Dee Strum

Dee Strum brings decades of contracting, compliance, grant writing/grants management and administrative oversight experiences to the BoCF’s 21st C plan for growth and “Elevating Black Voices” in the movements for environmental justice and  preservation of the water’s edge communities established, and historically occupied by Black, Indigenous, People of Color throughout the Chesapeake Watershed. 

Upon awarding her master’s degree in December 1977, Dee was recruited by Indiana Governor Otis R. Bowen to aid in establishing its first statewide housing agency. With two gubernatorial appointments to her credit, she transitioned from state employment to business ownership in 1981 establishing the international consulting firm, MDStrum Housing Services. Over the next 37 years her professional achievements were numerous to include, but not limited to: 

• U.S. SBA_Minority Business of the Year (Indiana District Office); 

• Federal Disaster Recovery Contractor, U.S. DHUD (2005-2009)

• Finalist_Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) Top 100 Inner-City Corporations (2008, 2010); 

• Outstanding Achiever, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council- Great Lakes Region (2010); 

• Indianapolis Mayor’s Award for Entrepreneurship (2012); 

• Finalist, “25 Most Influential Black Women in Business” New York City Network Journal (2012); 

• Participant/Member, White House Task Force on (i) Public Engagement, (ii) Diversity in Federal Appointments, (iii) Women & Girls (2010-2013)

• Local/State/Federal/International Contractor for Public/Affordable Housing Development & Management with work history across the lower 48 states, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands; the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago (1981-2012)

Her Core Competencies include Project Management Public Speaking Curriculum Development Classroom Instruction/Professional Development Engaging Presentations Distance Learning Small Business & Nonprofit Capacity-Building Large & Small Group Facilitation Nonprofit Board Development, Strategic Planning & Governance * Foundation Philanthropy

Dee’s demonstrated passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice is found in her decades long commitment to women and girls having served as a 1981 national organizing member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. (NCBW), and winning election as the 7th National NCBW President (2009-2013) wherein she collaborated with national women leaders and members of Congress for the 2011 Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). She returned to her Alma Mater, UMD School of Public Health in 2018, as a faculty advisor to help craft their signature student development initiative for first-generation and BIPOC college students: S.T.E.P._Students Transitioning to Effective Professionals. For her body of work and professional achievements, in 2019, Ms. Strum was inducted into the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society. In 2022, Maryland’s Dr. Martin Luther King Committee presented her the MLK Drum Major Award for 2022.