After more than six years as Preservation Maryland’s Director of Communications, Meagan Baco is moving on from the organization to lead the Anacostia Trails State Heritage Area as its Executive Director.
Meagan has served as Director of Communications of Preservation Maryland since 2015 during a period of dramatic organizational and programmatic growth. The organization powers several national programs, including the Campaign for Historic Trades and PreserveCast, which were both part of Baco’s communications portfolio.
Meagan was integral to the launch of the organization’s statewide programs, including the Six-to-Fix program, the Best of Maryland awards, and the organization’s capstone event, Phoenix Rising. Print and digital, internal and external, communications were all in their purview, including The Phoenix printed newsletter, regular e-communications, and much-expanded blogging and social media presence.
Baco, a trained preservationist and planner, was project manager of Preservation Maryland’s diverse public history projects, including labor history interpretive signage through the Jones Falls area of Baltimore City, a multi-media women’s history project called Ballot & Beyond, and the groundbreaking Maryland LGBTQ History Context Statement.
Meagan also took pride in managing the organization’s Waxter Memorial Internship Program and mentored dozens of students from across the country, tackling a massive digital archiving project and a joint architectural internship with AIA Maryland’s Historic Resources Committee.
Preservation Maryland staff at the Park Mill sign, 2018.
Starting in April 2021, Meagan will apply their project management, creative leadership, and communications expertise as Executive Director of the Anacostia Trails State Heritage Area in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Known to many as Maryland Milestones, the non-profit elevates heritage tourism opportunities and supports the region’s museums and historic sites, Main Streets and community organizations, small businesses and artists, and many, many, bike trails.
Anacostia Trails’ headquarters is the Ebbeler Heritage Center in the heart of hip and historic Hyattsville, Maryland – just one of the towns and communities that the Heritage Areas serves and supports. A current resident of Baltimore City and former resident of Washington, DC, it is an area that Baco has always appreciated for its diversity and creativity.