Baltimore Sister Cities

Ballot topics for February 25, 2025 BSC Annual Membership Meeting

In the February 25, 2025 Annual Membership Meeting of Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. (BSC), the following items (A, B, C) will be submitted for approval by the BSC membership. The meeting will be held online via Zoom at 6:00pm ET. The information has been posted on this webpage so that members have a chance to review it before the meeting.

Who can vote in the BSC Annual Membership Meeting:

  • Members of BSC’s constituent sister city committees who have paid their 2025 membership dues — both Regular and Associate level members. (Honorary and Corporate members cannot vote.)
  • Members of BSC that are “Unaffiliated” membership type (they do not belong to a sister city committee) and have paid their 2025 membership dues.

On this page below:

A. 2024 Accomplishments Report

(for BSC-level activities and activities for the constituent sister city committees)

View proposed 2024 Accomplishments Report (PDF, 2.2mb)

Proposed PDF posted 2025-02-11 8:30pm ET
PDF was updated 2025-02-18 at 8:55pm ET (Total Assets and Deposits were updated on p3)
Final PDF posted on: 2025-02-25 9:20pm ET

B. 2025 Plan

(for BSC-level activities and activities for the constituent sister city committees)

View proposed 2025 Plan (PDF, 1.8mb)

Proposed PDF posted 2025-02-14 9:30pm ET
Final PDF posted on: 2025-02-25 9:20pm ET

C. Board Elections

Below is the list of board directors that represent sister city committees and other organizations on our board, as defined in our bylaws.

Persons indicated with an asterisk (*) and green highlight are nominees, up for election this year. These nominations were made by the sister city committees and other organizations represented on our BSC, Inc. board. Opposing nominations, if desired, can be made at the February 25, 2025 Annual Membership Meeting.

Persons WITHOUT an asterisk are in the middle of their board term and therefore NOT up for reelection on February 25, 2025.

OrganizationRepresentativeTerm (2 years)
BSC:Changwon (BCSCC) Representative:
Michelle Lee *		2025 only
Gbarnga (BGSCC) Representative:
Luana Kiandoli 		2024 & 2025
Kawasaki (BKSCC) Representative:
Victoria Minka * 		2025 & 2026
Luxor-Alexandria (BLASCC) Representative:
Jon Davol		2024 & 2025
Odesa (BOSCC) Representative:
Karina Mandell		2024 & 2025
Rotterdam (BRSCC) Representative:
Gary Davison		2024 & 2025
Xiamen (BXSCC) Representative:
Hosea Chew * 		2025 only
Mayor’s Office:Baltimore Mayor’s Office Representative:
Nina Themelis (Director, Mayor’s Office of Government Relations)		2024 & 2025
MIMA:Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Representative:
Masuma Islam Lonczak *		2025 & 2026
BDC:Baltimore Development Corporation Representative:
William Cawthern (Director of Baltimore Foreign Trade Zone #74)		2024 & 2025

Note: The positions of the non-voting (a.k.a. co-opted) observers on the board are not approved at the Annual Membership Meeting but at Board Meetings. Currently there are no non-voting members of the board.

Officers of the Board

The following list is informational only. Officers of the Board are elected at the 1st Board Meeting of the year immediately following the Annual Membership Meeting on February 25, 2025. Ballot topics for the Board Meeting will be distributed separately. The officers are not elected in the BSC Annual Membership Meeting, however they are all by definition voting Board Directors of BSC (per BSC bylaws Article 4.3).

Officer PositionPersonCurrent Term
BSC Inc. PresidentJohn FaceloJan 31, 2024 – Jan 31, 2026
BSC Inc. Vice PresidentNancy TaylorNov 18, 2024 – Feb 25, 2025
BSC Inc. TreasurerJay GordonDec 10, 2024 – Jan 31, 2026
BSC Inc. SecretaryToni LatimoreJan 1, 2025 – Feb 25, 2025

D. Sister City Committee Chairs

The following list is informational only. The chairs are elected by their committee members. The chairs are not elected in the BSC Annual Membership Meeting.

CommitteeChairTerm (2 years)
Changwon (BCSCC)Michelle Lee2025 only
Gbarnga (BGSCC)Luana Kiandoli2025 & 2026
Kawasaki (BKSCC)Michael Young (Chair)2025 & 2026
Victoria Minka (Co-Chair)2025 & 2026
Luxor-Alexandria (BLASCC)Jon Davol2025 only
Odesa (BOSCC)Karina Mandell2024 & 2025
Rotterdam (BRSCC)Rachel Sengers2024 & 2025
Xiamen (BXSCC)Xin (Cindy) Wang2025 only

July 11 / Baltimore Sister Cities fundraiser at Nando’s PERi-PERi

Time: Stop by anytime between 4pm to 9pm
Address: 421 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore MD 21201
Website

For one night only, Nando’s PERi-PERi’s Baltimore Street location is donating 40% of its fundraising proceeds to Baltimore Sister Cities! Come join us at this restaurant, enjoy great food, and mingle for a good cause! In addition to its signature flame-grilled chicken dishes, PERi-PERi’s menu also includes some vegetarian options. Special thanks to the Baltimore-Gbarnga Sister City Committee for organizing this event!

Baltimore Sister Cities Fundraiser at Nando's PERi PERi on July 11, 2023

Announcements & Past Events

Several programs, projects, and contributions organized or supported by Baltimore Sister Cities and our sister city committees (Changwon, South Korea; Gbarnga, Liberia; Kawasaki, Japan; Luxor & Alexandria, Egypt; Odesa, Ukraine; Piraeus, Greece; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Xiamen, China) and our affiliates.
See also our list of upcoming events.

Maryland Global Gateway

The state of Maryland offers several programs for Maryland businesses to expand abroad, and for foreign companies to expand to the US using Maryland as a gateway. More info

Baltimore-Xiamen Sister City Committee collaborates with BHSEC-Baltimore high school (2023 -2024)

The Xiamen committee provides enrichment learning activities to the students from Bard High School Early College Baltimore (BHSEC-Baltimore) who are studying Chinese — including a calligraphy demonstration, lantern-making, a lunch at Orient Express in Charles Village, a field trip to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, and a Lunar New Year celebration.

Baltimore & Gbarnga: 50 years of Sister Cities (2023)

Baltimore-Gbarnga Sister City Committee (BGSCC)

Baltimore’s first sister city relationship was established 50 years ago in 1973 with Gbarnga in Liberia. There are several special events throughout the year to commemorate the 50th anniversary. More information

Training the Trainers is a Gift that Keeps on Giving (2023)

Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria Sister City Committee (BLASCC)

The Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria (Egypt) Sister City Committee (BLASCC) and the Alexandria Sister City Committee collaborated to strengthen emergency/trauma nurse preparedness in Alexandria, Egypt.

BLASCC recruited Nora Mady, RN and Emergency Medical Technician, to train a team of emergency room nurses at the Egyptian High Institute of Public Health in Alexandria. These emergency nurses received 25 hours of training, tools and additional one-on-one coaching for the treatment of shock as well as cardiac, respiratory, neurological traumas. The training sessions also addressed the challenges of emergency treatment for special populations (pregnancy, pediatrics, trauma, burns, choking).

Nora Mady is a Registered Nurse with Inova Health Systems. She was in Egypt from Nov 12 -17, 2023, providing 5 hours of intensive training daily for one week at Alexandria Medical University.

More information: Project announcement | Post-training recap

Changwon Mayoral delegation visits Baltimore (2023)

Baltimore-Changwon Sister City Committee (BCSCC)

Changwon’s Deputy Mayor visited Baltimore in May 2023 with a delegation from Baltimore’s sister city of Changwon, South Korea. More information

Sister Cities International Young Artists & Authors Program (YAAS) (2023)

Youth in Baltimore, our sister cities around the world, and other locales that are part of Sister Cities International were invited to join this annual contest. The 2023 theme was “Peace by Piece: Food Security in My Community”.

In August 2023, 16-year-old ZHANG Jingwu from Baltimore’s sister city of Xiamen was named the second-place winner of the photography category for his piece “On the Field of Hope”. Jingwu described his photo as portraying “A bountiful harvest and boundless hope. The yellow grains in the sun form a golden ocean, and the terraced fields transformed from the hills are layered on top of each other, showing the hope of thriving in the sunlight. The golden sunlight renders the banana trees in the field emerald and gold, and the rich colors show the joy of the harvest in the mountains.” Oleksandra Volekova from Kremenchuk, Ukraine won second place for her essay “Pulling Together – My Community Gains Back Food Security.” She was entered into the contest via her connection to the Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee.

See the corresponding Sister Cities International webpage, winners announcement, and Xiamen Foreign Affairs Office social media post (in Chinese) for more details, including depictions of the young artists and their work.

Special thanks to Nacoya (Coya) Villegas from Baltimore Sister Cities and to the Baltimore-Xiamen Sister City Committee for coordinating Baltimore Sister Cities and Xiamen’s participation in the 2023 YAAS program. Thanks also to Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee for their contribution.

Architecture student trip to Rotterdam

Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC)

Students and faculty from Morgan State University School of Architecture + Planning (MSU SA+P) traveled to Baltimore’s sister city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands in March 2023.

Another exchange took place in 2024 & 2025, when Morgan students traveled to Baltimore’s sister city of Rotterdam in March 2024 and March 2025, and community organizers and city planners from Rotterdam and Amsterdam traveled to Baltimore in April 2025.

These exchanges are part of a growing ongoing collaboration that started as a joint studio by SA+P Professor Cristina Murphy and the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design (RAvB) in 2019 around the theme of the Just City. 

Blooming Rainbow Project (2021-2023)

Baltimore-Changwon Sister City Committee (BCSCC)

2021-2022

During 2021-2022, artists conducted “Blooming Rainbow” — a collaborative class with children, 5-15 years old, in Baltimore and South Korea to create abstract painting jointly together. In this program, children paint scribbles — they can express their feelings, impulsion or their favorite figures. The scribbles are then exchanged with the artists in Baltimore and Korea, who overlap color onto the scribbles. The children learn about the sister cities of Baltimore, Maryland USA and Changwon, South Korea, and learn about abstract art concepts and artists.

The program is coordinated by artists Ara Ko, Jack Koppert, and Huaqi Liu (graduate students in MICA’s LeRoy E. Hoffberger Painting MFA Program in Baltimore) and Chaeyeon Hong, Yongeun Kwon and Jaeeun Kim from Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea (who travel to Changwon to teach their group of students).

Learn more about the project here.

2023

The art exchange continues, with the Baltimore Changwon Youth Art Circle | BCYAC!

With the help of our partnerships, the workshops generated by this project serve to promote diversity and equal opportunity in both cities while gathering together artists and students in safe communal art spaces. Mentoring of historically underserved groups is crucial to develop a healthy feeling of self-worth and identity in our communities. Our participating artists seek to develop relationships with students based on mutual respect and affirmation of their self-worth, and maintain high expectations while using culturally responsive teaching practices.

The goal of this project is to establish the potential of growing fruit from small beginnings by illustrating and developing the innate ability of children through visual expression. By joining students with mature artists, it is hoped that the beauty of drawing with simple beginnings enhanced by artists will inspire students to realize their potential based on their own visual expression of their ideas.

Learn more about the project here.

Blooming Rainbow Project

Blooming Rainbow class – making art
Blooming Rainbow class – making art
Blooming Rainbow class – writing names in English and Korean characters

During 2021-2022, artists conducted “Blooming Rainbow” — a collaborative class with children, 5-15 years old, in Baltimore and South Korea to create abstract painting jointly together. In this program, children paint scribbles — they can express their feelings, impulsion or their favorite figures. The scribbles are then exchanged with the artists in Baltimore and Korea, who overlap color onto the scribbles. The children learn about the sister cities of Baltimore, Maryland USA and Changwon, South Korea, and learn about abstract art concepts and artists. The program is coordinated by artists Ara Ko, Jack Koppert, and Huaqi Liu (graduate students in MICA’s LeRoy E. Hoffberger Painting MFA Program in Baltimore) and Chaeyeon Hong, Yongeun Kwon and Jaeeun Kim from Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea (who travel to Changwon to teach their group of students).

Baltimore-Changwon Sister City Committee (BCSCC) is a project partner.

Video about the Blooming Rainbow project

Exhibition – Summer 2022

The work is shown online on Instagram, and in an exhibition in summer 2022 in Baltimore, Maryland USA and Changwon, South Korea.

The opening was on June 10 at 7:00pm ET Baltimore time and on June 11 at 8:00 AM Changwon time and was livestreamed online. Dami S. Schlobohm was the MC at the opening show and performed music. Dami is a cellist and music teacher born in Seoul, South Korea and raised in Maryland.

Watch highlights from the exhibition opening event

The full-length recording of the event can be viewed on YouTube.

The artists who are leading this program

Artist Ara Ko with examples of her artwork
Artist Ara Ko
Artist Chae Yeon Hong
Artist Chae Yeon Hong
Blooming Rainbow hand-drawn logo with hand prints

Help support Odesa, our sister city in Ukraine!

Baltimore-Odesa Sister Cities Fundraiser: Help support Baltimore's Sister City in Ukraine in its time of need! (photos of Mt Vernon Square in Baltimore; Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet)

Donate via credit card or PayPal: Donate here

The Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee will use the full amount of your donation for humanitarian aid to citizens of Odesa, Ukraine and to the Ukrainian community in Baltimore.

If you prefer to pay by check (in US dollars): Make your check out to: BSC. Put “Odesa fundraiser” in the memo line. Mail it to Baltimore Sister Cities, 4701 East Lane, Baltimore MD 21210 USA.

Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. is a qualified 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. No goods or services are provided to you for this gift. Please consult your tax advisor regarding specific questions about your deductions.

About the Baltimore-Odesa sister city relationship

The Sister Cities International program was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 to create a force for international cooperation and understanding through community involvement by promoting peace through people-to-people relationships. The Baltimore Sister Cities (BSC) Program was established in the early 1970’s by then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer. The Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee (BOSCC) was established in 1974 and is the second oldest relationship managed by Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc, a non-profit 501c3 corporation.
Visit www.baltimoreodesa.org for more information, more ways to support Odesa and Ukraine, and to volunteer for the committee.

A Tale of Two Cities: Baltimore and Odesa — The Role of Sister Cities in International Relations

Recording of a 2022 webinar hosted by Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee, where panelists discussed the connection between Baltimore and Odesa in light of current events at the intersection of public, private and government partnerships across the world which help promote international diplomacy.
youtu.be/QxAFORH3MDg

Interview on Baltimore radio

Listen to an interview on Baltimore’s WYPR radio station in 2022 with Karina Mandell, Chair, Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee, talking about Baltimore’s sister city of Odesa, Ukraine:
www.wypr.org/2022-02-25/baltmores-sister-odesa-ukraine

Baltimore Sister Cities is seeking a new treasurer

The Treasurer of Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. (BSC) is stepping down in early 2022 after 3 years of service, so BSC is looking for a new treasurer.

Key responsibilities are: bookkeeping for the accounts of the corporation and its 8 sister city committees; processing payments and deposits for the corporation and its committees; managing the corporation’s checking account at a local bank; preparing and filing state and federal tax returns; working with the corporation’s executive committee to prepare an annual budget; and attending board meetings (approximately every 6 weeks). Some accounting background and experience with QuickBooks, Excel and Google Workplace (formerly called ‘G Suite’) is a plus.

Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. (BSC) is a non-profit 501c3 corporation and all of its members and officers, including the Treasurer, are unpaid volunteers. The position offers great international management experience and personal satisfaction in line with the mission of Sister Cities International: ‘To promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation – one individual, one community at a time.’ For more information about BSC, see our home page.

Several other Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. executive officer positions will also be opening up in January 2022.

Persons who are interested in the Treasurer position or other positions at BSC should contact  for more information. Please reply on or before December 31, 2021.

Ballot topics for January 27, 2022 BSC Annual Membership Meeting

In the January 27, 2022 annual membership meeting of Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc., (BSC), the following items (A, B, and C) will be submitted for approval by the BSC membership (voting members of BSC board and the constituent sister city committees). The information has been posted on this webpage so that members have a chance to review it before the meeting.

A. 2021 ACCOMPLISHMENTS REPORT

(for BSC-level activities and activities for the constituent sister city committees)

View proposed 2021 Accomplishments Report (PDF, 5.8mb)

PDF posted on: 2022-01-23 4pm ET

B. 2022 PLAN

(for BSC-level activities and activities for the constituent sister city committees)

View proposed 2022 Plan (PDF, 2mb)

PDF posted on: 2022-01-23 4pm ET

C. Board Elections

Below is the list of board directors that represent sister city committees and other organizations on our board, as defined in our bylaws.

Persons in bold font with an asterisk (*) are nominees, up for election this year. These nominations were made by the sister city committees and other organizations represented on our BSC, Inc. board. Opposing nominations, if desired, can be made at the January 27, 2022 annual meeting.

Persons WITHOUT an asterisk are in the middle of their board term and therefore NOT up for reelection this year.

OrganizationRepresentativeTerm
BSC:Changwon (BCSCC) Representative:
Michelle Lee 		2021-2022
Gbarnga (BGSCC) Representative:
William Hug * 		2022-2023
Kawasaki (BKSCC) Representative:
Jay Gordon 		2021-2022
Luxor-Alexandria (BLASCC) Representative to :
Karen Leggett Abouraya 		2021-2022
Odesa (BOSCC) Representative:
Karina Mandell * 		2022-2023
Piraeus (BPSCC) Representative:
Diane Homberg * 		2022-2023
Rotterdam (BRSCC) Representative:
Gary Davison * 		2022-2023
Xiamen (BXSCC) Representative:
Kerry Holahan * 		2022-2023
BDC:Baltimore Development Corporation Representative:
William Cawthern * (Director of Baltimore Foreign Trade Zone #74)		2022-2023
BOPA:Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts Representative:
Lauren Green (Director of Marketing) 		2021-2022
Mayor’s Office:Baltimore Mayor’s Office Representative:
Nina Themelis * (Deputy Director, Mayor’s Office of Government Relations)		2022-2023
MIMA:Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Representative:
Catalina Rodriguez-Lima (Director of MIMA) 		2021-2022

Note: Non-voting board members (currently Geri Byrd, Hosea Chew, Teresa Leslie, Nancy Taylor) are not approved at the Annual Membership Meeting but at the 1st regular board meeting of the year following the annual meeting. This year that board meeting is scheduled for February 23, 2022. BSC officers are also elected at the February 23 meeting. The officer positions to be elected this year are: President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Assistant Secretary.

D. Sister City Committee Chairs

The following list informational only. The chairs are elected by their committee members. The chairs are not elected in the BSC annual membership meeting.

CommitteeChairTerm
Changwon (BCSCC)Michelle LeeUntil 2022-12-31
Gbarnga (BGSCC)Pending
Kawasaki (BKSCC)Jay Gordon2021-2022
Luxor-Alexandria (BLASCC) Karen Leggett Abouraya & Tharwat Abouraya (co-chairs)2022-2023
Odesa (BOSCC)Karina MandellUntil 2022-06-01
Piraeus (BPSCC)Diane Homberg2021-2022
Rotterdam (BRSCC)Rachel Sengers2022-2023
Xiamen (BXSCC)Xin (Cindy) Wang2022-2023

Maryland state representatives visit to the Netherlands

Map showing USA and the Netherlands; logos of MDEM, NWP, and BRSCC. Text: November visit to the Netherlands | Amsterdam Water Week | Climate Resilience | Flood Management

Representatives of Maryland Department of Emergency Management (MDEM, formerly known as MEMA), travel to the Netherlands for a flood-resilience themed trip in early November. JaLeesa Tate, Maryland State Hazard Mitigation Officer; Kyle Overly, Director of the Disaster Risk Reduction Directorate; and Allegra Tartaglia, Non-Governmental Services Branch Manager, will participate in Amsterdam International Water Week and share about resilience efforts in Maryland at this AIWW panel on Nov 1: aiww2021.com/event/risk-and-resilience-in-the-americas

AIWW is a hybrid conference, and the online events are FREE, including the panel in which MDEM is participating. To register: aiww2021.com/register

The MDEM representatives will also visit integrated climate resilience and flood prevention infrastructure sites in Rotterdam and The Hague and hold meetings on the topics of resilience and disaster risk reduction during their visit to Netherlands.

In addition, Kyle Overly will be joining a government panel exchanging flood resilience initiatives at the Dubai World Expo Urban and Rural Development Day in the Dutch Biotope Pavilion in the Sustainability District (Dutch Dubai), sharing the milestones and initiatives in cities in the State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore.

We thank Janett Tapia, Arjan Braamskamp, and their colleagues at Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) for their work in planning this trip. The Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) is honored to help with the planning.

This is part of ongoing collaboration between Maryland and the Netherlands on climate adaption and resilience.

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Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. is a qualified 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. No goods or services were provided for this gift. Please consult your tax advisor regarding specific questions about your deductions.

 

Web site copyright © 2025 Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc.

logo-baltimoreBaltimore sister city committees operate under the auspices of the City of Baltimore’s Office of the Mayor.

 

Brandon M. Scott, Mayor

 

Previous mayor’s Dec 2015 press release about Baltimore Sister Cities becoming a 501(c)(3).

 

Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. is a 501c3 organization incorporated in the State of Maryland.
Member of  Sister Cities International, Maryland Nonprofits, World Trade Center Institute, Visit Baltimore, & affiliate of Maryland International Education Consortium.