"I direct fundraising for the Annual Fund (from individual and institutional donors), including the solicitation of memberships, orchestrating direct mail, email and social media campaigns, and special events. Founded in 1844 as the Maryland Historical Society, the Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) is the state's oldest continuously operating  nonprofit cultural institution. We have 350,000 objects, along with 7 million books, photographs, documents and manuscripts, including the earliest existing version of Francis Scott Key’s poem celebrating the victory over the British during the Battle of Baltimore. The poem set to music and became the Star-Spangled Banner, now the United States national anthem."

"I was recruited by the Baltimore-based Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Maryland’s leading classical theatre company, to be its new Director of Development, as the organization was emerging from the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and celebrating its twentieth anniversary. I am responsible for designing and implementing a comprehensive fundraising plan... incorporating annual giving, grant solicitation and management, special events, and capital initiatives. Ongoing duties include identifying, cultivating, soliciting and stewarding major gifts from individual donors, foundations, government agencies, and corporate partners."
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theatre
(Photo from Theatre Consultants Collaborative,  Alan Gilbert Photography)

"I was recruited by SeKON Enterprise in 2017 to become a Senior Communications Specialist for a project with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to work with the CIO and other IT leadership to establish common standards in communication, culture, procedures, and measurement within the CMS Office of Information Technology. I helped to create a communications strategy to better engage the 500-person division, managed their internal newsletter, and created a series of instructional videos with their Section 508 Program Team... In 2019, I began working with the Content Management Team  for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whose main campus is shown above... Established in 1996, SeKON is a privately held management and technology consultancy based in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, listed on Inc.’s annual guide to the 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S. (2017 and 2018) and on the Washington Business Journal’s list of the fastest growing regional companies (2017 and 2018). We have a successful history of providing support to government health and human resource agencies, like the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Defense Health Agency (DHA), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and others, in addition to CMS and NIH."
National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, MD.
(Photo from NIH)

‏"I joined the Development team at Center Stage before the start of their $30 million capital campaign and subsequent renovation of the theater's historic downtown building. In charge of Annual Giving, I cultivated relationships with trustees and major donors through committee activities, direct solicitations and special events, and I directed efforts to increase smaller gifts through direct mail and online giving campaigns, in addition to assisting in coordinating and shepherding asks for the campaign. Recognized as the State Theater of Maryland, Baltimore Center Stage is the area's largest regional theater, with individual gifts totaling nearly $1 million each year during my tenure there."

‏"I was hired as Grants Manager for this 44-year-old non-profit, managing a portfolio of operational grants, including all of the organization's Ryan White HIV funding requests and reporting, plus other government, corporate and foundation funding specifically for its Baltimore City clinics. I later assumed the Director of Communications position at People's, but still managed grant writers... Begun as a free clinic with all volunteer physicians in 1970, PCHC was the first "look-alike" accepted into the government's Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) program and operated as a full FQHC for many years before closing in 2014."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles: Medical Director Lelin Chao, M.D. being interviewed at a National Health Center Week event. 

"As a Director of Communications for Genesis HealthCare, my duties included internal communications efforts that reached 36,000 employees in over 200 locations in 13 states, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The company provides short-term post-acute, rehabilitation, skilled nursing and long-term care services. Our department focused on internal communications, and I assisted in managing the bi-weekly 'Big Blue' publication and developing a new intranet news page, which involved writing, editing, working with a freelance designer, and coordination with designated employees at each site. During the summer of 2007 I was chosen to accompany the company's Vice President for Government Relations on a regional tour to several states, encouraging support for (and fighting proposed cuts to) Medicare and Medicaid funding. My daily reports for the intranet were combined into a booklet that was delivered to members of Congress... Genesis has since grown into the largest skilled nursing company in the country, with approximately 500 skilled nursing centers and assisted/senior living residences in 34 states across the United States."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles of healthcare rally at the New Jersey State House in Trenton

‏"I was asked by Denise Resnik, the head of a local PR agency, to fill in for one of her employees who needed to take a leave of absence due to a family emergency. The project was to manage a new campaign that brought together a local office design and furniture company, Goodmans Interior Structures, with the Phoenix Business Journal to promote and assist Phoenix-area non-profit organizations... Years later, Goodmans Eye for the Good Guys campaign is still going strong."

Image from printed campaign material

"Recruited by former co-workers from Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona to join the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). The non-profit was conceived as part of a business development effort for Phoenix. As Manager of Corporate & Foundation Relations for the Neurogenomics Division, I secured funding and strengthened relationships that helped the organization move from its start-up phase and into its newly constructed headquarters with state-of-the-art labs and offices for scientists."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles of TGen headquarters on the day of its dedication

‏"When Children’s National Medical Center (now known as Children’s National Health System) embarked on a $200 million fundraising campaign, I was recruited from Baltimore to join in the effort. As Grants Manager, my first success was the acquisition of a new $1 million capital grant to fund the build-out of a new neurological research lab for the Children's Research Institute, affiliated with the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. I also managed a $3-4 million annual portfolio of new and existing operating grants, including establishing and managing corporate and foundation relationships that helped the Giant Steps campaign exceed its goal."

Photo of Children's Hospital lobby from website

"I was asked by the Museum of Industry's Founding Director Dennis Zembala to become the institution's Development Officer. During my two years there, I oversaw the corporate membership program, developed a new annual report, supervised a brick campaign, assisted in presentations to the Maryland Legislature for bond bill funding, managed a new gala, hired a staff, and was promoted to Director of Marketing & Development."

From web, Baltimore Museum of Industry exterior

‏"Created in 1926, the Baltimore Engineer magazine was once the digest of record for engineering projects in the area. By the time I joined The Engineering Society the magazine was beginning to refocus to reflect the growing non-engineer / general business membership of the organization. Later I helped to fully redesign the magazine into a new publication, Quick's Professional Journal, named after Alfred E. Quick, the city water engineer who was instrumental in founding the club in 1905. The new publication covered its costs, and throughout my tenure as editor we maintained a series of monthly articles on local construction, engineering or renovation projects, in addition to club news and member profiles. Today, however, the publication has transitioned into a simple club newsletter."

Baltimore Engineer magazine cover designed by Brian Davis Lyles

‏"The Engineering Society of Baltimore is the association of engineers and other professionals that operates The Engineers Club. Located in the historic Garrett-Jacobs Mansion, the club is one of Baltimore’s leading catering and special event facilities. As Publications Manager, I edited a monthly publication and produced flyers and other promotions, and I assisted in the logistics of a new 501(c)(3) organization created for the preservation of the building, in addition to managing public relations, event planning and marketing efforts. I also served as liaison to several board committees. By the time I left, I had been named Marketing Director... The organization's annual Fire Ball and quarterly Networking Happy Hours were created during my time there, and movies like Major League II, 12 Monkeys, Species II and TV shows like Homicide: Life on the Streets filmed scenes."

‏Photo of Garrett-Jacobs Mansion staircase, designed by architect Stanford White (McKim, Mead & White, New York).

‏"I worked for Baltimore Magazine when it was part of Capital-Gazette Communications and a sister publication to the Washingtonian Magazine. I worked closely with the Circulation Manager to oversee all subscription and newsstand distribution and sales. Projects included managing 200,000-piece direct mail campaigns and trade advertising, and co-producing radio spots."

Web image of Baltimore Magazine covers

"For my first-ever retail job, I worked at this busy card and gift shop located in the city's historic financial district, a few blocks from the Inner Harbor waterfront. Based on a New York store, this shop was a popular place for local business workers to find very unique cards, gifts, stationery, and custom gift wrapping services. After working part-time, I briefly worked there full-time for a period, and later assisted in opening and closing the store on Saturdays. (A few years later, my second retail experience was a part-time job at Kitchen Bazaar in Harborplace)... Great Impressions was later sold and eventually closed. Today the building, constructed in 1904, has returned to its original function as a tavern."

‏Photo from Maryland Historic Trust building survey

‏"My first job immediately after college was in the business side of publishing. Media Materials specialized in elementary and remedial education materials, and I was hired as the Sales Representative for the newly-acquired College Skills Center from New York, developers of the Sack-Yourman Developmental Speed Reading Course and other publications. Later I coordinated customer service for the entire company, including a unique line of hard cover remedial education textbooks, as well as a division of products acquired from Milton Bradley... The business and its publications have since changed ownership."

Brian D. Lyles photo of titles published by Media Materials

"During college I worked at Baltimore Federal, an historic local savings and loan. It was the perfect job for a student, as I worked the front desk of the headquarters on Saturdays when the bank was closed to the public, but my job was to assist overtime employees who needed access to the building. The company celebrated its 100th anniversary during my time there. All employees received a $100 bill and a commemorative plate, and a modern tower headquarters was opened, but the older building remained an active operations center... Once known as the Colonial Corner, the structure is of Federalist-style architecture, but built in the 1950s. An operations person opened the building before I arrived at 9 am, but I had keys and was the sole person who secured and closed the bank building at 5 pm. Sadly, the institution did not survive the savings and loan crisis, and the marble-floored banking space of the former headquarters is now a Walgreens."

‏Historic photo of the Baltimore Federal Savings and Loan building, downtown Baltimore

‏"I once considered teaching as a career, and every summer during my college years I was a counselor to elementary school students at one of the city-sponsored reading camps. The camp at Margaret Brent Elementary School (now Margaret Elementary/Middle School) in Charles Village was the city's only ESL (English as a Second Language) summer program, welcoming children from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and beyond... It was here where I fell in love with the Charles Village neighborhood and later lived across the street from the school for 10 years."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles of Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle School