Meet the AARP Maryland Volunteer Executive Council

In addition to their leadership and advisory roles, AARP Maryland Executive Council members represent the state office as spokespersons, serve as liaisons to current and potential strategic community partners, support volunteer team building, and spearhead outreach efforts within various regions of the state.

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Jim Campbell, Maryland State President

Jim Campbell comes to the AARP Executive Council with a long career in public affairs. From 2003 to 2017 he served as senior manager at Johns Hopkins University School of Education working in both communications and government relations. He arranged for presentations by leading education experts before policy-making committees and recently he organized a national conference bringing together some of the top scholars in the country to present their research on equality of educational opportunity. The event, which received press attention, featured the U.S. Secretary of Education.

Beginning in 1979, Campbell served for 24 years in the Maryland House of Delegates. For eight of those years, he chaired an education policy committee and helped to pass some important policy initiatives including additional funding for schools and legislation supporting teachers and principals.

He also served on the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners from 2006 to 2010.

For the past decade Campbell has been a regular contributor of opinion pieces for the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post on topical education issues including the importance of early childhood programs, inequality in education and to the importance of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

Campbell is a member of the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, AARP, Nature Conservancy, Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum and Hampden Family Center. He's also involved with the Roland Springs Community Assn., a board member of the Jone Falls Stream Task Force and Center for Healthy Maryland.

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Karen Morgan, Executive Council Member

Karen Morgan has devoted her life to public service, with a particular focus on state legislatures and legislative policymaking. While studying law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she worked as a research analyst for the Wisconsin Legislature. After receiving her juris doctor degree, she worked as a lobbyist for the National Conference of State Legislatures, focusing on civil rights, criminal justice and banking regulation issues.

She then undertook staffing duties for the Maryland General Assembly, where she spent most of her career before retiring in 2019. She developed her interest in consumer protection when she became the manager for the sunset review process, which gave her the chance to investigate the relationship between businesses, the promises they make to protect the health and welfare of the public, and the role of state government in holding businesses accountable.

She served the Maryland legislature as a budget analyst, bill drafter, federal funds analyst, and bill analyst before transferring to the fiscal and policy notes function where she worked as a writer, then editor and reviewer. She has written numerous analyses in the areas of family law, criminal justice, criminal procedure, drunk and drugged driving, traffic safety enforcement, juvenile law and civil procedure. Her analyses have been cited by Maryland’s highest court and her original research on state domestic violence laws was catalogued by the Library of Congress.

Morgan has also had a longstanding interest in computer security, identity theft and consumer protection issues. She has drafted a number of bills in the identity theft prevention area and co-authored a report on how identity theft laws are enforced in Maryland. She has made presentations on identity theft legislation before the Maryland General Assembly and the Maryland Identity Theft Working Group, organized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the State of Maryland.

Since her retirement in 2019, Morgan has volunteered with AARP on fraud prevention and was recognized 2021 for her work with the Protect Week campaign, a program to highlight and prevent elder financial abuse.

Morgan is originally from Chicago, Ill., and while she makes her home in Maryland, insists that she is from the “south side” of Chicago, and a die-hard fan of the Chicago White Sox!

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David Conway, Executive Council Member

David is a people person who enjoys working in a team environment. A skilled communicator as well as a patient listener, he believes that together everybody achieves more. David was raised in a military family and has traveled throughout the world. Prior to retiring at the end of 2017, he spent 40 years in surgical device sales for three major surgical device companies and two start-ups. David’s professional honors include numerous sales product excellence awards, multiple regional and national representative of the year honors, as well as several regional managers of the year awards. He was promoted to Eastern Area Sales Director in 2006 and spent 11 years in senior management positions for his last company.

In the community, David has contributed his time and support to the Howard County Arts Council, as well as his family church. He lives a very active lifestyle that includes fitness, music, and travel. He is a caregiver to his 94-year-old mother who also lives in Columbia. In September 2018, David appeared on television and radio in support of AARP initiatives and was honored with AARP Maryland’s Communications Volunteer of the Year award. A graduate of Ohio University, David lives in Columbia with his wife and is the proud father of two daughters.

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Dr. Sudha Haley, Executive Council Member

Dr. Sudha K. Haley comes to AARP after an extensive career in public service. She recently retired from the Department of Labor’s International Bureau as senior policy adviser. Earlier, as the department’s assistant deputy associate secretary of labor, she managed oversight of programs, personnel and budgets for agencies including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Women’s Bureau.

Prior to her federal government service, Dr. Haley held positions as assistant superintendent of schools, director, supervisor, principal and teacher in New York and Maryland. She served on the Advisory Board for Southern Maryland Community Colleges; and was Maryland Governor’s State Chairman for Global Education and Fulbright to Israel.

In addition to her role at AARP, Dr. Haley serves as first vice president and legislative director for the Maryland Federation of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association; sits on the board of directors of the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP); is a member of the Fulbright Advocacy Task Force; chairs the Calvert County Census 2020 Complete Count Committee; and serves on the Calvert County Commission on Aging and on the United Seniors of Maryland Legislative Committee. A Calvert County resident, she is married to Dr. Kenneth Haley and has three sons.

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James H. Gutman, Executive Council Member

Jim Gutman joins the AARP Maryland Executive Council after a 5-decade career in journalism and publishing, most recently as vice president and managing editor at Atlantic Information Services, Inc., where he specialized in news publications covering the pharmaceutical and managed health care industries. Shortly after becoming an AARP volunteer advocate, Jim leveraged his extensive knowledge to support the organization’s prescription drug reform campaign.  He shared his expertise before the Maryland General Assembly, helping to secure the establishment of the Maryland Prescription Drug Affordability Board, the first of its kind in the nation. continues to contribute letters to the editor, op-eds and legislative testimony in support of AARP’s healthcare advocacy. He has represented AARP Maryland as a member of Maryland Health Care Commission electronic prescription records and telehealth policy workgroups. For his efforts, AARP Maryland honored Jim with its 2018 Communications Award.

In addition to his work with AARP Maryland, Jim continues to teach writing at the college level and volunteers as a SHIP Medicare prescription drug counselor. Jim earned a B.A. in English, with a minor in economics, from Cornell University, an M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University, and an M.B.A. in finance from Loyola College in Maryland (now Loyola University Maryland). Over the course of his career, Jim has earned awards from the Keystone Press Association and Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association. He lives in Columbia, Md.

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Karen Kalla, Executive Council Member

Karen Kalla is a retired policy advocate/constituency network and political campaign organizer in the fields of environmental protection and higher education.  

Her 27-year career as program director in national nonprofit organizations is bookended by extensive volunteer community service including past roles as an elected town commissioner of a Montgomery County municipality, president of Montgomery County Civic Federation, appointed member of the Governor’s Energy 2020 Task Force, co-founder of Maryland Citizens Network,  co-founder and chair of the Montgomery County League of Environmental Voters, president and executive director of Sugarloaf Citizens’ Association, and now lead advocate for AARP Maryland.

At the Sierra Club legislative headquarters in Washington, DC, Karen directed programs in international population, global warming, and political campaigns. she traveled nationally to organize political support for environmental candidates in critical districts and to lead educational and grassroots organizing programs that advanced state and federal environmental policy and legislation.

Recognizing the central nature of education to this work, Karen then worked for 20 years in the field of higher education (American Association for Higher Education and Association of American Colleges and Universities) to advance programs that equip all students with the knowledge and skills needed to contribute to careers and actions that advance the quality of life, civic engagement, and our democratic institutions.

Understanding that individual well-being is inextricably entwined with the health of our physical, natural, social, and political environments, Karen is dedicated to better understanding and addressing the root causes of inequities and imbalances in our communities.  She is fortunate to have found a place what shares these ideals and commitments in AARP Maryland.

Karen holds a B.S. in education from Salisbury University and a personal trainer certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine.