Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman announced the formation of an advisory group to help inform county policy decisions on the long road to recovery from the COVID-19 public health crisis.

The group includes the County Executive, county health officer, top officials from both county hospitals, the chair of the Economic Development Corporation board, a representative from the county chambers of commerce, the faith community, and organized labor and a county councilmember from both political parties.

“When Governor Hogan announced last week that the state would transfer partial authority to local jurisdictions on the pace and details of Stage One reopening, we had very little time to engage community leaders in the discussion. We needed to act almost immediately,” said Pittman. “This work group is an effort to bring divergent viewpoints to the table to seek common ground. It is one of many initiatives we will launch in the coming weeks to Build Back Better from the pandemic.”

Pittman has directed the group to review the county’s current policy under the May 15 executive order and to make recommendations on how the county moves forward to protect public health and support local businesses and workers.

The COVID-19 Recovery Work Group has 10 members. They are:

● Steuart Pittman, county executive

● Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman, county health officer

● Councilmember Andrew Pruski (District 4)

● Councilmember Amanda Fiedler (District 5)

● Sherry Perkins, president and chief executive officer of Anne Arundel Medical Center

● Karen Olscamp, president and chief executive officer of University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center

● Eric Devito, chair, board of directors, Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corp.

● Alissa Santoro, Crofton Chamber of Commerce (selected by county chambers of commerce as their representative)

● Bishop Antonio Palmer, Kingdom Celebration Center

● Donna Edwards, president, Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO

Information and resources for the county’s road to recovery are available at www.aacounty.org/coronavirus/road-to-recovery/index.html.