Women To Watch 10.12.25 - Flipbook - Page 30
WHAT’S
NEW
Checking in with previous Women to Watch
KEVIN RICHARDSON/STAFF
STAFF FILE
KARL MERTON FERRON/ STAFF
Carla Hayden
2016, senior fellow, Mellon Foundation
Cindy Wolf
2013, executive chef, Charleston
Brooke Lierman
2014, Maryland comptroller
One of former Librarian of Congress Carla
Hayden’s favorite sayings is: “Free people read freely.”
So when she believes that Americans’ right to
obtain knowledge is being threatened, she’s not about
to be stopped by a little thing like being fired from her
job via a two-sentence email — an event that made
national headlines earlier this year.
In July, Hayden accepted a yearlong appointment
as a senior fellow of the New York-based Mellon
Foundation, where she will pursue scholarship, writing and research projects for the approximately 9,000
public library systems nationwide.
Her abrupt dismissal was “part of a larger effort to
diminish opportunities for the general public to have
free access to information and inspiration,” Hayden
told “CBS News Sunday Morning” in June.
“Democracy is under attack. Democracies are
not to be taken for granted, and the institutions that
support democracy should not be taken for granted.”
— Mary Carole McCauley
Since critically acclaimed chef Cindy Wolf was
named one of The Baltimore Sun’s Women to Watch,
many aspects of her life have changed — but just as
many, she said, remain the same. Notably, this year
marked Wolf’s first time scoring a James Beard
Foundation Award for her Harbor Point restaurant,
Charleston.
After receiving the accolade, Wolf noted that
Charleston’s guest base “immediately” shifted to a
higher concentration of chefs and “wine people”;
however, Wolf also asserted that her “philosophy”
behind cooking and hospitality remains the same as
it was when the 28-year-old restaurant first opened
its doors.
“I have tried, every day, to be better than I was the
day before,” she said. “I want to be the best I can be,
and I want to learn as much as I can.”
— Jane Godiner
Brooke Lierman, the first female comptroller in
Maryland history, is searching for ways to encourage
all eligible Maryland tax filers to claim their Earned
Income Tax Credits, or refundable tax credits for
low- to moderate-income working taxpayers.
Through a partnership with the Urban Institute, a
nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, Lierman, a Democrat, found that approximately 20% of
Marylanders eligible to collect these credits haven’t
in the past three years.
“You know, and I know, the Earned Income
Tax Credit represents more than policy,” she said
at an Annapolis presentation in July. “It embodies
our fundamental belief that hard work should be
rewarded, and that every Marylander deserves a
pathway to economic stability.”
Lierman announced in mid-September that she is
seeking reelection.
— Hannah Gaskill
30 | 2025 | WOMEN TO WATCH
