| Barbara Zektick has over a decade of experience as a government relations professional and practicing attorney for a variety of public sector clients. Barbara has served as a trusted advisor on legal, policy, procurement, and government relations issues to the Mayor of Baltimore, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, various Baltimore City cabinet members and elected officials and all of Maryland’s 24 counties as the Associate Director of the Maryland Association of Counties. After receiving her law degree from the American University Washington College of Law, Barbara worked for the Maryland Department of Transportation managing multi-million dollar real estate joint development projects, and on passing key pieces of legislation prioritized by the Governor’s administration. Barbara later went to serve the City of Baltimore, where she represented the Department of Transportation on legislative issues before the Maryland General Assembly and City Council of Baltimore. Barbara served as Acting Deputy Mayor of Public Safety and Operations in 2012, overseeing the Baltimore Police, Fire, Public Works, General Services, Information Technology and Transportation departments; offices of Emergency Management and Criminal Justice; Parking Authority and the Environmental Control Board. She also served as Acting Deputy Director of Transportation in 2013, before appointed to the new position of General Counsel. In that role, Barbara managed the Department of Transportation’s government relations, legal matters, and the Right of Way Division, a new division to the department with approximately 40 employees. Barbara comes to Alexander and Cleaver from the Maryland Association of Counties, where she represented counties on procurement, fiscal, taxation, finance, and transportation matters before the General Assembly. In that role, she saved counties tens of millions of dollars by advocating against unfunded mandates and significant cost shifts. She also worked closely on passing the first piece of legislation since the Great Recession to restore deeply-missed transportation funds to local governments. Barbara is a member of the Maryland Bar Association. She has served as a Dean’s Fellow at the American University Washington College of Law and Mayor’s Fellow with the City of Baltimore, and graduated from the Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary’s Leadership Development Program. In her spare time, she has been active in community theater and served on the board of the Mobtown Players in Baltimore. |