To celebrate and promote the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) core values, the University launched this year the Presidential Core Values Awards, designed to recognize students, faculty, and staff who embody the seven values at the heart of UMB’s mission: accountability, civility, collaboration, diversity, excellence, knowledge, and leadership.
Leadership Award Winner: Kaitlyn Holzer, JD, Francis King Carey School of Law
Kaitlyn Holzer, JD, was elected twice to serve as the Francis King Carey School of Law’s Student Bar Association (SBA) president, a job that student Zachary Lee describes as a position that essentially keeps all of the law school’s extracurricular activities and student organizations afloat.
In this role, Holzer met with faculty and staff to ensure that the administration was tending to issues important to the student body, such as diversity and inclusion, access to mental health services, and access to educational resources. She did this in a proactive and inclusive way, Lee says.
“Kaitlyn is constantly working toward a better Carey Law,” Lee says of Holzer, who graduated in May. “Her particular effectiveness is in the way she gets things done. Kaitlyn is sensitive to the needs and concerns of the student body, and she would always include students in her efforts to better the Carey Law community.”
Lee says Holzer consistently advocated on behalf of low-income, minority, and LGBTQ students, worked to address the issue of student food insecurity, and led the effort to inaugurate the Steve Watkins Carey Law Talent Show, a fundraiser in memory of a law student who died in 2019.
“The night was a phenomenal success and really brought our community together,” Lee says. “Kaitlyn came up with the idea and was responsible for the show’s production. She coordinated professor judges, a professor and a student host, the running time of the acts, catering, and beverages, etc. She quite literally put on the show.”
Holzer’s leadership style is diplomatic and inclusive, Lee says, and it’s part of the reason she made such an impact as SBA president.
“Kaitlyn always makes sure that quieter or neglected voices are amplified,” Lee says. “She is a fierce advocate for the proverbial ‘student in the back of the class.’ She leads alongside our students, not in front of them, and ensures that nobody at Carey Law is left behind.”
Holzer offered thanks to the Core Values Awards selection committee and says it’s an honor to be recognized for her work with SBA, adding, “I am also grateful to the dedicated group of student leaders on the SBA Executive Council and to Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Michele Hayes for her endless support.”
Honorable mention: Kevin Curley, MBA, Financial Systems, and Diane Faranetta, Center for Information Technology Services; Kimberly Lumpkins, MD, School of Medicine.