BALTIMORE, MD.  — Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young has created a new city office with a singular charge: to make sure Baltimore City’s children and their families have the resources and supports they need to be successful. Effective July 1, the Mayor’s Office of Children & Family Success will cultivate partnerships, develop policies and identify innovative opportunities to support young people citywide.

Mayor Young has hired Tisha Edwards to lead the new office. A leader in both K-12 and higher education with deep youth policy experience and advocacy roots, Edwards will start her new role Monday, May 20. Over the next several weeks, she will work with the mayor’s executive leadership team to make sure the Office of Children & Family Success is up and running July 1, the start of the city’s new fiscal year.

“I have always been a champion for Baltimore’s young people, and during my mayoral administration I will continue to make it a priority to put children first. And we will do that with an office solely focused on our young people leading the way,” says Mayor Young. “Tisha Edwards has spent her entire professional life working on behalf of children, as education administrator, strategist and executive. She is passionate about and determined to do right by young people. I cannot imagine anyone else in this new and much-needed role of ‘chief youth advocate’ for Baltimore City.”

Prior to her most recent roles as CEO of BridgeEdU, Executive Vice President of the JS Plank and DM DiCarlo Family Foundation and Chief of Staff and lead education and youth policy adviser to former Mayor Catherine Pugh, Edwards spent a decade in Baltimore City Public Schools as high school principal, Chief of Staff and interim CEO.

“I am excited for the opportunity to elevate, support and expand the vast work happening across the city on behalf of our children and families,” says Edwards. “The Mayor’s Office of Children & Family Success is charged with leveraging every available community asset and government resource to position Baltimore’s children to reach their full potential. By championing a high-quality educational system, cultivating robust and meaningful enrichment opportunities and connecting families to resources that support financial well-being, we will create urgency and momentum to improve the quality of life for Baltimore’s children and families.”