Baltimore Power Moves: Impact Hub Baltimore’s coleader takes a ‘step back’

A popular Baltimore coworking space recently lost a third of its new leadership team. Read on for details, and more area power moves below.

Founded in 2015, Impact Hub Baltimore (IHB) initially operated under the independent leadership of one of its three cofounders. In September of last year, it formally transitioned to a coleadership model, with three individuals sharing top responsibilities.

One of these inaugural coleaders decided to take a “step back,” according to a mid-December announcement email, just weeks before she would have completed a prescribed 120-day orientation meant to ensure the leadership transition’s success.

The search for a trio of directors began in June 2023. This top-level shift followed various changes for the space, including a collaboration with GoDaddy to assist over 240 small business owners through its Empower cohorts and workshops. These programs aimed to provide participants with skills in tech and web design, as mentioned in a year-end email from IHB Network Director Michelle Geiss and Strategy Director Mariya Strauss — two of the three coleaders — to Technical.ly.

The email also disclosed that Tywanna Taylor, the organization’s recently onboarded operations director and the third coleader, decided to “step back” from the role at the beginning of December. When asked about Taylor’s departure, Strauss told Technical.ly, “We don’t know why, but we wish her the best.”

Taylor said that her current position is one of “gratitude”.

“There isn’t enough gratitude that can be expressed for what the staff have done and continue to do to make Impact Hub [Baltimore] a vibe,” Taylor said in a LinkedIn message. “My departure from Impact Hub [Baltimore] is less about what is going on at Impact Hub VS what I wasn’t doing that I should be doing for myself. Certainly, experiences while there helped confirm that decision but I don’t have much to say beyond that. What people should be privy to is the staff there work hard and did so through the challenge of the pandemic and now a significant organizational shift, primarily out of their love for the membership and the larger Baltimore entrepreneur community.”

The collaborative space experienced the departure of several managers and directors just before and during the pandemic. They include this reporter, Pres Adams, Michelle Antoinette Nelson, Joe Tynes, Q Ragsdale, Sam Novak and, more recently, Bakari Jones; Jones served as Impact Hub Baltimore’s Empower Program Manager through its seventh and final Empower Cohort in Fall 2023, according to an email newsletter highlighting IHB takeaways in 2023.

“Mari and I are still there. And it’s a new coleadership structure,” said Geiss on a phone call. “That’s continuing, where we’re sort of opening exploration of how we fill the operations director role and doing some due diligence.”

“There’s this exploration going on in the social sector around more distributed leadership, more participatory leadership,” Geiss added. “Like, how, how do you build these sorts of shifts into the system that are less common? And we’re learning as we go. So as much as you want to make a plan and have every part of it stick, it doesn’t always go like that. And I think that’s all, like, it’s all learning.”

An email from the remaining coleaders stated that IHB has grown to have over 140 coworking members.

Strauss, during her call with Technical.ly, noted that a “significant amount” of Impact Hub Baltimore’s revenue came from “membership dues.” She also said that amid what she called an “inflection point,” she is confident in an anti-racist and psychological safety approach to support existing staff.

“[Providing] a team culture, where people can safely show up as their full selves [and] know that they, that their leaders will support them and have their backs,  that’s an important part of my leadership approach,” said Strauss.

IHB Communications and Engagement Manager My-Azia Johnson sent Technical.ly an email outlining priorities for the leadership transition back in late September. Those priorities included the aforementioned “intensive” 120-day orientation, which was developed for Impact Hub Baltimore by Endeavor TBD. The orientation aimed to “ensure a successful transition,” according to that email.

Geiss and Strauss encouraged people to reach out to them if they have someone in mind for the operations director role at hello.baltimore@impacthub.net. The position has also been reposted on the Impact Hub Baltimore website.

Enoch Pratt Free Library’s interim CEO Darcell Graham. (Courtesy Enoch Pratt Free Library)

Other Baltimore leadership moves

• According to a press release, Enoch Pratt Free Library President and CEO Heidi Daniel is stepping down after seven years of leadership to become CEO of the King County Library System in Washington state. Darcell Graham, the Pratt’s vice president of public services, will serve as the interim CEO. The Pratt launched a national search for a new permanent CEO at the start of the new year.
• JMI Equity promoted Chief Financial Officer Maggie Schmitt to the position of partner, according to a December 2023 release. Schmitt will retain her role as CFO. She has been with JMI Equity since 2009, overseeing various financial functions.
• Robert Lee, cofounder and CEO of Dragos, has taken on the role of venture partner at DataTribe, a foundry investing in and supporting cybersecurity and data science companies. Lee previously received seed funding from DataTribe and is returning to support current cyber entrepreneurs working on national and economic security. Despite his new role, Lee will continue as the full-time CEO of Dragos.