What led you on your path in healthcare?
My love for people and service. As a law partner at Gordon Feinblatt, I built a practice founded on solving persistent and systemic problems. Whether I was defending a Fortune 500 company or advising a mom-and-pop business on a business deal, I always kept one principle in mind: “If I did right by my community, it would do right by me.” This led me to negotiating the largest community benefits agreement tied to the largest tax increment financing deal in U.S. history. Healthcare and economic development were natural outgrowths of my background rooted in law, real estate, healthcare and complex community engagement.
Who are your role models?
I do not have one singular role model. I am inspired by the environmental services workers who work to maintain a safe environment in our hospitals and clinics. I am motivated by the doctors, nurses and medical staff who ensure that patients are treated with sympathy and respect. I am moved by the administrative assistants and schedulers who work diligently to ensure that individuals receive timely treatment. And I am encouraged by all of our healthcare workers who have rendered care since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
They serve as role models to me alongside people like Freeman Hrabowski (president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Ava Lias-Booker (head of the Baltimore litigation practice at McGuireWoods), Kizzmekia Corbett, Dr. Kafui Dzirasa, Ken Frazier, and the late Bernard Tyson.
When did you know you had made it?
Quite honestly, I think more of “making it” rather than having “made it.” I have so much more to achieve to ensure that my personal success translates into significance for my community at the greatest level possible. That being said, I am most proud when the children in my neighborhood say, “Oh, that’s Alicia, she grew up here,” or an elderly neighbor asks, “Hey, can you help me get into an appointment?” and I can make it happen or when I can use my position of influence to ensure someone is able to obtain a job or an internship. That's why I serve as board chair of the CollegeBound Foundation, which afforded me the opportunity to go to college, and on the board of visitors at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where I received a full scholarship. I am filled with joy when I can use my influence to ensure others are afforded a chance. That is when I feel like I am “making it” happen.
