Baltimore City resident Katie Fink receives Zelda Miller Award

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Katie Fink, 32, received the Zelda Miller Award from The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, this past September. The award honors young adult leaders for their dedication to The Associated’s annual campaign.

(Courtesy)

Fink, who is a principal and the business development director at Lorax Partnerships, has been active with The Associated since 2017, when she participated in the Young Leadership Council (YLC) from 2017 through 2019. She subsequently became co-chair of YLC in the fall of 2021, leading the next cohort scheduled to graduate in May 2023. Per The Associated’s website, YLC is “a two-year leadership development program for young adults ages 22-39 who aspire to hold key positions within the Baltimore Jewish community.”

Reached by telephone, Fink remarked: “I have tried to be involved in The Associated in a way I can share my experience and expertise, and engage with contemporary community of young Jewish professionals.”

She added that “I really give credit to participating in YLC to having the confidence to take more leadership roles in both, in and outside The Associated, doing so taught me how to be a leader. I am also enjoying shepherding the next wave of leaders through the program and building the base of the next wave of leaders in the Jewish community.”

Fink grew up in the Mount Washington/Pikesville area and comes from a long line of leaders who have made a significant impact in Baltimore’s Jewish community — her grandparents, Daniel and Merilyn Fink, were founding members of Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah when it was on Liberty Road and then known as Liberty Jewish Center. Fink shared that while her grandfather passed away in 2009, her grandmother attends services there every Saturday.

Fink graduated from Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills, and obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Science of Natural and Environmental Systems from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She had a brief internship in New York after college graduation, then returned to Baltimore and completed a six-month fellowship at the NAACP in its environmental and climate justice program, which focused on how low-income and people of color are disproportionately affected by poor environmental policies. While at the NAACP, she worked with others mobilizing local communities to advocate for closing coal-fired power plants in their communities and encouraging the use of clean, renewable
energy instead.

Fink spoke passionately about her work and her interest in sustainability and the environment.

“Very early in my college career, I knew that I wanted to focus on an area that had an impact, and was of importance and concern to my generation and future generations. It seemed to me that sustainability and the environment were both important and in danger, and while making an impact was very important, there were also opportunities for job creation,” she shared.

At Lorax Partnerships, a sustainability consulting firm, Fink leads a team of equally passionate experts to guide “developers, designers, builders, owners, operators and occupants through the increasingly complex process of saving the planet, one building at a time.”

In addition to YLC, Fink serves on the Facilities Committee at Pearlstone Retreat Center and Outdoor Education Campus; on The Associated’s Real Estate Committee; on the Real Estate Industry Group (RERG); and on the Young Adults Division Board of The Associated.

She is married to J.B. Hollander; the couple is expecting a baby in March.

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