Mike Galiazzo, Ph.D. is the President of Regional Manufacturing Institute (RMI).  Michael Galiazzo message is that manufacturing in Maryland provides pathways from poverty to prosperity. Galiazzo first helped create the Regional Manufacturing Institute (RMI) when he was the director of Retraining and Community Development at Dundalk Community College.

He has served as its president since 1990. In that role, he has helped eliminate certain taxes on manufacturers, established recognition of Champions of Maryland Manufacturing and most recently developed a working partnership with Maryland Public Television to produce “Made in Maryland.”

“My decades-long advocacy of manufacturing is a strategy for social change to help people access well-paying jobs with benefits and a path to a middle-class living,” Galiazzo said. “The Icon award is an endorsement of my efforts to achieve significance, but more importantly, it is an endorsement of the value of manufacturing as an agent of social change.”

Additionally, he has diversified the board of RMI and promoted people from minority backgrounds in the manufacturing industry. Throughout his career, he has helped unemployed people access training and education.