Department of Service and Civic Innovation
The Department of Service and Civic Innovation was established by the Serving Every Region Through Vocational Exploration (SERVE) Act of 2023 with the purpose of promoting service and volunteerism in the state of Maryland. The SERVE Act also launched two new exciting service pathways for eligible youth and adults, in addition to existing volunteer and service opportunities available through the Governor's Office on Service and Volunteerism and Volunteer Maryland.
Paul Monteiro Jr.
Secretary
https://dsci.maryland.gov
Paul Monteiro is the first Secretary of the Department of Service and Civic Innovation. Prior to this role, President Joseph Biden tapped Monteiro as the Director of the Department of Justice Community Relations Service and the United States Senate confirmed his nomination in April 2022.
From 2017 to 2022, Monteiro served as Chief of Staff to the President and Assistant Vice President of External Affairs at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
In 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Monteiro as 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.
Monteiro was a member of the White House staff from 2009 to 2013 working as an associate director of the Office of Public Engagement. In that role, he worked on President Obama’s Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Initiative, the My Brother’s Keeper mentorship program for young men, and as a liaison to religious and secular belief communities as well as ethnic groups including Arab Americans and Afghan Americans.
Secretary Monteiro was an at-large member of the Prince George’s County Public Schools Board of Education from 2018 until 2022. He earned a B.A. in history from the University of Maryland and a J.D. from the Howard University School of Law.
