Available to book
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
Former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake helps organizations lead through crisis, drive urban innovation, and balance fiscal accountability with community impact. She chairs the Airbnb Housing Council, advises Fortune 500 clients including MasterCard, and served as first Black woman president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became the youngest person ever elected to the Baltimore City Council at 25 and went on to serve as mayor of Baltimore for six years, guiding the city through one of its most turbulent periods.
As mayor, she led Baltimore through the 2015 Freddie Gray protests and left office with the city holding its highest bond rating in over 40 years. She was the first Black woman to serve as president of the United States Conference of Mayors, and her Vacants to Value initiative won the Urban Land Institute's Robert C. Larson Workforce Housing Public Policy Award.
Stephanie draws on direct experience managing a major American city through crisis, fiscal reform, and community rebuilding. Her work creating Baltimore's first long-range financial plan, reducing property taxes by more than 20% over a decade, and launching award-winning urban development programs gives her a practical framework for turning policy ideas into measurable outcomes. She now chairs the Airbnb Housing Council and leads SRB & Associates, advising clients from MasterCard to municipal governments.
Audiences leave her sessions with concrete strategies for leading through public crisis, a roadmap for building coalitions that drive urban innovation, and a clear-eyed understanding of what it takes to balance fiscal responsibility with community investment.
Book Stephanie to bring hard-won lessons in leadership, racial justice, and city-building to your next event.
Rawlings-Blake steered Baltimore through the Freddie Gray crisis while achieving the city's highest bond rating in four decades, giving her rare credibility on leading through public pressure without sacrificing fiscal discipline. Her tenure as the first Black woman to chair the U.S. Conference of Mayors and her current work advising Fortune 500s and municipalities positions her to translate crisis management and coalition-building into frameworks your leadership team can apply immediately.
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frequently asked questions
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Stephanie Rawlings-Blake structures her sessions around case-based instruction drawn from her tenure as mayor of Baltimore, using specific policy decisions — such as the Vacants to Value initiative and Baltimore's first long-range financial plan — as worked examples to illustrate how leaders can translate policy into measurable outcomes.
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake speaks on crisis leadership, urban fiscal reform, and community rebuilding through city government. She served as mayor of Baltimore for six years and was the first Black woman to serve as president of the United States Conference of Mayors.
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Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
