Appointments Secretary Tisha Edwards, with Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), in a photo from when she delivered the “green bag” in 2024. (Photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
Tisha Edwards, a loyalist of Gov. Wes Moore’s (D) who served the past two years as his appointments secretary, will leave in April to become the next president and CEO of the Maryland Bankers Association, it was announced Friday.
In addition to taking over the Maryland association, Edwards will serve as executive vice president of the Mid-Atlantic Bankers Association, a holding company formed last year that brings the Maryland and Virginia bankers associations to work on issues affecting the two states.
Edwards departure opens the door for Mollie Byron, currently the Moore administration’s director of intergovernmental affairs, to become the new appointments secretary. Byron, who also serves as a senior adviser to Moore, will be replaced in turn by Dylan Goldberg, the current deputy director of the intergovernmental affairs office.
Edwards may be best known for her annual trips to deliver the “green bag” to the Senate, a legislative tradition in which the appointments secretary literally hands over a green bag that has hundreds of gubernatorial appointments to state offices.
Moore named Edwards to run his appointments office after she worked as chief of staff on his political campaign for governor. For two years, she was president of BridgeEdU, the education company founded by Moore. Edwards served as chief of staff to former Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh (D) and, while in Baltimore, she served as acting CEO and as chief of staff of the city public school system.
Moore said of Edwards that the “magnitude of her contributions to Maryland cannot be overstated.”
“Since Day One, Tisha Edwards has been the force behind our efforts to build an administration that moves with excellence and reflects the communities we represent,” Moore said. “Tisha has laid an unbreakable foundation, and I am confident that Mollie Byron will build on that foundation with distinction. “
Byron has been in her current role for more than two years. Before joining Moore’s team, Byron served in a number of roles across state and local government and private organizations.
For four years, Byron was the director of government accountability in Prince George’s County. She also served four years in the administration of Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), including a number of campaign roles.
Byron, the granddaughter of longtime Western Maryland Rep. Beverly Byron, coordinated O’Malley’s 2010 re-election campaign in Western Maryland and also serve as deputy national political director for his short-lived campaign for the 2016 nomination for president.
Her elevation to the appointments secretary role was welcomed by Democratic leaders. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-5th) said, “No one knows Maryland better than Mollie Byron.”
“Her family’s rich history of public service to our state and her decades of work on behalf of our people make her an exemplary choice for Maryland’s next secretary of appointments,” Hoyer said.
Before becoming deputy director of intergovernmental affairs for the Moore administration, Goldberg held several positions in the General Assembly, working for House Judiciary Committee Chair Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City), former House Health and Government Operations Committee Chair Shane Pendergrass (D-Howard) and Sen. Guy Guzzone (D-Howard). He is a graduate of Howard Community College and the University of Maryland.
– A note to our readers: We at Maryland Matters are as anxious for a return of Josh Kurtz as you are, but this story does not mark a step in that direction. We gave him the byline because he learned about this story before anyone else and tipped us to it, so it seemed the least we could do. Sorry to get your hopes up. Any errors are ours, not Josh’s. Sincerely, The Management.