Meet Katie

From Trappe to Cambridge, the Shore Has Always Been Home

Katie grew up in Trappe and attended school in Cambridge. As the daughter of two longtime educators from local farming families, she was raised to work hard, give back, and understand that strong communities are built by neighbors who show up for one another.

After graduating from Cambridge-South Dorchester High School in 1999, Katie spent four transformative years studying Social Anthropology at Massey University in New Zealand. That experience gave her a wider perspective on how place, culture, and community shape people’s lives.

Katie later pursued graduate work in Applied Anthropology at the University of Maryland from 2006 to 2009, focusing on heritage tourism and the local impacts of climate change. Her studies took her to the Baltic region of Germany, where she learned about coastal challenges with clear parallels to those facing the Eastern Shore.

Her path has carried her far from home, but its purpose has always led back to the Shore and to the practical work of helping communities grow stronger.

Katie Clendaniel with members of the Cambridge Woman’s Club at Ruth Clendaniel’s 2025 Volunteer of the Year Award presentation.

Katie joins members of the Cambridge Woman’s Club to celebrate Ruth Clendaniel receiving the Heart of Chesapeake Country Heritage Area Volunteer of the Year Award in 2025.

We Work Hard. We Work Together.

The Eastern Shore knows what hard work is, and that shows in the pride people bring to their communities every day. It also knows how to work together to get important things done.

Katie has seen that progress is built one relationship at a time. From downtown revitalization and housing to small business support, placemaking, and infrastructure, lasting results come when residents, local leaders, nonprofits, public agencies, and businesses pull in the same direction.

For Katie, leadership starts with listening. It means helping people find common ground, building a plan that can earn broad support, and staying with the work until the community can see and feel the result.

Katie in the Community

The work is personal because the Shore is home. Katie’s story is grounded in family, service, and the relationships that connect generations of Eastern Shore residents.

Katie Clendaniel works at the High Street vacant lot refurbishment site in Cambridge.

Vacant lot refurbishment on High Street in Cambridge, created through a partnership among Cambridge Main Street, Waugh Chapel, Shore Rivers, and Lane Engineering.

Experience That Delivers

A Career Built Around Community

Katie has built her career around the practical work of strengthening communities. She understands how public agencies, local governments, nonprofits, businesses, and residents can work together to secure resources and deliver results.

Practical Experience for District 37

In the State Senate, Katie will bring that same approach to lowering costs, strengthening rural health care and public schools, expanding opportunity, and protecting the farms, waterways, and working communities that make the Shore special.

A record of community investment

Experience to Serve District 37

Katie’s work in Cambridge includes securing funding, improving downtown spaces and supporting local businesses and cultural projects. She would bring that practical experience to serving District 37’s communities in Caroline, Dorchester, Talbot and Wicomico counties.

$7 millionFunding for Chesapeake Grove

Bringing generations together

Katie leveraged $7 million in funding for the Chesapeake Grove Intergenerational Center in Cambridge.

Investing in downtown businesses

She worked with private property owners to deploy $175,000 in façade and building improvements in downtown Cambridge.

She also leveraged $50,000 in federal economic development funding to support small business consulting for local retailers.

Improving public spaces

Katie helped fund and manage two vacant lot revitalization projects that improved streetscapes and made parking areas safer. Support included a $100,000 Chesapeake Bay Trust Green Street implementation grant and Community Legacy funding from Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

Supporting community traditions

Working closely with community leaders and volunteers, Katie supported the launch and first two years of the Groove City Culture Festival on historic Pine Street.

Bringing public art to downtown

She raised funding for the “Take My Hand” Harriet Tubman mural, a public mosaic art installation on Race Street and the downtown lighting project.

History, culture and learning

A Smithsonian experience, close to home

In 2018, Katie brought the Smithsonian’s traveling Water/Ways exhibition to downtown Cambridge and Dorchester County through Maryland Museum on Main Street, in partnership with Dorchester Tourism, Dorchester Center for the Arts and a dozen community organizations.

Every third grader in Dorchester County toured the pop up museum.

Let’s Build What Comes Next

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Katie Clendaniel standing outdoors in Cambridge.

Katie’s first campaign mailer

Good for the Shore.

Katie grew up in Trappe, went to school in Cambridge, and is raising her daughter here on the Shore. For twenty years, she has helped communities turn local priorities into funded projects and real results. Take a look at her first mailer and her plans for lower costs, stronger schools, and more doctors closer to home.

Choose which side of Katie’s first campaign mailer to read

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