As the Public & Government Affairs Manager for AAA Mid-Atlantic, Ragina Averella serves as the chief spokesperson for AAA in Maryland. She is responsible for media and government relations for the auto club, which serves nearly four million members throughout the Mid-Atlantic and nearly one million Marylanders.

In her role at AAA, Ms. Averella advocates for traffic and motorist safety through her efforts in the Maryland legislature, testifying before the Maryland General Assembly on a variety of legislative issues, including teen driving, as well as drunk and distracted driving. She was an ardent supporter of Maryland’s texting while driving ban, which became law last year, as well as the state’s move-over law, which becomes effective October 2010.

Ragina oversees a successful anti-drunk driving campaign, Tipsy?Taxi!, which AAA Mid-Atlantic operates in conjunction with the Maryland State Highway Administration and Yellow Cab. Since its inception in 2006, Tipsy?Taxi! has provided approximately 2,000 free cab rides to potential drunk drivers on select holidays in an effort to reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities on Maryland roads.

Ms. Averella serves on the MD Chamber of Commerce’s Transportation Coalition and is the chair of the MD Impaired Driving Coalition’s Legislative Committee. She is also a member of the Public Relations Society of America, the Greater Baltimore Committee, the Baltimore Public Relations Council and John Wesley United Methodist Church in Harford County, MD.

Ms. Averella is a former Baltimore Police officer and graduated valedictorian of her police academy class in 1992. She served as the Baltimore Police Department’s Public Affairs Director and chief spokesperson from 2000 to 2003, where she was the first woman to hold that position. She also served briefly as spokesperson for Maryland State Police.

Prior to her position at AAA Mid-Atlantic, Ms. Averella served as the Public Relations Director of Twenty First Century Group, where her clients included the Municipal Employees Credit Union of Baltimore, Associated Black Charities and Wells Fargo.

She is a 1991 graduate of Towson University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and Law Enforcement.  She is the proud recipient of the National Council of Negro Women’s Mary McLeod Bethune Accomplishment Award and was recently recognized by The Gazette of Politics and Business as one of Maryland’s top Women Business Leaders.