Beatrice P. Tignor
Occupation: Procurement director for Montgomery County government, chairwoman of the Prince George's County school board.
In the news: Tignor presided over the release last week of a forensic audit into dealings between education vendors and Andre J. Hornsby, who resigned as Prince George's schools superintendent last month. Tignor defended Hornsby as suspicion of ethical improprieties arose last fall. But as she released the audit, she said the misdeeds it ascribes to Hornsby made clear the board had been "misled."
Career highlights: Tignor taught in the county schools and at Prince George's Community College before election to the House of Delegates in 1990. Two years later, she won the state Senate seat vacated by Albert R. Wynn, whose successful run for Congress she managed. In 1994, she ran for county executive and lost in the Democratic primary. The next year, she was hired to be Montgomery County's procurement director. She was a finalist to be president of Prince George's Community College in 1999. She headed a state-appointed oversight panel for the school system after a 1998 audit. In 2002, she was named chairwoman of a new appointed school board appointed by the governor and county executive to replace an elected board that had fallen into turmoil.