John Donohue was raised in College Park, Maryland and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland School of Business. He spent 18 years in the ever changing telecommunications industry from 1984-2002. Serving as Director of Operations in charge of delivering telecommunications software/hardware & applications products and services to commercial, government and military customers. In addition managing the company’s ISO 9001 Quality Assurance program.

In 2005 he joined his wife’s long-time profession and helped purchase an Insurance Agency here in Laurel where his wife worked for 18 years. John served as the company Accountant, IT, facilities and HR manager and performs home inspections for some of the older homes they insure. Running a small business you have to learn to do many different duties. Having sold the business in 2019 we are now employees of the new company. Having taken additional courses in the Certified Financial Planning curriculum, John has a passion for responsible fiscal principles, practices and effective company operations. He is married to Ginger, his wife and business partner of almost 39 years and has resided in Laurel since 1985. John has (3) incredible adult children living in the Washington/Baltimore area including (2) daughters and (1) son as well as (3) grandchildren.

Janet Able (“Jan” as she likes to be called) is married to Ron Able for over 50 years, has three children Angela, Brian & Christen, and has lived in Laurel since 1971.  She was employed by Citizen’s National Bank on Main Street in Laurel in 1974 and worked her way to Bank Manager in 1985.  She continued working as Bank Manager with the PNC merger in 2007 until February 2010 when she retired.  Jan has been involved with the Laurel Community in a wide variety of things over the years and is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City of Laurel Retirement Plans and is a former member on the Board of Directors for LARS (Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services). 

Her hobbies include gardening, reading and going to fun places with her 2 grandsons, Josh and Nick. ​Jan was born and raised in Baltimore but also lived in upstate New York, Lexington, KY and West Chester, PA before moving back to Maryland in 1969. She attended the University of Kentucky.

Jim Cross moved to Laurel in 1953, graduated LHS class of 1965, University of Maryland degree in Business, majoring in Marketing and Finance. During the 1970s he held a real estate license, started a sign company, worked for County Executive Winnie Kelly. Jim spent five terms on the Laurel City Council, 1974-1984 and worked with a company importing diesel engines from India, setting up dealerships and then helped set up a commercial laundry for them. In 1989 He got a home improvement license and had a remodeling company until recently. In 1999 Jim and his wife, Laurel started an assisted living home in West Lanham Hills.

Jim has held many volunteer positions including nine years as the elected Section Manager for the 3300 members of our National Association for Amateur Radio for the Maryland-DC Section; circulation manager and now vice president of the Baltimore County Genealogical Society; Coordinator of Main Street Festival parade and other city oriented parades; President of the PG Herb Society; Board of Directors of Ivy Hill Cemetery. Since Katrina he has gone to Mississippi and New Orleans each year to help repair and build homes with church groups and with Habitat for Humanity. He is currently the Chairman of the Laurel Board of Trade.

So I am a lawyer. Why should you care? Yes, it’s my vocation, but besides that I’m just like you. I have a family, a wife and two children. Every day I go out into the world to provide for them, I come home and have fun with them and I worry about them. In my free time I love to cook and I have two fantasy football teams that take up way too much of my free time. I also love to give back to my community as a Free Mason and various community organizations. I am currently the Chairman of the Baltimore Firefighter Community Advisory Council and provide Wills to Maryland first responders.

So yes, I am a lawyer, but I practice for three reasons: to love, to serve and to care. If you can get those three things right in any occupation you have, then everyone else wins. That’s the goal. And after all isn’t that what life is all about?

As the former President of The Parkville Carney Business Association, Inc. (PCBA), I had the privilege to help plan some of the larger community events, such as the Parkville Towne Center Fair and the Spring Concert Series. You can often find my wife and children tagging along at community events. My toddler had the honor of being my “judicial assistant” at her first Main Street Pup Crawl Costume Contest in 2013. My votes may have been swayed by her opinion.

In 2018, I was honored to be certified as a life member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. The Million Dollar Advocates Forum is recognized as one of the most prestigious groups of trial lawyers in the United States. Membership is limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million-dollar verdicts, awards and settlements. The organization was founded in 1993 and there are approximately 3,000 members located throughout the country. Fewer than 1% of U.S. lawyers are members.

In 2021, I won Clio’s first ever Legal Impact Award! This is an international award that recognizes law firms making an impact in their local community.

Prior to establishing Pinder Plotkin, I spent two years investigating financial crimes and four years representing corporate clients. I am a former business law professor at Howard Community College and a Judicial Extern for the Honorable Stephen D. Gerling of the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of New York..

Jody Broughton grew up and attended school in Adelphi, Maryland; she has been a home owner in Laurel since 1996. She had a successful career in the administrative field prior to changing gears and working in the real estate field for two decades. As a Realtor with Long & Foster Realtors and Realty Executives 2000, she was a member of their Million Dollar Club and one of the Top 5 Realtors in her office. Following her time as a Realtor, she was a Residential Real Estate Appraiser for 10 years.

Jody is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and Behavior Consultant and the sole owner of Social Tailwaggers, LLC, whose mission is to assist her clients in understanding there is a better way to work with their dogs to create a fun, loving, and humane bond with each other. She teaches group classes at the Knights of Pythias building and through Laurel Parks & Recreation. She also provides one-on-one/family in-home training.

Jody is a member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, The Pet Professional Guild, and the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. She is also an AKC Canine Good Citizen Approved Evaluator and a Family Paws Parent Educator. In 2016 she became a member of the Laurel Board of Trade, and became a board member in 2019.

Marilyn Johnson, Founder/OwnerThe Marilyn Johnson Sewing Design Studio LLC
154 Lafayette Avenue, Unit K
Laurel, Maryland 20707
301-604-4139
marilynjohnson@sewingdesignstudio.com

Business Boigraphy

I have been sewing since I was seven and participated in a lot of amateur theater since high school. In 1998 I officially began “my sewing business” working from a home studio. Like so many others, I turned my hobbies into a business creating costumes for theater, creating custom wedding gowns and performing alterations.

As requests from clients became more complicated, I realized my self-taught skills weren’t enough to achieve the level of quality I wanted to maintain…so…I went back to college for another degree, this time in Fashion Design. I didn’t finish the degree program but I did take all the technical classes in the program and that was the goal.

My business kept growing, I added staff, we moved to a larger location. I was very involved in the business community. Because of our reputation and skill level we were asked to work on some really interesting projects. Working with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene I developed a safety jacket for a patient. We brought NIST comic book characters to life as part of their educational outreach program. We’ve created hundreds of costumes for the White House Historical Association for their educational programs. I created costumes for the Raven’s Mascot Poe (and Edgar and Allen). An intense and long-distance project was creating 400 costumes for Sight and Sound Theater’s production of Moses.

There are so many more “brag” projects but the real joy, the every day feeling of helping someone comes from encouraging my clients to feel confident and beautiful in the garments we create or alter for them. When a client stands in front of our mirrors and their face lights up and they say “I feel beautiful” I know I have done my job.

Council Member Michael R. Leszcz was elected to his twelfth term on the Laurel City Council on November 5, 2019, and sworn into office on November 26, 2019. Previously, Mr. Leszcz was sworn in as Mayor of Laurel in October 2001, following the death of former Mayor Frank P. Casula, and served as Mayor until March 2002. During his twenty-three years of service on the City Council, Mr. Leszcz served as President of the City Council for seven years.

Mr. Leszcz came to Maryland in 1958, when his father (USAF) was assigned to the U.S. 2nd Army at Fort George G. Meade. Mr. Leszcz attended Maryland public schools. He graduated in 1964, from Arundel Senior High School in Anne Arundel County. Mr. Leszcz served two years in the U.S. Coast Guard in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on a Weather High Endurance Cutter. Mr. Leszcz attended St. John’s University, Canal Zone College and Delaware State University, returning to Laurel in 1969. Mr. Leszcz was most recently employed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Washington DC, on a full-time collateral assignment as National President of the Professional Managers Association. Mr. Leszcz retired from the IRS in 2020, after 45+ years of service. Mr. Leszcz is married to the former Mary Eileen Morgans and they have three adult children; Michael (Heather), Katie (Eric), and Marianne (Brent).  Mr. Leszcz is the proud grandfather of Aiden Michael McKnight.

Prior to serving as Mayor and on the City Council, Mr. Leszcz was a member of the City of Laurel Planning Commission for seventeen years, serving as its Chairman for eight years. During his tenure on the Laurel City Council, Mr. Leszcz has served several times on the Maryland Municipal League’s Convention Planning Committee and the League’s Legislative Committee. In 2004, Mr. Leszcz was appointed to the National League of Cities Transportation and Infrastructure Advocacy Committee (TIS) and served through 2010. He was reappointed to the TIS in 2013, where he currently serves. In 2005, Mr. Leszcz was appointed by Governor Ehrlich and reappointed in 2007 and 2013, by Governor O’Malley to the Patuxent River Commission where he currently serves as its Chair. In 2009, Mr. Leszcz was appointed to the Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission which issued its final report to Governor O’Malley in December 2010. In 2004, Mr. Leszcz was elected to the Board of Directors of the Prince George’s County Municipal Association and served for nine years. In addition, Mr. Leszcz recently served on the Board of Directors for the Laurel Regional Hospital Foundation, and also the Board of Directors of the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA).

Mr. Leszcz is a member of St. Mary of the Mills Catholic Church and the Laurel Board of Trade and is a Life Member of the American Legion Laurel Post #60, the National Eagle Scout Association, and the Laurel Historical Society.

Reshma Bourne hails from Suriname, a former Dutch colony. She has a degree in liberal arts and also studied economics and accountancy.
Together with her husband, she has two wonderful sons. She gains her strength and motivation through her faith. 

She and her husband own 1-800 Water Damage of Laurel. The company is a national emergency restoration franchise that provides 24/7 emergency services to residential and commercial properties. They specialize in emergency water mitigation, mold remediation, fire and smoke, and Sewage clean up.  The company is also part of the national Hurricane emergency response to disaster-stricken zones.

Tabitha Drenee’ Clark is the wife of 25 years to
Ronnie Clark and the mother of two children, Ashley and Tyler.  


The eldest sibling, she is a natural leader who challenges herself to meet obstacles head on and to tackle each hurdle one by one.  

The Montgomery County native determined to use her creative talents and business ingenuity to serve others early in her career as an HR Manager and as a lead project manager. And then later, she furthered her reach and assisted individual clients as a certified life and career coach.  

Tabitha’s commitment to forward movement and service has pushed her to pursue an MBA, MLS and Ph. D in Management and to open her flagship coffee shop, More than Java Café, on Main Street in Laurel in June 2015.  The café reflects Tabitha’s easy nature as it has quickly become the definitive neighborhood coffee house for creatives, professionals, and community leaders alike.  Some say her skilled baking hands keep the crowds coming back again and again, while others ponder her impeccable taste in selecting the finest roasted coffees.  Either way, all would agree that her warm smile, easy demeanor, and commitment to customer satisfaction has made More than Java Café a community staple.

Though as a successful business owner, along with the support of her family, Tabitha has surpassed many milestones,  it appears that she is just warming up.  She is putting the finished her first writing project, (Speak to Me) due to launch in 2022 and she has plans to create and facilitate a seminar series aimed at supporting young ladies continue in their academic and social development. 
 
Tabitha Clark is a public speaker, author, entrepreneur, and student of life.  One can only imagine the great heights she will reach in her lifetime!

Carla Conway was raised in Hyattsville, Maryland and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising Design from the University of Maryland. She has worked in the graphic design industry for over 35 years. She is the Creative Director/owner of Uncommon Design, LLC, a full-service graphic design studio specializing in logo and corporate identity work. She prides herself in taking the time to understand what your business is all about, who her customers are and what’s unique about the services they offer. She creates impactful design solutions that will break through the clutter and help you stand out.

She has been married to her husband, John for 35 years, and has resided in Laurel since 1992. Carla has two incredible adult children, Megan and Ryan who also live in Laurel.