Director – Valerie McGuire
Born and raised in Maryland, I am a PG County transplant, moving to Howard County in the early 1980’s. I’ve lived in Columbia, Ellicott City/Elkridge, and Laurel. I have worked as a civil engineer draftsman, registered child care provider, state employee, and also in the private sector administratively. My son attended Howard County Public Schools.
I first became a community activist due to the alignment of Route 100 through my neighborhood of Hunt Country Estates in 1993. The state and the county were in favor of razing our homes to accommodate Route 100 rather than align it through cornfields on the other side of Deep Run Creek. Imagine that. Due to the shift of the original alignment to a more environmentally friendly one, the EIS was redone and new alignments were proposed by the community for consideration. The alignment I drafted is the one in use today, dubbed the Lazy S. One of the lessons I learned from this is that you can fight City Hall and win, but it takes the support from dedicated individuals & surrounding communities and legal expertise to make it a success.
As a result of efforts to get county wide community support, I became involved with the Greater Elkridge Community Association (GECA), becoming involved in various committees, giving GP testimony, and holding the offices of 1st VP, President, 2nd VP, and Director-at-large. I have served on the Boards of the Howard County Family Childcare Association, the Maryland State Family Childcare Association, and the Hunt Country Estates Community Association. I am a fairly new member of the Elkridge Heritage Society and the Friends of the Patapsco Valley Heritage Greenway. I currently have the honor of serving on County Executive Ulman’s General Plan Task Force.
Like GECA, I think HCCA has done an outstanding job in influencing our legislators and educating our citizenry with meaningful dialogue, and so I look forward to working on the HCCA Board of Directors.