Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Program Director Honored with National and Local Awards
Colleagues and partners celebrate Director of Community Development Programs Cindy Stone, architect of the Main Street Maryland program, upon her retirement from state service
NEW CARROLLTON, MD (October 27, 2025) – Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Secretary Jake Day today announced that Director of Community Development Programs for the Division of Neighborhood Revitalization, Cindy Stone has been honored with awards from the Council of State Community Development Agencies (COSCDA) and the Community Development Network of Maryland. Responsible for the launch of the Main Street Maryland program and the long-time manager of the state program for federal Community Development Block Grants, Director Stone recently announced her retirement from the department after 31 years.
A COSCDA board member, Director Stone was awarded the national organization’s James Reeves Member Contribution Award, honoring an individual COSCDA member who has made the most significant contribution to the work and mission of the organization during the last five years. The Community Development Network of Maryland awarded Director Stone with the 2025 Legacy Award. The two organizations cited Director Stone’s decades of service with DHCD and her work to revitalize communities, particularly rural communities across Maryland.
Director Stone joined the department after stints with both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Maryland. Early in her tenure, she established the Main Street Maryland program, based on the National Trust’s Main Street America program, which focuses on strategic planning and downtown revitalization guided by four fundamental tenets: Economic Vitality, Design, Promotion, and Organization. Main Street Maryland was one of several key programs launched in the early years of the department’s growing Division of Neighborhood Revitalization. The program is considered one of the first state programs to promote the concept of placemaking as an approach to holistic, big-picture redevelopment that would come to guide the agency’s mission and its targeted investment.
Launched with just three designated communities, Main Street Maryland now supports projects and activities in more than 50 Maryland communities. Main Street Maryland communities continue to drive economic growth across the state, including 200 new businesses opened, 933 full- or part-time jobs created, and 327 properties improved in Main Street districts in just Calendar Year 2024 alone.
Viewing the program as a natural complement and logical extension of Main Street Maryland’s goals, Director Stone soon became manager for the state program that administers federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The state CDBG program administers grants to smaller jurisdictions in Western Maryland, Southern Maryland, and on the Eastern Shore that do not receive grants directly from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Since its creation in 1987, Maryland’s CDBG Program has awarded more than $327 million to local government grantees for 1,103 projects. These projects have leveraged approximately $1.38 billion in additional private and public investment.
With her experience managing CDBG, Director Stone would go on to manage or administer additional federal programs for the department, including the CDBG Disaster Program, CDBG COVID Relief funding, the Recovery Housing Program, and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which helped neighborhoods recover from the foreclosure crisis from 2008 through 2012. She was also responsible for the daily administration and management of construction projects funded with federal Appalachian Regional Commission funds. Additional responsibilities included the administration of the state’s Circuit Rider Town Manager Program and Maryland Affordable Housing Trust funds.
In all of her roles, Director Stone was an active and engaged partner, providing expert technical assistance on a variety of downtown revitalization subjects and helping to guide the activities of local governments, nonprofit organizations, and associated staff and volunteers.
“It is no exaggeration to say that Cindy Stone’s work has improved the sustainability, resiliency, and economic vitality of numerous Maryland communities and improved the lives of thousands of Marylanders. Her work to establish the Main Street Maryland program helped the department understand and embrace the idea of inclusive, impactful placemaking that was driven by long-term, strategic planning,” said Secretary Day.
“As these awards indicate, throughout her tenure with the agency in her varied roles, Director Stone showed just as much dedication to partnership as she did to placemaking, forging relationships with colleagues while ably representing Maryland at the national level and working with countless local officials, stakeholders, and residents to make the places they live better.
I thank Director Stone for her service and wish her well. She will truly be missed, but her outstanding, historic work will continue to positively resonate within the walls of the agency she ably served for 31 years and inspire respect in the hearts and minds of her many colleagues, coworkers, and partners.”
For more information about Main Street Maryland, the State Community Development Block Grant program, or other revitalization initiatives, visit the department’s website.
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CONTACT:
Allison Foster, Director of Communications – allison.foster@maryland.gov
