10-15-2023 Women to Watch - Flipbook - Page 12
25
WOMEN
TO WATCH
Meet the Baltimore area’s most intriguing
movers and shakers of 2023
Aruna Miller
Maryland lieutenant governor
The back wall of Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller’s office in Annapolis — which she fondly calls “the people’s office”
— is nearly bare. She wants to fill it top to bottom with pictures of constituents.
“I have to say the best part of this job is the people you meet — they change you, they make you grow,”
Miller, 58, said. “I think the hardest part has been … when you are face-to-face with residents of Maryland
and they’re sharing their life story with you and the ways that government wasn’t able to help them when
they should have. It breaks your heart.”
An immigrant from India, engineer and former Montgomery County representative in the Maryland House
of Delegates, Miller made history in January when she was sworn in as the first woman of color to serve as
lieutenant governor. But, for Miller, being the first “wasn’t the assignment,” which was to break down barriers.
“I know each of us have walked into rooms and [were] like, ‘Wow, maybe I don’t belong here,’ and you see
that as a sign because you don’t [see] somebody that looks like you in the room,” Miller said. “I say to every
single person that’s in those moments: Don’t see it as a sign that you don’t belong there, see … that you’re
meant to be there, that you have to be there, that you have to step up to the plate and do what’s needed so you
can make it easier for other people to come into that space again.”
— Hannah Gaskill
12 | 2023 | WOMEN TO WATCH