Three things: Howard Community College president was in the band and plays with LEGOs

Apr. 11—The first in her family to attend college, Daria Willis just kept going. She earned two post-graduate degrees and, in 2022, was named president of Howard Community College.

At 39, Willis is the first African American to hold the post. A native of Stone Mountain, Georgia, and a mother of three, she serves on both Howard County's Local Children's Board and its Economic Development Authority Board, as well as the Greater Baltimore Committee.

Here are three things you might not know about Daria Willis:

LEGOs brighten her office.

"LEGOs are my new best friend. Last December, I was exhausted and my brain was empty when I saw these kits in the store. I bought one for a LEGO typewriter, took it home and built it in two days. Since then, I've constructed everything from the Eiffel Tower and the [Roman] Coliseum to Winnie-the-Pooh and the Batmobile. Some have 10,000 pieces.

"Doing this is a huge stress buster. At times, when we're huddled in my office and working on a critical issue, I'll put together a LEGO set while thinking through the problem and then say, 'This is what we need to do.' "

She's well-heeled in footwear.

"I'm a huge shoe collector, so much so that I have an entire room for my shoes and a few clothes. I must have 200 pairs in red, green, yellow and purple — lots of sneakers but very few heels.

"When I wear them to work, students come over and say, 'Yo, Doc, I love those new J's [Jordans] you've got.' Then we'll have a whole conversation about shoes, then about their classes, and then about something that I need to know."

She marched to a real-life drummer in college.

"I went to Florida A&M not for academic reasons, but to be in the [celebrated] marching band. I played trombone in high school and, when I graduated, my mom bought me a new silver trombone. That [instrument] was my baby; I still have it.

"There were 40 trombones in the college band, and we had a good time. Once, after a football game at Bethune-Cookman, we went straight to a Waffle House — a bunch of rowdy youngsters in our sweaty, stinky uniforms — and stayed for hours. Afterward, in the parking lot, we found some [errant] shopping carts and climbed in, two or three at a time, and raced each other, in the dark, all the way back to the hotel."