In the February 10, 2026 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 – 7:00pm 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 2026 membership dues — both Regular and Associate level members. (Honorary and Corporate members cannot vote, unless they are also a Regular or Associate member.)
• Members of BSC that are “Unaffiliated” membership type (they do not belong to a sister city committee) and have paid their 2026 membership dues.

On this page below:

• A. 2025 Accomplishments Report
• B. 2026 Plan
• C. Baltimore Sister City Board Elections
• D. Sister City Committee Chairs

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A. 2025 Accomplishments Report

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

View proposed 2025 Accomplishments Report (PDF, 4.3mb)

PDF was initially posted on: 2026-01-28 at 3:50pm ET
PDF was updated 2026-02-09 at 2:15pm ET:
• A note (red text) was added to p6, to indicate the 2025 financial numbers will be voted on in the Feb 24, 2026 board meeting instead of the Feb 10 Annual meeting.
• Total funds raised: Updated the numbers on the BRSCC and BXSCC pages.
PDF was updated 2026-02-24 at 11:12am ET:
• Financial numbers were updated to match BSC’s latest financial records. This impacts BRSCC’s row on p6 and the total funds raised on the BCSCC, BLASCC, BOSCC, and BRSCC pages.

After the 2026-02-24 Board meeting, the final PDF was posted here.

B. 2026 Plan

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

View proposed 2026 Plan (PDF, 1.8mb)

PDF posted on: 2026-01-28 at 3:50pm ET

After the 2026-02-24 Board meeting, the final PDF was posted here.

C. Baltimore Sister Cities Board Elections

Board of Directors

Below is the list of Baltimore Sister Cities 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 at this year’s Annual Membership Meeting on February 10, 2026. These nominations were made by the sister city committees and other organizations represented on the BSC, Inc. Board. Opposing nominations, if desired, can be made at the Annual Membership Meeting on February 10, 2026.

Persons WITHOUT an asterisk are in the middle of their board term and therefore NOT up for reelection on February 10, 2026.

Organization	Representative	Term (2 years)
BSC:	Changwon (BCSCC) Representative: Christian Oh *	2026 & 2027
	Gbarnga (BGSCC) Representative: Luana Kiandoli *	2026 & 2027
	Kawasaki (BKSCC) Representative: Tiffany Thompson *	2026 & 2027
	Luxor-Alexandria (BLASCC) Representative: Jon Davol	2025 & 2026
	Odesa (BOSCC) Representative: Karina Mandell *	2026 & 2027
	Rotterdam (BRSCC) Representative: Gary Davison *	2026 & 2027
	Xiamen (BXSCC) Representative: Hosea Chew	2025 & 2026
Mayor’s Office:	Baltimore Mayor’s Office Representative: Nina Themelis * (Director, Mayor’s Office of Government Relations)	2026 & 2027
MIMA:	Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Representative: Masuma Islam Lonczak	2025 & 2026
BDC:	Baltimore Development Corporation: [Position vacant until BDC finishes reorganization]	N/A
Create Baltimore:	Create Baltimore (formerly BOPA): [Position vacant until BSC receives direction from the City]	N/A

Notes:

• The positions of the non-voting (a.k.a. co-opted) observers on the board are not approved at the Annual Membership Meeting — they are approved at Board Meetings (per BSC Bylaws Article 4.3). Currently there are no non-voting members of the board.
• If a constituency anticipates that its Director may not be able to attend all scheduled Board meetings during their tenure, it can request Board approval for an Alternate Board Director to attend, with full voting rights, any future meetings that its Director is unable to attend. Alternate Board Directors are not approved at the Annual Membership Meeting — they are approved at Board Meetings (per BSC Bylaws Article 4.4).

Officers of the Board

The following list is informational only. Officers of the Board are elected at the 1^st Board Meeting of the year following the Annual Membership Meeting. This year, the 1st Board Meeting is on February 24, 2026. The 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 Position	Person	Current Term
BSC Inc. President	John Facelo	2024 & 2025 (Ends at 1st board meeting of 2026)
BSC Inc. Vice President	Nancy Taylor	2025 & 2026 (Ends at 1st board meeting of 2027)
BSC Inc. Treasurer	Jay Gordon	2025 (Ends at 1st board meeting of 2026)
BSC Inc. Secretary	Toni Latimore	2025 & 2026 Term (Ends at 1st board meeting of 2027)

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.

Committee	Chair	Term (2 years)
Changwon (BCSCC)	Christian Oh	2026 & 2027
Gbarnga (BGSCC)	Luana Kiandoli	2025 & 2026
Kawasaki (BKSCC)	[Position vacant]
Luxor-Alexandria (BLASCC)	Jon Davol	2026 & 2027
Odesa (BOSCC)	Karina Mandell	2026 & 2027
Rotterdam (BRSCC)	Rachel Sengers (Acting Chair)	2026 & 2027
Xiamen (BXSCC)	Chelsea Nakabayashi	2026 & 2027

Hangzhou

Dates: October 24–27, 2025
Location: Zhejiang Conservatory of Music and Zhejiang University

Joint concert with Hangzhou Philharmonic at Zhejiang Concert Hall
Opening the Seventh China–U.S. Sister Cities Conference

Xiamen

Dates: October 28–29, 2025
Location: Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra and Xiamen Song & Dance Theatre

Visit to Gulangyu Island

Luncheon with Xiamen Municipal Government

Concert celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Xiamen–Baltimore Sister City relationship

Xi’an

Dates: October 30, 2025

Performance at the Silk Road International Tourism Expo

Shanghai

Dates: October 31 – November 1, 2025

Performance at Shanghai Conservatory of Music

Attendees include members of the U.S. Consulate, American companies in Shanghai, and Chinese companies based in Maryland

For more information about the BSO and their international tour, visit BSOmusic.org.

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
• B. 2025 Plan
• C. Board Elections
• D. Sister City Committee Chairs

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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.

Organization	Representative	Term (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 1^st 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 Position	Person	Current Term
BSC Inc. President	John Facelo	Jan 31, 2024 – Jan 31, 2026
BSC Inc. Vice President	Nancy Taylor	Nov 18, 2024 – Feb 25, 2025
BSC Inc. Treasurer	Jay Gordon	Dec 10, 2024 – Jan 31, 2026
BSC Inc. Secretary	Toni Latimore	Jan 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.

Committee	Chair	Term (2 years)
Changwon (BCSCC)	Michelle Lee	2025 only
Gbarnga (BGSCC)	Luana Kiandoli	2025 & 2026
Kawasaki (BKSCC)	Michael Young (Chair)	2025 & 2026
	Victoria Minka (Co-Chair)	2025 & 2026
Luxor-Alexandria (BLASCC)	Jon Davol	2025 only
Odesa (BOSCC)	Karina Mandell	2024 & 2025
Rotterdam (BRSCC)	Rachel Sengers	2024 & 2025
Xiamen (BXSCC)	Xin (Cindy) Wang	2025 only

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.

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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

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Baltimore / Maryland delegation to China (October 2025)

Representatives from Baltimore Sister Cities (BSC) and its Baltimore-Xiamen Sister City Committee (BXSCC), Maryland Department of Commerce, and Montgomery County attended the 7th China-U.S. Sister Cities Conference in Hangzhou city in China in October 2025. The conference featured an opening concert by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO), during the orchestra’s multi-city tour of China. The delegation also visited Xiamen to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Baltimore-Xiamen sister city relationship. More information

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Baltimore city delegation to Rotterdam (October 2025)

Faculty and staff from Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health (JHIPH) and a Baltimore City delegation traveled to Rotterdam in October 2025 for a research trip, to attend the international Planetary Health Alliance’s Annual Meeting (PHAM) and to participate in a custom program of meetings and site visits in Rotterdam and Delft on themes of multi-functional nature-based solutions, water storage, flood resilience, public health, and more — to bring back ideas and inspiration for a healthier and more resilient future in Baltimore. More info

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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Architecture & urban design exchanges with 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.

• Trip travelogue for the March 2023 trip to Rotterdam
• About the 2023 trip
• Companion webinar series

Another exchange took place in March 2024.

• Trip travelogue for March 2024 trip to Rotterdam
• About the 2024 trip

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

• About the 2025 two-way exchange
• Trip travelogue for March 2025 trip to Rotterdam
• Baltimore Department of Planning 2025 trip to Rotterdam

Another student trip to Rotterdam takes place in March 2026.

These exchanges are part of a growing ongoing collaboration that originally 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. 

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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.

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.