, including workforce development and retention, labor environment, intraregional cooperation, and preparing the region for the future impacts of emerging technologies like AI before taking questions about the potential impacts of a government shutdown on the region’s labor market and economy. Fundamentally, the discussion centered around the notion that the Greater Washington region has one of the most educated workforces in the world and should be in a position to capitalize on the new disruptive technologies changing the national and global economic landscapes and what the region can do to maintain and expand the edge that it currently has in that sector.  

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR IN-PERSON EVENT

Our though-provoking moderator Steve Proctor, President and CEO of G.S. Proctor & Associates, led our next discussion, which engaged Senate Presidents Lucas and Ferguson on a broad range of topics spanning workforce and education, transit, economic and environmental sustainability, health and wellness, technology, and legislative priorities for Maryland and Virginia in the coming cycle, giving attendees a high-level view into what the upcoming legislative cycle is likely to bring for the region.  

Perhaps the biggest take-away, though, was the common theme through the two sessions of collaboration between jurisdictions. Leaders in both sessions have expressed an understanding of the importance of interjurisdictional intraregional collaboration and signaled a desire to work with one another more closely. Connecting regional leaders and the business community is, in large part, the goal of this series and the opportunity to see, in real time, the beginnings of those conversations and for business leaders to take part in the discussion during Q and A time to shape the conversation is a huge step toward this goal.  

If you were able to attend last month’s sessions, thank you for being a part of the conversations and helping to advance collaboration and cooperation within the region, and if you weren’t, make sure that you are able to attend future events so that you can be a party to the conversation going forward and as informed as possible about changes coming to the region’s policy landscape. 

Want to learn more abou these RPLS discussions?

Learn more here: Regional Senate Presidents

Learn more here: Regional Labor Leaders

Board of Trade holds 30th Fall Business Classic at National Museum of Women in the Arts

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The Greater Washington Board of Trade gathered more than 400 regional leaders and business professionals for our 30th Fall Business Classic on Oct. 26 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. This annual gathering celebrates the importance of working together to connect our business community. 

The evening was highlighted by a spectacular and newly renovated venue, fascinating museum exhibits, and engaging conversations on regional business topics, which created a high-energy event. 

Regional collaboration is at the core of the Board of Trade’s mission, which makes convening the region’s leading business executives, community partners, and elected and appointed officials for meaningful conversations a valuable part of enhancing our region and its communities. 

Click here to view more pictures from FBC here 

Since our establishment in 1889, the Board of Trade has a history of bringing our region together for meaningful dialogues that lead to action. Over the decades this has included initiating D.C.’s subway development in the 1930s, helping form parks along our beautiful rivers, pushing for the development of the region’s airports, and helping bring organizations together to build entertainment and sporting venues in our region. 

We’d like to extend our thanks to all the sponsors, participants, and staff who put in tremendous effort to make this event a success. We look forward to continuing to build a brighter future for the Greater Washington region, one meaningful connection at a time. 

Our next featured event this fall with be the annual Capital Region Transportation Forum at Georgetown University. Click here to check out more and consider registering. 

This 2023 Fall Business Classic was presented by M&T Bank. Supporting Sponsors of this event are Bank of America, Bechtel, Capital One, Giant Food LLP, Miles & Stockbridge P.C., National Museum of Women in the Arts, Pepco, Ridgewells, Washingtonian Magazine, Wells Fargo, Western Transportation Group. 

Stay up to date on Board of Trade events here: https://www.bot.org/events 

Maryland and Virginia senate leadership discuss legislation and policies impacting the Greater Washington region

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The Greater Washington Board of Trade’s Regional Policy Leadership Series brought Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and Virginia Senate President pro-tempore Luis Lucas together to discuss a broad range of topics spanning workforce and education, Transit, Economic and environmental sustainability, health and wellness, technology, the threat of government shutdown for the region, and legislative priorities for Maryland and Virginia in the coming cycle. The event, presented by G.S. Proctor and Associates, highlighted the importance of collaboration between jurisdictions in our region and the vital role that the Board of Trade plays in bringing decision makers together.  

From a workforce and talent development standpoint, both states are working to reevaluate and rework their education systems to function in the new economic landscape into which young students are graduating. As the cost of higher education continues to soar, Virginia’s focus on connecting higher education institutions with major jobs providers in the region in conjunction with a renewed focus and reinvestment into apprenticeship programs which provide a look into alternative paths not including higher education, ensure that Virginian’s are fully aware of the universe of educational paths before them. In Maryland, the blueprint for Maryland’s future is underway and focusing on every stage of education, investing in early childhood education by ensuring the availability of free or low cost child care for all four year olds and low income three year olds and working to ensure that no children make it through high school without having completed certificate or apprenticeship programs providing a clear career path forward.  

WMATA, the connective sinew of the region, was a big discussion point. Both legislatures are committed to solving the funding problems currently plaguing the body and are fully aware of the degree to which public transit in the region provides enormous potential for economic prosperity. Connecting MD, VA, and DC and creating seamless transitions between jurisdictions in the region is a fundamental bedrock of the local economy and as each jurisdiction moves toward electrification and fulfillment of environmental goals, is likely to become more and more important as public transportation must necessarily take a front seat in reaching those ends.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eJyxb7JzDs

Both states have made historic gains in tax revenue and are being cautious when looking at their budgets in the near future. As federal COVID relief dollars begin to dry up, Ensuring that state budgets are not careening toward a funding cliff is vital for the long term sustainability of the region, leading the states to invest heavily in shorter term projects without substantial long term budgets which were designed to jump start movement toward equity in concert with many of the plans already mentioned in this discussion.  

Both senate presidents discussed what their respective states are doing to combat and ameliorate the effects of climate change. With Virginia’s senate resisting Youngkin’s calls for an exit from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and Maryland focusing on a comprehensive set of fairly aggressive climate goals. Both jurisdictions are committed to the sustainability of these efforts and ensuring that the business interests throughout the region are on board and a part of ongoing discussions. Both presidents further concluded that the entire region would need to collaborate on many of these initiatives to ensure viability as both states are on “parallel paths”. 

Crime emerged as a discussion topic for both jurisdictions. Both legislatures are committed to addressing the root causes of violence through comprehensive programs including the expansion of mental health providers in the school system in an attempt to head off violent crime with prophylaxis rather than punishment. These efforts are also part of a broader focus on provision of mental health services to residents as we continue to see prolonged impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic especially on the youth of the region.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejCj-jusWR8

Technology is taking a leading position in the development of the region as it undergoes an explosion in cutting-edge high-tech positions while struggling to contend with data privacy and potential job loss concerns associated with many of these new disruptive technologies. The entire region is working to utilize new technologies and reap as many benefits as possible from innovators in the region while remaining vigilant about protecting residents who are potentially vulnerable to some of the technologies’ negative externalities.  

Both Senate Presidents concluded with discussion of their legislative priorities which focused primarily on environmental sustainability and educational equity for Virginia, and addressing youth violence, creation of affordable housing, and prioritizing transportation investment in Maryland; both further concluding that they look forward to connecting with one another to discuss their plans and how the region can work more closely together on all of these goals. 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL DISCUSSION

The Board of Trade will continue to connect the business community to information directly from policy makers through our Regional Policy Leadership Series (RPLS), ensuring that our members have the best up-to-date knowledge impacting regional policies. Stay tuned for our upcoming sessions with regional Senate Presidents, Attorneys General, Comptrollers, and more.  

This Regional Policy Leadership Series  webinar was presented by G.S. Proctor @ Associates. Supporting Sponsors of the event series are Comcast, Fox Rothschild LLP, Giant Food LLC, G.S. Proctor & Associates Inc., Holland & Knight LLP, McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, McGuireWoods LLP, MGM National Harbor, First National Bank and Uber. Thank you for supporting the Greater Washington Board of Trade and our region’s business community.    

Stay up-to-date on Board of Trade events here: https://www.bot.org/events 

Let’s Collaborate: How to rebrand math for the future sucess of business in our region

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Math is not just about equations but a vital skill for daily problem-solving, business success, and even landing on Mars. And in the Greater Washington region, it will help our communities grow, helping younger generations tackle issues facing transportation, economics, healthcare, and so much more.

Board of Trade President & CEO Jack McDougle joined WTOP and the Collaborative for Student Success in a discussion about why math matters for community success, why we need to help rebrand it to make it more popular to younger generations, and how we can help support its growth and necessity.

Below is the view interview from our discussion with WTOP. Read the full readout of the interview here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf_FsUyTTYs&t=1s

Check out more content from our partnership with WTOP to showcase how businesses in our region are helping grow and create stronger communities in Greater Washington here.

Want to learn more about upcoming events that help you engage in the Greater Washington business community? Stay up-to-date on Board of Trade events here: https://www.bot.org/events 

 

How research and evidence can chart the path to educational equity | WTOP Partnership

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Originally posted by WTOP on behalf of the American Institues of Research (AIR) and the Board of Trade here.

In 1954, the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education found that a “separate, but equal” education was unconstitutional and ordered U.S. public schools to desegregate. However, as we approach the 70th anniversary of this ruling, U.S. schools are far from integrated. In fact, a 2022 federal report shows that many U.S. schools remain deeply divided along racial, ethnic and economic lines, despite increasing diversity in the student population.

“This deepening segregation has serious and lasting effects on students, families and communities,” said Jessica Heppen, president of the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution headquartered in Arlington, Virginia that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance domestically and globally. “Educational inequity is a self-perpetuating ecosystem that needs to be systematically examined and dismantled,” said Heppen, a researcher and expert in education policy and practice.

Improving education is core to AIR’s work with its clients and communities, as well as a key area of focus for the AIR Equity Initiative, the institution’s five-year, $105 million investment in addressing the effects of segregation by race and place through research, grant-making, partnerships and other activities.

“Increasing opportunities and improving outcomes will take collaboration among all facets of our communities—schools, housing, public safety, social services and more,” said Rashawn Ray, vice president and executive director of the AIR Equity Initiative. “We are working to actively build structures and systems that forge integration and create educational equity.”

Segregation results in disparate academic outcomes, opportunities and experiences for many students. For instance, data from the National Center for Education Statistics Equity in Education Dashboard shows that schools where more than 75 percent of the attendees were students of color were more likely to take disciplinary actions than other schools. This is a concern because research shows that discipline measures such as suspensions and expulsions have negative effects on students’ academic outcomes and attendance, and do little to change future behavior.

With Equity Initiative funding, AIR researchers are conducting a study of the Bridges Collaborative, which connects school districts, housing organizations and other groups to collaborate and learn from each other on strategies to integrate schools. (See what AIR has learned so far.)

Academic gaps and a road to recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated long-standing inequities in U.S. schools. This was seen vividly in the most recent mathematics and reading scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federally administered test given to a nationally representative sample of students across the U.S. Scores fell or stagnated, and gaps among different racial and ethnic subgroups widened.

Academic recovery efforts, such as extended learning time and tutoring, have made some headway, but not enough, according to research from AIR’s Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, NWEA and Harvard University. While research shows such programs are working, most schools and districts have not been able to implement interventions at the scale needed to counter widespread learning losses.

Two complementary AIR projects are helping researchers and practitioners understand and address the effects of the pandemic.

The RESTART Network aims to collect evidence about practices that can promote student academic recovery, particularly among students from marginalized groups and those who experienced learning challenges prior to the pandemic. AIR leads the network, which is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education.

AIR is also studying how states, districts and communities responded to the pandemic through the COVID-19 and Equity in Education: Longitudinal Deep Dive project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the AIR Equity Initiative. The COVID-19 and Equity in Education Enrollment Explorer, an interactive data tool AIR designed as part of the project, helps policymakers and educators analyze pre- and post-pandemic student enrollment trends by locality.

“These projects aim to bring together the research communities, so that we can speak with a clear voice about how to interpret the research and share evidence-informed recommendations that can help guide policymakers,” said Susan Therriault, an AIR Institute Fellow who is leading this work.

Putting evidence into action

While data can provide decisionmakers with some insight into where they should focus or how they may tackle educational inequities, help may be needed to put that evidence into action.

Through the Regional Educational Laboratories (REL), funded by IES, AIR collaborates with states, school districts and communities in two U.S. regions to identify and ameliorate challenges. For instance, in Chicago, a team from REL Midwest is working with educators from Jonathan Burr Elementary School to implement evidence-based math engagement strategies and better prepare students for success in advanced math. And a team at REL Southwest is working with the Arkansas Department of Education to see how different communications strategies can encourage families to access literacy resources. These are just a couple of examples of how AIR is working with states and communities to improve educational opportunities.

“We not only want to generate high-quality evidence about what works to improve educational equity, we also want to help schools, districts and communities put that evidence to work,” Heppen said. “That is how we can achieve our mission and improve people’s lives today and in the future.”

Regional Labor Leaders Gather for Workforce and Labor Discussion

Posted on by codeadmin

Top labor officials from Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia came together to discuss the future of labor markets and workforce development as part of the Board of Trade’s Regional Policy Leadership Series on Oct. 19. Sec. Portia Wu, Dr. Unique N. Morris-Hughes, and Sec. Bryan Slater discussed topics across the labor and workforce landscape including workforce development and retention, labor environment, intraregional cooperation, and preparing the region for the future impacts of emerging technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence) before addressing the potential impacts of a government shutdown on the region’s labor market and economy as well and more detailed discussion of what intraregional collaboration should look like going forward.    

https://youtu.be/EXekjAV_XTc?si=CQUUmGIfkjKdTQh0
Sec. Portia Wu, Dr. Unique N. Morris-Hughes, and Sec. Bryan Slater each give an overview regarding labor and employment for their respective jurisdictions.

Across the region, all three jurisdictions are experiencing record low unemployment rates and are bouncing back from lower labor participation rates experienced throughout and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bolstered by concerted efforts on the part of each jurisdiction to shore up existing and create new pipelines from education to the workforce, these employment numbers paint a picture of a region which is recovering rapidly from the malaise of the pandemic and working to engage young residents in the labor market to ensure that this rate of growth is stable and sustainable over time. 

Expansion of efforts to create labor pipelines from local resident students to the IT (Information Technology), Professional Services Management, and Hospitality and Tourism sectors promises to ensure that the region’s economy can be supplied with the local labor market, reinvesting in the current population. Job training programs like Virginia’s workforce innovation act, Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, and DC’s infrastructure academy represent an enormous investment in young residents and in ensuring that departments of labor and employment are able to connect students with the workforce through internship programs, apprenticeships, and signing days, offering tax credits for training programs in critical and growing industries and incentivization of youth involvement in job training programs.  

Continued investment into workforce retention programs like FAMLI and provision of mental health services at all points along the lifetime of an individual’s career promise to further improve the region’s bounce back from pandemic workforce participation levels and keep groups frequently at risk of dropping temporarily or permanently from the labor market engaged. Expanding the mental health care capacity through universal licensing recognition, telehealth services, and demand side subsidization will help to combat the burnout and provide much needed wrap around services to those working on the front lines of the economy.   

https://youtu.be/j_Z1Crqe3y4?si=VSMZG0vnoYR4hUgy
Sec. Portia Wu, Dr. Unique N. Morris-Hughes, and Sec. Bryan Slater discussed how regional jurisdictions are also preparing for the expansion of AI in the workplace.

Regional jurisdictions are also preparing for the expansion of AI in the workplace and setting out guardrails for where and how AI can be used to prevent unfair labor practices while actively utilizing artificial intelligences to ensure that every resident has the ability to start on equal ground in the labor market when searching for employment.   

Finally, panelists discussed their concerns regarding a potential government shutdown and the relative risks of a longer or shorter period as well as some loan programs designed to bridge unpaid working periods along with their desire to build a more robust model to protect the region’s largely federally reliant economy.   

Click here to watch the full interview. 

The Board of Trade will continue to connect the business community to information directly from policy makers through our Regional Policy Leadership Series (RPLS), ensuring that our members have the best up-to-date knowledge impacting regional policies. Stay tuned for our upcoming sessions with regional Senate Presidents, Attorneys General, Comptrollers, and more.  

This Regional Policy Leadership Series  webinar was presented by First National Bank. Supporting Sponsors of the event series are Comcast, Fox Rothschild LLP, Giant Food LLC, G.S. Proctor & Associates Inc., Holland & Knight LLP, McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, McGuireWoods LLP, MGM National Harbor, and Uber. Thank you for supporting the Greater Washington Board of Trade and our region’s business community.    

Stay up-to-date on Board of Trade events here: https://www.bot.org/events 

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