Maya Rockeymoore Cummings
American politician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maya Michelle Rockeymoore Cummings (born January 31, 1971) is an American political scientist, public health advocate, technology entrepreneur, and author. She is the founder and chief executive officer of HyperVigilant, a health technology company developing artificial intelligence tools to detect and manage cardiometabolic health risks.
January 31, 1971
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings | |
|---|---|
| |
| Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party | |
| In office December 1, 2018 – November 11, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Kathleen Matthews |
| Succeeded by | Cory V. McCray (Acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Maya Michelle Rockeymoore January 31, 1971 El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Prairie View A&M University (BA) Purdue University (MA, PhD) |
She is the author of RAGEism: Racism, Ageism and the Quest for Liberation Democracy , which coins the term "rageism" to describe the compounding structural harm produced by the simultaneous operation of racism and ageism across political institutions and public policy.[1]
Over a career spanning more than three decades, Rockeymoore Cummings has worked as a congressional staffer[2], nonprofit leader[3], public health program director, think tank founder, academic fellow, and entrepreneur.[4]
She previously served as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution[5] and as a Visiting Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University SNF Agora Institute.[6] She founded Global Policy Solutions (2005) and the Center for Global Policy Solutions (2012), organizations focused on economic inequality, health disparities, and social insurance policy. Her commentary has appeared in The Washington Post[7], The New York Times[2], Forbes, CNN[8], MSNBC[9], Fox News[10], the BBC, and Al Jazeera.
She served as chair of the Maryland Democratic Party from 2018 to 2019.[11][12]
Early life and career
Rockeymoore Cummings was born in Wichita Falls, Texas.[13] She is the daughter of Thomas Rockeymoore of San Antonio, Texas, and Hazel Rockeymoore (d. 2015).[14] Her father served as president of the local San Antonio NAACP chapter and led the Bexar County Democratic Party in the mid-1990s, and was a volunteer with COPS/Metro Alliance.[15] Her mother was a lifetime NAACP member, an ACLU member, and worked for the election of President Barack Obama.[14]
She is the fourth generation from slavery on her mother's side; her parents were raised in the Jim Crow South a personal history that has directly informed her scholarship on structural racism, ageism, and their compounding effects on marginalized communities.[16]
As the daughter of a United States Air Force officer, Rockeymoore Cummings spent her childhood living across the United States and abroad as a result of her father's military assignments, attending John Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas, where she was later honored as a Pillar of Character by the Northside Education Foundation.[17]
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and mass communications from Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black university in Texas.[18] She subsequently received a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in political science from Purdue University, where her graduate studies encompassed American politics, international relations, public policy, and African American studies.[19] Her dissertation, The African American Political Response to HIV/AIDS: A Case Study of the Congressional Black Caucus in the 105th Congress, examined the intersection of race, legislative politics, and public health policy.[20]
Purdue University honored her with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2022.[21] She was also named an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow in 2004, a selective leadership development program for mid-career entrepreneurs and civic innovators.[22]
Career
Congressional career
[23][24][25][18][26][27][28][29] [30][31]
Following graduate school, Rockeymoore Cummings built a career on Capitol Hill. From 1997 to 1998 she served as a Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Fellow in the Office of Congressman Melvin Watt (D-NC), advising the Member on Social Security, health, welfare, Medicare, and Medicaid policy.[13]
She then joined the professional staff of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Subcommittee, where she produced policy analysis on Social Security benefits and related legislative proposals and helped build coalitions among advocacy organizations with a shared interest in strengthening the Social Security system.[17]
From 1999 to 2000 she served as Administrative Assistant and Chief of Staff in the Office of Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), managing a staff of fourteen and a budget of more than $1 million. In that role she helped facilitate passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act and oversaw constituent services and legislative operations.[13]
She has testified before both chambers of the United States Congress on multiple occasions, providing expert testimony on Social Security policy and its implications for vulnerable populations and the middle class. Her formal appearances include testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security, on May 17, 2005, in a hearing titled First Do No Harm: Protecting and Strengthening Social Security’s Value for Vulnerable Populations.[32] She later testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy, on May 21, 2014, in a hearing entitled “How Structural Factors Drive the Need to Expand Social Security Benefits for Future Retirees.” More recently, she appeared again before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security, on March 12, 2019, in a hearing titled “Protecting and Improving Social Security: Enhancing Social Security to Strengthen the Middle Class.”[32]
Personal life
Rockeymoore married Elijah Cummings, a member of the United States House of Representatives who represented Maryland's 7th congressional district, in 2008.[33] They remained married until his death in 2019. Rep. Cummings had three children from earlier relationships. Rockeymoore has no relation to said children.
Her father Thomas was a Commissioned Officer in the Air Force, her brother is an English Teacher at San Marcos High School in Texas and her sister Meredith is a Pain Management Physician at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and is Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas School of Osteopathic Medicine.[34][35]