Gov. Wes Moore has appointed Dr. Carla D. Hayden and Dr. Kimberly R. Moffitt to the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission, the 11-member governing body of Maryland Public Television (MPT).
The Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission was created in 1966 by statute to establish and maintain educational and cultural television programming for Maryland. The commission holds the federal license for the six broadcasting stations MPT operates in Maryland. MPT is a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Hayden is a senior fellow with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, having been appointed in 2025. Before that she spent nine years as the nation’s 14th Librarian of Congress. She was the first woman and first African American in that role. From 1993 until 2016, Hayden was CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, and she served as president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004.
Just months into President Donald Trump’s second term, he abruptly fired Hayden as Librarian of Congress because he opposes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She was in her ninth year of a ten-year-term, appointed by President Barack Obama. The move drew outrage from academics, politicians, and community members alike.
Trump notified Hayden on May 8, 2025, of her immediate termination, and Robert Newlen, principal deputy librarian, took over the role. However, on May 12, the president appointed Todd Blanche, then Deputy Attorney General of the United States, as acting Librarian of Congress. The position must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and is listed on Wikipedia as “disputed” as to who holds it right now. The Library of Congress website lists Newlen as the current Librarian of Congress.
Moffitt was named dean of Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications in 2025. She is a former dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and professor emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is also president of the National Association for Media Literacy Education and serves as an advisor to MPT’s Maryland Center for Media Literacy & Education.
