Peace Corps ties inspire Maryland native tapped by Wes Moore as first secretary of service

A history of service runs in the family of the man who Gov. Wes Moore appointed on Monday to make history as the first secretary of service in the state’s long history that spans parts of four centuries.

Paul Monteiro, a Maryland native and most recently the director of the United States Department of Justice Community Relations Service, spoke about his grandparents, who met in Palau, in Micronesia, when his grandfather was serving in the Peace Corps on the western Pacific island.

“I’m the beneficiary of so many who chose to serve,” said Monteiro, the onetime national director of AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the federal anti-poverty program established in 1965 as the domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps.

Moore introduced Monteiro in front of a crowd at the State House that included former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the niece of President John F. Kennedy. The 35^th president proposed the idea for Peace Corps during the 1960 campaign and got the organization started in 1961 during the first year of his administration.

Since that time, over 240,000 volunteers have served in the organization in more than 140 countries around the world in topic areas such as agriculture, education, and the environment.

“It’s very exciting that Maryland will be at the forefront of service and be a leader,” said Kennedy Townsend, in an interview before the governor’s remarks and announcement. In an email after the event in Annapolis, the former lieutenant governor, who has pushed for service initiatives herself, called the announced appointment of Monteiro “beautifully fitting.”

The acting secretary still has to be confirmed by the state’s Senate, an event which Moore said on Monday that he hopes is complete by April 10, the last day of this year’s legislative session.

If confirmed, Monteiro will oversee a new Department of Service and Civic Innovation, which Moore outlined through executive order on his first full day in office. The order set the framework for the organization that will carry out Moore’s campaign promise of a service year option for Maryland high school graduates.

Bills that would codify the new program to give a few hundred of the state’s 50,000-plus high school graduates an opportunity to serve are making their way through the legislative process.

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More: On MLK Day, Moore promotes service year option, readies for governorship

“By calling Marylanders to serve, we will strengthen civic bonds, restore a spirit of community, and call on all of our citizens to get to know each other better,” said Moore, a U.S. Army veteran.

“Gov. Moore eloquently captured the importance of this moment,” said Monteiro, during the announcement, with the governor and state’s Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller standing behind him, “and how central this new department will be in cultivating our most important resource — the people of this great state.”

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Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Maryland native inspired by Peace Corps to lead Department of Service