06-05-2022 Hall of Fame - Flipbook - Page 12
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Baltimore Sun Media | Sunday, June 5, 2022
BALTIMORE SUN’S 2022
BUSINESS AND CIVIC HALL OF FAME HONOREE
WANDA Q. DRAPER
H
er management style is a simple one, honed over
half a century in the corporate world.
“I don’t ask anyone to do anything that I
wouldn’t do myself,” said Wanda Queen Draper,
70. “I don’t profess to know it all. I respect people
but, at the same time, I demand respect.”
Those tenets have guided Ms. Draper through
a varied career in the Baltimore community, from
her leadership roles with WBAL-TV and the
National Aquarium to, most recently, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture. There,
in her four years as executive director, Ms. Draper rescued a struggling gallery,
wiping out $1.6 million in debts before she retired in 2019.
“It has been a journey,” the Pikesville resident said. “I’ve done what I wanted,
and felt privileged to do it.”
All her life, Ms. Draper has forged
a trail for Black women through
the business sector. Soft-spoken
but steely, she has stood toe-to-toe
with those who thought they could
bully the onetime cheerleader from
Forest Park High. Once, while she
was assignment editor at WJZ-TV,
a reporter who didn’t get his way
punched a hole in the wall of Ms.
Draper’s office. She stood firm.
“My father had two daughters
and treated me like a son,” she said.
“He nicknamed me ‘Slugs,’ took me
to Orioles’ games and taught me to
always be responsible for myself.”
A 1973 graduate of the University
of Maryland, Ms. Draper worked 10
years as a reporter for the Baltimore
Evening Sun before the death of a
colleague spurred her to move on.
“One morning, at work, [reporter]
Horace Ayres keeled over at his
desk from a heart attack,” she said.
“That day, at lunch, Gwen Ifill and
I decided that we didn’t want to die
on the newsroom floor, and started
plotting our way out.”
Ms. Ifill would later become an
anchor for the PBS News Hour,
until her death in 2016; Ms. Draper,
a high-profile mainstay in the
Baltimore business world. Often,
her work bore civic overtones. In
1984, as director of public affairs
for the Maryland Department of
Human Resources, she launched a
campaign against child abuse with
the mantra, Strike a match and not a
child. At WBAL, where she served as
director of programming and public
affairs, Ms. Draper enhanced the
station’s “Harvest for the Hungry”
campaign via on-air promotions,
food drives and auctions.
“I like to do things that change
peoples’ lives, and it’s important to
leave a footprint on the community,”
she said.
Her persona draws kudos from
Jordan Wertlieb, former general
manager at WBAL.
“Wanda was my confidant and
adviser for years,” said Mr. Wertlieb,
whoisnowpresidentofHearstTelevision.“Sheisincrediblydiscreetand
fearless, with a remarkable willingness to speak truth to power. She
understandswhat’simportantinthe
community and knows all the influencers, those willing to help her. It’s
a remarkable network; I’ve watched
her navigate, seamlessly, a room
filled with very powerful people.”
Ms. Draper has long championed
her gender and race. Once before an
executive meeting at the National
Aquarium, she told a colleague that
one of his cuff links was on backward.
“Couldyoufixitforme?”heasked.
“I didn’t have a servant at home this
morning.”
“I’mnotyourservant,”Ms.Draper
replied, “but I don’t want to be
embarrassed by you with your cuff
link on backwards.”
Shespentsixyearswiththefishes,
as director of community affairs
and visitor services and earning the
respect of employees.
“Idonotyellatormistreatpeople,”
she said. “I treat them the way that I
want to be treated, and I’m always
willing to listen. One [co-worker]
asked me, ‘How is it that you can
fire people and they still like you?’ I
told him, ‘You can be wrong but that
doesn’t mean I disrespect you.’ ”
A three-year stint in state government,asheadofpublic affairs forthe
Department of Human Resources,
endedin1986whenWilliamDonald
Schaefer became governor. Ms.
Draper promptly resigned.
“I didn’t want to be screamed at
and treated badly, like I’d heard that
he’d done with others,” she said.
“One night [Mr. Schaefer] knocked
on my door in Stoneleigh. ‘Why
are you leaving?’ he asked. I said,
‘Because I’m not the kind of person
you can yell at. If you yell at me, I’ll
yell back, and that’s not going to
work.’
“He slammed the door and left.”
Hired by WBAL in 1992, Ms.
Draper was director of programming and public affairs upon retiring in 2016. But she was quickly
summoned to fix the ailing Lewis
Museum.
“Lewis’ widow [Loida] called
and said, ‘The museum is on life
support, it’s a management problem and we want you to be executive director,’ ” Ms. Draper said. She
reorganizedthestaffand“broughtin
people who had the skills that I did
not.” And she expanded a program
in which Maryland residents could
lend works of famous artists from
their own collections for museum
displays, thus saving as much as
$100,000 per exhibit.
“Wanda got that museum back
on the rails,” said Adrienne Jones,
speaker of the Maryland House of
Delegates. “Her legacy is that in all
she’s done in her career, she has
made a difference. Her gift is the
ability to see the inner talents [in
employees] and to visualize them in
ways that they might not see. She’ll
steertheminotherdirections[workwise] and say, ‘This is your strength,’
where, if they’d stayed put, it would
have been total disaster.”
To that end, Ms. Jones said, “she
has ingratiated herself with a lot of
people.” Many of them, at Ms. Draper’s behest, helped revitalize the
Lewis museum.
“Erasing that [$1.6 million debt
was a wonderful feeling, but now
I really am retired,” Ms. Draper
said. “All I’ve wanted was to make
a difference in the quality of life for
those in our community. I really feel
fulfilled.”
“She is incredibly
discreet and fearless,
with a remarkable
willingness to speak
truth to power. She
understands what’s
important in the
community and knows
all the influencers, those
willing to help her.”
— Jordan Wertlieb,
former general manager at WBAL
AT A GLANCE
Age: 70
Hometown: Baltimore
Current residence: Pikesville
Education: Forest Park High School;
University of Maryland, College Park
(College of Journalism); Graduate
studies at Johns Hopkins University
School of Contemporary Studies;
University of Maryland School of
Law, (two years); Disney Institute on
Leadership Excellence (certificate
and mouse ears).
Career highlights: Executive
director, Reginald F. Lewis Museum
of Maryland African American
History & Culture; director of
programming and public affairs,
WBAL TV 11; director of public affairs,
Maryland Department of Human
Resources; director of community
affairs and visitor service, National
Aquarium in Baltimore; assignment
manager, WJZ TV; reporter,
Baltimore Evening Sun.
Civic and charitable activities:
Board member, University of
Maryland Medical System; board
member, WBAL Kid’s Campaign;
chair, Visit Baltimore Foundation.
Family: Married to Robert Draper;
two children, four grandchildren.