M. DeLois “Dee Dee” Strum will lead the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation as interim CEO and president, following the death of the organization’s founder and longtime CEO Vincent O. Leggett in November.
Leggett, who was known by many as the “Admiral of the Chesapeake,” founded the BoCF in 1984. The organization documents the role of Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color as stewards of the Chesapeake Bay.
“It is a privilege to continue the advocacy and community preservation efforts launched by Admiral Vincent O. Leggett four decades ago to ‘Elevate Black Voices’ in community preservation, public policy, and environmental justice,” said Strum, who has served as the foundation’s chief administrative officer.
She continued, “BoCF leaders and volunteers will continue his groundbreaking work to engage the community and stakeholders in the Planning for an Environmental Education and Black Culture Center at the City’s planned visitor center on the site of the former Elktonia Beach/Moore Property, that holds great significance as a place where the region’s African American families could find Black-joy during the period of lawful racial segregation era known as ‘Jim Crow.’”
The BoCF partnered with the Chesapeake Conservancy to purchase Elktonia Beach in 2022. The beach, which is the remaining parcel of the Black beaches that Annapolis’s Carr family once owned, will be turned into a city park.
Strum said Leggett had envisioned building a cultural center with stories and artifacts documenting how enslaved Africans and their descendants contributed to the region’s maritime and seafood industries.
“We will not abandon his efforts to ‘tell the whole story’ of the Black watermen and women who continue to build and sustain the Chesapeake Bay as a multi-billion-dollar industry,” Strum said. “The future of educating our youth and the public about their proud heritage is more important now than ever and central to our mission and purposes.”
As a “well-respected community leader in central Maryland,” Strum is equipped to carry on Leggett’s work, said Reverend Samuel T. Williams, BOCF Board Chairman and Chairman of the Economic Empowerment Committee Maryland Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
“She understands that climate change, extreme weather events, and sea-level rise pose a threat to the entirety of the Chesapeake watershed, with an ever-present and imminent threat to the life and livelihood of the most vulnerable water’s edge communities founded by enslaved Africans and their descendants who struggle to maintain their generational legacies and continue to rely on the Chesapeake waterways for their economic success,” Williams said.
Strum earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Maryland School of Public Health. She brings more than 35 years of experience in entrepreneurship, nonprofit and public sector development and management, Williams said.
He added that Strum’s firm has provided planning and consulting services to more than 20 start-up community-based organizations throughout the U.S. as well as hundreds of public local and state agencies across the continental U.S. and Caribbean. She also served as the 7th national president of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., which has more than 65 chapters nationwide.
These experiences, Williams said, “have prepared her to step into this role and effectively partner with the entire Board and a dedicated team of staff, volunteers, consultants, and BoCF partner organizations to execute our mission successfully.”
Strum will assume her interim role effective immediately.
