Ken Montague, Jr.

President of CPHA

Currently, an attorney in private practice, Kenneth C. Montague, Jr. 2007 completed a four-year term as Cabinet Secretary for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. Prior to this appointment as Secretary, Montague served in the Maryland House of Delegates representing the 43rd Legislative District in northeast Baltimore City for sixteen years. Since his first election in 1986, he has served on the House Judiciary Committee and on the House of Delegates Special Committee on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Toward the end of his first term, Montague was appointed to the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics.  At the beginning of his second term, he was selected to serve as House Chair of the Ethics Committee and continued to serve in that capacity until he ended his legislative service in 2003.  Throughout his legislative career, Montague has focused on economic empowerment and family issues.  He has been the prime sponsor of numerous successful legislative initiatives in the areas of domestic violence, child abuse, family preservation, and juvenile justice.  In 1989, Montague was named as a Maryland delegate to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).  He chaired NCSL's Committee on Commerce, Labor, and Regulation, and worked on issues related to housing, banking, and insurance.  He initiated new NCSL policies on Economically Targeted Investment, the Community Reinvestment Act, and Secondary Market strategies in the area of low and moderate-income housing. Montague also served as the first Chair of NCSL’s newly developed Center for Governmental Ethics.  In 1993 Montague was appointed to the Inter-Governmental Policy Advisory Committee for the U.S. Trade Representative.  He has served as a member of several other national boards including, The Center for Policy Alternatives, Citizen Action Fund, and The Council of State Governments.  He also serves or has served on numerous local Boards of Directors including Citizen Planning and Housing Association (CPHA), The Eubie Blake Jazz Institute and Cultural Center, Saint Elizabeth’s School, Loyola High School, Union Memorial Hospital, The House of Ruth, Chesapeake AIDS Foundation, and the Maryland Committee for UNICEF.

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Montague's legislative experience and expertise was used to forge closer cooperation between state legislative units of foreign nations.  He has participated in NCSL-sponsored legislative missions to Japan, Germany, Italy, and, traveled to South Africa and Madagascar to brief national and local parliamentarians on the US format for state/federal relations.

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Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Montague attended St. Peter Claver School and graduated in 1960 from Loyola High School. He attended Morgan State University from which he received a B.A. degree in English Literature. After graduating in 1967, he went to Lesotho, Southern Africa as a United States Peace Corps volunteer where he taught Physics, Chemistry, and Biology at the secondary and pre-college level.