04-11-2024 Howard Magazine - Flipbook - Page 10
3 THINGS
BY MIKE KLINGAMAN Howard Magazine
Daria Willis
Howard Community College president
PHOTO BY LLOYD FOX
The first in her family to attend college, Daria Willis just kept going. She earned two post-graduate degrees and, in 2022, was named president of Howard Community College.
At 39, Willis is the first African American to hold the post. A native of Stone Mountain, Georgia.
and a mother of three, she serves on both Howard County’s Local Children’s Board and its Economic Development Authority Board, as well as the Greater Baltimore Committee.
Here are three things you might not know about Daria Willis:
LEGOs brighten her office.
“LEGOs are my new best friend. Last
December, I was exhausted and my brain was
empty when I saw these kits in the store. I
bought one for a LEGO typewriter, took it
home and built it in two days. Since then, I’ve
constructed everything from the Eiffel Tower
and the [Roman] Coliseum to Winnie-thePooh and the Batmobile. Some have 10,000
pieces.
“Doing this is a huge stress buster. At times,
when we’re huddled in my office and working
on a critical issue, I’ll put together a LEGO set
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while thinking through the problem and then
say, ‘This is what we need to do.’ “
She’s well-heeled in footwear.
“I’m a huge shoe collector, so much so that
I have an entire room for my shoes and a few
clothes. I must have 200 pairs in red, green,
yellow and purple — lots of sneakers but very
few heels.
“When I wear them to work, students come
over and say, ‘Yo, Doc, I love those new J’s
[Jordans] you’ve got.’ Then we’ll have a whole
conversation about shoes, then about their
classes, and then about something that I need
to know.”
She marched to a real-life drummer in
college.
“I went to Florida A&M not for academic
reasons, but to be in the [celebrated] marching
band. I played trombone in high school and,
when I graduated, my mom bought me a new
silver trombone. That [instrument] was my
baby; I still have it.
“There were 40 trombones in the college
band, and we had a good time. Once, after a
football game at Bethune-Cookman, we went
straight to a Waffle House — a bunch of rowdy
youngsters in our sweaty, stinky uniforms —
and stayed for hours. Afterward, in the parking
lot, we found some [errant] shopping carts and
climbed in, two or three at a time, and raced
each other, in the dark, all the way back to the
hotel.”