Michael Steele was born on October 19, 1958 at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County and was raised in Washington, DC. He graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School, earned his bachelor's degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University in 1981 and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991. Mr. Steele also spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood.
In 2003, Lt. Governor Steele earned a place in history when he became the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland. Currently he's the nation's highest-ranking African American Republican elected official and the only sitting African American Lt. Governor in the country.
In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Mr. Steele to serve a term on the Board of Visitors of the United States Naval Academy. Other affiliations include the State House Trust, the East Baltimore Development Corporation, the Export-Import Bank Advisory Committee and the Prince George's County Chapter of the NAACP.
Among the distinguished awards and honors received by Lt. Governor Steele, he has been named a 2005 Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership and was awarded a Bethune-DuBois Institute 2005 Award for his work in the ongoing development of quality education in Maryland.
Lt. Governor Steele is a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Landover Hills, MD, where he attends mass regularly with his wife Andrea and their two sons, Michael and Drew.