{"id":2815,"date":"2023-09-27T19:04:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T19:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/?p=2815"},"modified":"2024-09-10T20:46:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T20:46:57","slug":"pokuaa-pk-owusu-acheaw-jd-15-is-chief-of-staff-to-md-lieutenant-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/pokuaa-pk-owusu-acheaw-jd-15-is-chief-of-staff-to-md-lieutenant-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"Pokuaa “PK” Owusu-Acheaw, JD ’15, is Chief of Staff to Md. Lieutenant Governor"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Adam Stone<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cP.K.\u201d Owusu-Acheaw, J.D. ’15, with Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and Gov. Wes Moore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Pokuaa \u201cP.K.\u201d Owusu-Acheaw, J.D. \u201915<\/span><\/b>,\u00a0has cut a wide swath through state and local government since earning her UBalt Law degree.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

She served as a legislative aide for Maryland Sen. Joanne C. Benson, representing Prince George\u2019s County, and as regional director for U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. From there she worked as intergovernmental affairs officer in the Prince George’s County Office of the County Executive, and then as managing director of legislative and political affairs at the Maryland State Education Association.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Now she\u2019s chief of staff to Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna K. Miller.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The common thread? \u201c<\/span>I am very much into solutions,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I see a problem, I want to know how we can bridge the gaps and get resources \u2014 or individuals with expertise \u2014 to solve a problem.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Legal training helps her to meet that mark. \u201cI know how to look at the larger picture, how to ask questions on intricacies that other individuals without legal training might not bring up,\u201d she says. \u201cIt has allowed me to think critically, to see things with multiple lenses.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Those who\u2019ve seen P.K. in action say they understand why she is one of the rising stars on the Maryland political scene.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI have been blessed to watch her career blossom from our time together at UB Law to now, working together in Annapolis,\u201d says State <\/span>Del.<\/span><\/b> Caylin Young, J.D. \u201916<\/span><\/b>, who represents District 45 in Baltimore city. \u201cP.K. is one of the smartest political minds in Maryland. She is someone you can always count on for personal and professional advice.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Yaakov \u201cJake\u201d Weissmann, J.D. \u201916<\/span><\/b>, first met P.K. when she worked for Benson and he was deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Senate President. \u201cThe Senate is a tough place: It is a work-hard, play-hard place,\u201d says Weissmann, who currently serves as the assistant chief administrative\u202fofficer for Montgomery County government.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cManaging a senator is not easy,\u201d he says. \u201cYou’ve got to be knowledgeable enough on the issues. You got to be knowledgeable enough on the other senators, and at the same time you still need to be aware of what your senator wants and be responsive in that regard. And P.K. did a phenomenal job.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In her present role, Owusu-Acheaw says the Moore-Miller administration is focused on \u201cincreasing opportunity for work, wages and wealth, making sure that Marylanders have an equal opportunity to achieve their full potential.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

And she\u2019s got a personal stake in bringing that to fruition. \u201cI am a first-generation American, the child of Ghanaian parents who sacrificed so much for me to get to where I am. So I am fully invested in the opportunity to achieve the American Dream,\u201d she says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Opportunity<\/span><\/i> covers a lot of ground. Her work includes the administration\u2019s efforts to end child poverty, as well as projects focused on transportation, behavioral and mental health, social justice and reproductive health. Her work also includes supporting the administration\u2019s efforts to address climate change — \u201cto ensure there is a future, in which we can protect resources and ensure children can breathe air that\u2019s just as clean [as it was for] their grandparents,\u201d she says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Where is Owusu-Acheaw headed with all this? Perhaps a future career in elective office?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cR<\/span>ight now, I’m just focused on how I can use the present time to address issues that currently exist and any issues that might be developing. There’s no shortage of issues that exist in our state, and I’m just busy and hard at work at trying to solve those right now.\u201d she says. \u201cI’m looking to the future to see how we can make it better, but not looking too far ahead to see what’s next for me.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Day to day, the job can be challenging, she says. \u201cGovernment works around the clock to make sure that Marylanders have what they need,\u201d she says. But in the big picture, the rewards more than make up for the effort.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cE<\/span>ven if I’m having a tough day, I can know that the work the team just did is going to make an impact, not only on someone today, but also in the future, someone who doesn’t even exist yet,\u201d she says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThat’s the kind of thing that gets me up every morning,\u201d she says. \u201cI get the satisfaction out of knowing that 30 years down the line, I will look back to something that we worked on during a tough legislative session and be able to say: <\/span>We made an impact.<\/span><\/i> That is a feeling that I honestly am very privileged and honored to have.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Adam Stone<\/strong> is a writer based in Annapolis.<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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By Adam Stone\u00a0 Pokuaa \u201cP.K.\u201d Owusu-Acheaw, J.D. \u201915,\u00a0has cut a wide swath through state and local government since earning her UBalt Law degree.\u00a0 She served as a legislative aide for Maryland Sen. Joanne C. Benson, representing Prince George\u2019s County, and as regional director for U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. From there she worked as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2815"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3447,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2815\/revisions\/3447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}