Eric Ford, Executive Director of Public Service Programs, Shriver Center – Eric was recruited to serve with Choice by a fellow Hampton University alum who worked for Choice but came back to the university to recruit graduates who reflected the youth Choice served. He served out of the Cherry Hill Office in 1993 – 1994. Eric was a part of the first team to serve in the Park Heights community in Northwest Baltimore.
Eric works in this field because he is passionate about improving public education outcomes, eliminating race and ethnic disparities in the legal system and developing future change agents for these causes. Eric is motivated by seeing and hearing about people overcoming obstacles to be successful. Also, Eric finds optimistic people who dare to dream big, with hope and vision to be extremely inspiring. In his spare time, Eric enjoys reading, listening to Hip Hop, watching basketball & football and traveling. Eric is active in his neighborhood association, and has coached youth in high school, recreational/travel basketball leagues and has served on several non-profit boards. He has completed the post baccalaureate certificate program in the non-profit sector, the Personal Leadership and Project Management and Retriever Talks programs at UMBC.
Eric was appointed by Governor Hogan and served as the Chair of Maryland’s State Advisory Group for Juvenile Justice from 2020 – 2022. He was also appointed by the former Governor to sit on the Juvenile Justice Reform Council from 2019 – 2022. Eric was asked to serve on the Public Safety subcommittee for the Moore-Miller transition team and is on the Inclusion Council at UMBC.
Kelly Quinn, Managing Director – Kelly Quinn is a community organizer and historian who lives in a rowhouse with a Formstone façade in Baltimore City. She earned her PhD in American studies at University of Maryland, College Park and her AB at Trinity College where she was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. Her academic research and teaching focuses on African American life and thought, community formation, and the built environment. Her civic life includes non-partisan voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote campaigns. Her community-based art practice includes Fluid Movement’s annual water ballet. Most recently, she worked in Poppleton at University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Community Engagement Center: nurturing relationships with neighbors, developing programs, and strengthening ties between university students and local communities. Previously, she was the Terra Foundation project manager at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art, an assistant professor of American studies at Miami University of Ohio, and the Sojourner Truth Visiting Faculty Lecturer at University of Michigan in Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (TCAUP) and Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. In 1991-1992, she served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Anchorage, Alaska. She is an alumna of Baltimore Rising and certified in trauma-responsive care by Transforming the Experience-Based Brain. Quinn’s research, teaching, service, organizing, and art has garnered numerous awards including Association of American University Women, University of Michigan TCAUP, No Boundaries Coalition, Southwest Partnership, and Oxford, Ohio’s Annual Fourth of July Parade. She joined The Choice Program at UMBC in December 2019, drawn to its commitment to anti-racism, trauma-responsiveness, youth-centered, and restorative justice.
