Pamela King is Senior Program Manager for Community Fellowships at the Open Society Institute-Baltimore.
Pamela created and manages the Community Fellowships Program at OSI-Baltimore. Annually, up to ten individuals are selected to use their skills and experience to work in Baltimore’s underserved communities. Over the more than twenty years of the initiative, the fellows have developed into a peer network of social entrepreneurs committed to solving Baltimore’s most intractable problems. To date, 190 individuals have taken advantage of the fellowship experience.
Pamela launched and established the Baltimore Urban Debate League program in partnership with the Baltimore City Public School System. Modeled after the New York Urban Debate League, the Baltimore Urban Debate League is known nationally as an innovative, successful, and transformative program that has grown to include 35 elementary, middle and high schools.
In addition, Pamela collaborates with the director of OSI-Baltimore to fund various community development initiatives such as the Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative, the Social Enterprise Collaborative, the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers and the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance.
Prior to joining the OSI-Baltimore staff, Pamela directed the Citizens Planning and Housing Association’s (CPHA) Resource Center for Neighborhoods. Her many responsibilities included providing technical assistance to neighborhood groups and managing several city-wide initiatives. For example, Pamela was the lead organizer for the Baltimore Campaign—now the Live Baltimore Marketing Center. The center was established to promote and publicize the benefits of city living.
Pamela led the partnership between CPHA and the Johns Hopkins University’s Police Executive Leadership Program that established the highly successful program to develop community leaders—the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program. She has taught the community and social issues block within the Police Executive Leadership Program and has been a leader in helping the region’s law enforcement officials embrace community organizing and neighborhood development.
Pamela was named one of the 2008 Maryland’s Top 100 Women by The Daily Record. She was named one of Megaphone Project’s 2009 Unsung Heroes.
Her board commitments have included: the Civitas School, the Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative, the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, the Center for Adult Literacy and Learning, and the Maryland Citizens’ Review Board for Children. She was a founding member of the Friends of the Playground at Stadium Place and the Baltimore Community Foundation’s Baltimore Giving Circle.
Pamela does some work in the area of racial equity. She is a founding member of the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers Diversity & Inclusion Committee and she serves as a member of the Aspen Institute’s Racial Equity working group for Baltimore.
