2016 Committee

Honorary Gala Committee Chairs

Mr. B. Doyle Mitchell Jr.
President & CEO, Industrial Bank

Doyle Mitchell, Jr. is President and CEO of Industrial Bank, the largest minority-owned commercial bank in the Washington Metropolitan area and the sixth largest African-American owned financial institution in the country. Industrial Bank was founded on August 22, 1934 and is celebrating 80 years of service.

Ms. Karen Price-Ward
Community Affairs & Grassroots Regional Leader, Southwest Airlines

Karen Price-Ward is Southwest Airlines Corporate Community Affairs Manager. She is responsible for establishing and strengthening relationships with key businesses, civic/community, political leaders and influencers in the African American, Hispanic, Asian American, women, senior, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender markets across the country. 

Ms. Jacqueline W. Sales
President, HAZMED

Environmental engineer Jacqueline White Sales graduated from Howard University with her B.S. degree in microbiology in 1968, and her M.E. degree in environmental engineering in 1975. Upon graduation in 1968, Sales served as Chief Technician of the Georgetown University Rheumatology Laboratory at the District of Columbia General Hospital.

Honorary Gala Committee Members

The Honorable Todd M. Turner
District 4 - Prince George's County Council

Todd M. Turner (D-District 4) was elected to his first four-year term on the Prince George’s County Council in the 2014 General Election. Constituent areas include Bowie, Glenn Dale, Greenbelt, Westchester Park, parts of Lanham-Seabrook and Upper Marlboro.

Colonel Edward DeShields
Chief, Accounting and Documentation Division, Headquarters Department of the Army

Colonel DeShields is currently serving as the chief of the Force Accounting and Documentation Division, in the Force Management Directorate, at the Headquarters Department of the Army Staff. His division is responsible for accounting all of the Army’s 1,045,000 authorizations, as well as managing the processing of all of the Army’s requirements and authorization documents for personnel and material.

Mr. Doug Duncan
President, Leadership Greater Washington

Doug Duncan has been a leader in the Greater Washington Region for over thirty years.  He is a proven executive-level manager, with demonstrated leadership in developing an organizational vision and putting that vision into action.  An experienced public communicator and crisis manager, Mr. Duncan has a record of success in building partnerships and collaborating with diverse and varied groups of people to identify and reach a common goal.

Mr. M.H. Jim Estepp
President & CEO, Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable

The President and CEO of the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable is Mr. M.H. Jim Estepp. Mr. Estepp is formerly: Chair of the Prince George’s County Council where he served two elected terms; President Pro Tempore of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; Chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; President of the International Association of Fire Chiefs; Director of the Maryland Security Council, Office of the Governor; Fire & EMS Chief of Prince George’s County and Director of Public Safety for Prince George’s County.

Mr. Ronald Lipford
Principal and CEO, Arel Architects, LLC 

Mr. Lipford has over 30 years of experience in Architecture. He possesses a great deal of experience in all levels of responsibility to include programming, design and technical coordination, construction document preparation and delivering construction management services. Since 1991 (24years) as the Principal and CEO, Mr. Lipford bears the overall responsibility for the strategic successful delivery of all professional architectural/engineering services delivered by Arel Architects, Inc.

Mr. D. Michael Lyles, Esq.
Executive Director, Prince George's County Human Relations Commission

Mr. Lyles currently serves as the Executive Director for the Prince George’s County Human Relations Commission in Prince George’s County, Maryland. In this position, he manages the staff of the Commission and brings enforcement action against violators of the County’s laws prohibiting unlawful discrimination in the areas of housing, employment, law enforcement misconduct, education, real estate transactions, financial lending, and public accommodations.

Mr. Jeff Majors
Musician, Harpist 

As a native of Washington, D.C., music flowed throughout the household of Jeff Majors courtesy of his mother Annie P. Fitzgerald - a talented jazz trumpeter in her own right with a circle of friends which included legendary actress and singer Pearl Bailey. At age 15, Jeff Majors had a dream in which he saw himself strumming the harp; an instrument he had never played before. Inspired, he used the dream to fuel his passion for music and literally change the course of his life. With the harp hand-made for him by a local music store owner, he began to pursue mastery of the instrument.

Ms. Valencia McClure
Director of Communications & Corporate Relations, BGE 

Valencia McClure is the vice president of Governmental and External Affairs for BGE, an Exelon Company. McClure is responsible for building key stakeholder relationships and developing strategic initiatives that enhance the company’s reputation. She leads government affairs, corporate relations, marketing and large customer services for the company’s 1.2 million electric customers and 650,000 natural gas customers in central Maryland. Prior to assuming this role in April 2016, McClure was BGE’s director of communications and corporate relations. McClure also held communications roles with Exelon Power, responsible for cultivating collaborative relationships regionally and nationally.

Colonel Robert Myles
Senior Military Assistant (Acquisition), Office of the Secretary of Defense

Colonel Robert W. Myles Jr. became the Senior Military Assistant (Acquisition) for the Deputy Chief Management Officer, Office of the Secretary of Defense in July 2014. He is responsible for advising the political appointed Deputy Chief Management Officer of the Secretary of Defense in the exercise of policy development, planning, resource management, fiscal and program evaluation responsibilities.    

Ms. Betty Brown Turner
Retired Educator

A native of Annapolis, Maryland, Betty Brown Turner earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education in 1962 followed by a Master of Education degree in Guidance and Counseling in 1981 from Bowie State University (then Bowie State College). She began her career in Annapolis as an elementary classroom teacher in the Anne Arundel County Public Schools System (AACPS) and retired after 30 years of service. During her tenure in the AACPS, she served 20 years as an elementary and middle school classroom teacher and in the Alternative to Expulsion Program.