Baltimore Community Foundation will honor the 10 winners of its 2026 Neighborhood Spotlight Awards at the nonprofit’s State of BCF event on Wednesday.
The awards highlight grassroots leaders who have helped change their communities for the better. These unsung heroes include block captains; organizers of community clean-ups, concerts, festivals, and cook-outs; artists; and community advocates.
Each award winner will direct a $5,000 grant from Baltimore Community Foundation to any Baltimore-area nonprofit organization of their choice.
“The Baltimore Community Foundation knows that resident leadership is the heart and soul of stronger neighborhoods,” said Dr. Crystal Harden-Lindsey, BCF’s vice president of community impact. “With the Neighborhood Spotlight Awards, we celebrate the unsung heroes who are creating a better Baltimore, starting in their own community. Since the program began, we have honored 50 remarkable leaders, and I know there are many more across Baltimore whose commitment to their neighborhoods deserves to be recognized too!”
Now in its fifth year, the Neighborhood Spotlight Awards will celebrate the following 10 community leaders:
- Bif Browning, a member of the Union Square Association Board for 16 years, has united neighbors through greening initiatives, public-safety efforts, vacant-lot transformation, and other events. Browning is the Development Director on the Friends of Union Square Board. He also leads The MUSE Baltimore’s effort to create a STEAM Hub and expand a community playground in West and Southwest Baltimore.
- Stephanie Bradshaw is the founder and CEO of LOGO INC., where she empowers Belair-Edison youth ages 13-19 to develop leadership and self-worth skills through mentorship, workforce development, community engagement, stipends, and youth-led neighborhood beautification – all through the BE Leaders Youth Leadership and Mentoring Program.
- Linda Batts has helped secure historic designation for Hanlon Park, is developing a historic homes tour, and successfully advocated for safer, more equitable conditions at Hilton Elementary School. Batt founded Friends of Hanlon Park and helped create Friends of Gwynns Falls Parkway, bringing together 12 West Baltimore communities to address greenspace challenges.
- Christina Delgado, founder and creative director of Tola’s Room in Belair-Edison, where she turned a family-rooted project into a Puerto Rican home museum, community cultural hub, and living archive of Puerto Rican history and Baltimore’s Boricua experience. Delgado is a Nuyorican artist, educator, curator, and culture worker who creates opportunities for community members to learn, tell stories, and connect with Puerto Rican culture.
- Ciera Dunlap is Program Director at Youth Empowered Society, a drop-in center for young people ages 14-25 in the Bolton Hill and Midtown areas who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Dunlap fosters a trauma-informed environment, designs services around individual needs, and connects young people to programming and support.
- Ida Mae Fliggins, known to many as “Mrs. Mae, has served Allendale’s children and families for more than 30 years. Fliggins is Vice President of the Allendale Community Association and founder of Children of Promise Inc. She has provided childcare, supplies, coats, mentorship, community events, and holiday celebrations. She also nurtured a backyard back-to-school gathering into an annual tradition that has served more than 8,000 youth and families.
- David Ginsburg convened residents, partners and stakeholders to transform the historic Pikesville Armory into a 17-acre community hub. The space offers veterans’ activities, art, recreation, and other opportunities for gathering and connection to Pikesville and Northwest Baltimore.
- Terri Miller-Vaughn, a Collington Square leader, has organized neighbors to clear vacant lots and turn them into spaces that the community can enjoy. Miller-Vaughn secured stewardship to create the Preston 2K Block Association Community Garden. She also led the Preston Glows Project, with better street lighting to create a safer, more welcoming gathering place.
- Evan Serpick is a volunteer leader of Beth Am Synagogue’s Social Justice Committee, Tzedek Beth Am, in Reservoir Hill. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Serpick addressed food shortages by recruiting volunteers and helping establish the synagogue as a city food-distribution site. He went on to found Beth Am’s weekly Byron McKenney Powell Free Community Market.
- Dorian Walker is Executive Director of the Family Survivor Network, which serves community members in Sandtown-Winchester and West Baltimore. Walker helped expand trauma-informed care, counseling, case management, peer support, and alternative healing as part of efforts to address gun violence, grief, and systemic inequity. He works to connect mental health support, youth programming, retreats, workforce development, and pathways to economic stability.
