BBL Staff
Bonnie Crockett, Director
Bonnie Crockett, who recently worked for Maryland Capital Enterprises providing micro-loans to new and emerging small businesses, is now the first small business lender to be hired by Baltimore Community Lending in its history!
Bonnie began her professional career as an attorney in the field of banking and commercial law, eventually becoming General Counsel and Vice-President of Loyola Federal Savings Bank. “A love of persuasive writing and challenging debate drew me to the law,” she said, “but it wasn’t until I started volunteering with local community and business associations that I found my passion.” So in 2000, she embarked on a new venture in community and economic development.
Bonnie was one of the initial organizers and then Executive Director of Federal Hill Main Street, Inc., which, under her direction, grew to be one of the foremost Main Street programs in the country, winning the Greatest American Main Street Award in 2008. Looking for new challenges, she took the position of Director of Westport Community Partnerships for Turner Development Group, where she developed and implemented a comprehensive community revitalization program.
Bonnie has been director, professor, counselor, advocate, lender, and mentor to startups and long-established companies, business associations and community development corporations, banks and CDFIs. And in her “spare” time, Bonnie teaches entrepreneurship and business planning to undergraduate and graduate students at MICA.
Angella Aizire, Loan Officer
Angella Aizire, is BBL’s Loan Officer. Angella has worked in the financial services field for over 15 years, most recently as the Loan Officer in the Baltimore office of the Ethiopian Community Development Council -Enterprise Development Group. She has extensive experience in assisting existing and potential entrepreneurs access the capital they need to start or grow their businesses. Prior to joining EDG, Angella identified opportunities for investment in small agribusinesses in four West and Central African countries (Cameron, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Mauritania) for the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD) Italy, and helped develop agricultural finance products for commercial banks in Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda.
Melissa Badeker, Loan Associate
Melissa Badeker is BBL’s Loan Associate. She learned of BBL through the Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab, where she was a cohort member in 2015-16. After several years of teaching elementary school in Baltimore City. Melissa co-founded and was Executive Director of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap, and was a Community Fellow in the Open Society Institute from November 2016 to April 2018. She is well-versed in outreach to partner organizations and donors, supporting clients, submitting reports to funders and the Board of Directors, and monitoring, evaluating, and reviewing systems.
BBL Board of Directors
