The Mildred Ridgley Gray Charitable Trust is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Ridgley, a rural farming community in Prince George's County Maryland established by freedmen in 1871. Part of their legacy was providing for the education of their children. They built a one room school and maintained a program in that school for over fifty years until it was replaced by the Ridgeley Rosenwald School. Many of these children grew up to be teachers. They were trained at the Bowie Normal School and Bowie State College. As President of the Mildred Ridgley Gray Charitable Trust, Inc. it is my intention to carry on their legacy of providing education for their children as a member of the Foundation Board.
With a Masters in Regional and Urban Planning from Morgan State University I worked for approximately 30 years coordinating and problem-solving development issues with municipalities and county governments throughout the state of Maryland. We formulated goals, policies, and objectives with the purpose of defining the community that they wanted around them. My specialty was the environment. I worked with jurisdictions to apply principals of environmental design in public spaces and developments. At other times we crafted policies and practices to protect the natural environmental resources.
I got a Brownie Hawkeye Camera when I was a young. That camera and the inspiration of National Geographic Magazine lead me to be an award-winning photographer whose work has been featured in museums, galleries, newspapers and record jackets, and is in a number of private collections.
While working as a planner for the state I also contributed as a state photographer under the direction of the Governor’s office. My images were included in the annual state calendar for state offices and employees. National Geographic used my images in their publication about Smart Growth. A photographic study of the Antietam battle was used as a tool to illustrate the need to retain and protect the historic zoning in the battlefield viewshed.
Most of my photographic energy focuses on the cultural life of people in Africa and her diaspora. For over a decade I photographed the Baltimore's premier African dance company: The Sankofa Dance Theater. Their travels up and down the east coast of the United States, Europe and countries in West Africa were my National Geo dream.
"When E-Mail Is Not Enough,” a series of note cards that I published, features and landscapes of significance to African American People in Maryland. My favorite acknowledgement was being declared a winner of the prestigious Artscape (the largest art festival in the region) Juried Art Exhibit. The winning eleven panel installation was titled: Odunde - A Documentation of African Culture in America.
I am blessed with a good life! And for that I am grateful.
