A top official in Gov. Wes Moore’s administration is leaving the State House to helm Baltimore’s public market system.

Shaina A. Hernandez, Moore’s deputy chief of staff who spearheaded the Key Bridge disaster response, will become CEO and president of the Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, a quasi-governmental nonprofit, starting January 2026.

In an interview, Hernandez said she plans to find ways to improve food access in Baltimore, bridging the gap between the city’s public markets and the communities that surround them at a time when federal food assistance is under threat. Local leaders, she said, “need to think more creatively about how we can get food into the hands of people who need it, especially as we look at how dysfunctional the federal government has become.”

Hernandez will be the first Latina to lead Baltimore’s public market system, considered the oldest in the country. She takes over from interim CEOs Randi Norris and Nicole Ruocco, who will remain at the agency as chief operating officer and chief financial officer, respectively.

Former CEO and president Paul Ruppert resigned from the post in November 2024, prompting a national search for his replacement. Jesse Salazar, board chair of the Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, said in a statement that as its new leader, Hernandez “will expand community trust in our markets.”

Hernandez was recruited to Moore’s administration nearly three years ago as part of the Democratic governor’s transition team, eventually managing a sprawling portfolio of nine agencies, including the departments of transportation and emergency management. Following the collapse of the Key Bridge, she coordinated between state and federal agencies to reopen the Port of Baltimore.

Hernandez is one of several high-ranking officials of Moore’s cabinet and staff to leave in recent months.

In a statement, Moore praised Hernandez as “a consummate public servant who has raised her hand to uplift Baltimore and Baltimoreans,” and said he looked forward to working together in the future. “Together, and with countless leaders across the state, we are making the Baltimore Renaissance a reality.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement that Hernandez “understands the importance of our public markets — not just as places where residents can access healthy food, but as gathering places and homes to local businesses.”

Prior to joining state government, Hernandez worked for Howard County Executive Calvin Ball, leading implementation of the Ellicott City Safe and Sound plan to reduce damage following three destructive floods in the area’s historic district. Before that, she spent five years with the Greater Baltimore Committee.

Back in Baltimore, she’ll confront new challenges as she brings the city’s struggling public market system into the present day. For centuries, Baltimore’s public markets were one of locals’ primary sources of fresh food, and many in the city today grew up with fond memories of visiting their stalls.

A handful of the present-day market stalls, like Faidley Seafood at Lexington Market, have been around for generations. But the institutions have wrestled with their identity amid the rise of grocery stores and the broader ups and downs of city life. Still, Hernandez said, the markets “are a real positive force for Baltimore City.”

While the markets were historically run by the city, officials created the Baltimore Public Markets Corporation in 1995 to oversee them. Today, the agency oversees four city-owned markets: Hollins, Northeast, Broadway and the Avenue Market. Lexington Market is owned by the city but technically managed through a separate entity, which Hernandez will also lead. Cross Street Market is owned by Baltimore but managed through a long-term contract with Caves Valley Partners.

In more recent years, several of the markets have been renovated and transformed into more modern food hall-style concepts. But those efforts have been met with mixed results. Following the $45 million rebuild of Lexington Market at a new location down the street, several vendors said they were unable to keep up with rent payments. Fells Point’s Broadway Market this month announced three months of free rent to new tenants.

While the market system has given tenants a break on rent payments in the past, Hernandez said in an interview that’s not her vision for the future. “If tenants aren’t able to make rent, the solution is not necessarily saying, ‘You get to not pay rent,’” she said. “The solution is, ‘How can we help you grow your business so that you are able to make rent?’”

Still, she acknowledged that the market system will need to explore some new ways to make money, aside from just rent payments from vendors. They have an annual budget of about $8.5 million and a staff of 70, according to a job listing on the organization’s website. “I absolutely think that the markets corporation needs to diversify where it gets funding from,” she said, “and figure out what ways are going to produce the biggest bang for our buck.”

Hernandez also plans to leverage connections from her career in local government and beyond to strengthen the market system’s partnerships with outside groups: “A lot of people are chomping at the bit to come and work with the markets.”

Though she’s not from Charm City, Hernandez has adopted it as her hometown. A New York and New Jersey native, Hernandez graduated from the University of Maryland College Park. She met her husband at Pickles Pub on Orioles Opening Day in 2012, and got married at the American Visionary Art Museum.

As a mom of two boys, ages 4 and 6, Hernandez said she’s also excited about a shorter commute in her new role and “planning to make a lot more dinners at home with my kids than I have over the last three years.”

She looks forward to spending time with her sons at the markets, like so many Baltimore families before them. But Hernandez demurred on whether she had a favorite market vendor, saying she wanted to do more research. “Even when I do pick a favorite, I probably won’t tell you,” she said. “No favorite children.”