Trent M. Kittleman (; born May 7, 1945) is an American politician. She was a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 2015 to 2023. She was the wife of State Senator Robert H. Kittleman until his death in 2004, and unsuccessfully ran alongside him for County Council in 1978. She is the stepmother of Allan H. Kittleman, former state senator and Howard County executive. She lost her 2022 re-election bid.
Kittleman is the author of Why Must There Be Dragons? Empowering Women to Master Their Careers Without Changing Men.
Early life and education
Kittleman was born on May 7, 1945, in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated from Catonsville Senior High School in Catonsville, Maryland and attended the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she earned a B.A. degree in English in 1967. She also attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a M.A. in English literature in 1970, the University of Maryland School of Law, where she earned a J.D. degree in 1991, and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where she earned an executive leadership coaching certificate in 2010.
Career
Attorney
After she was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1991 – and later being admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1993 – she began working as an attorney for Arent Fox until 1996. In 1992, she became a member of the University of Maryland School of Law Alumni Association and served as its president from 2002 until her departure in 2003. After working for Arent Fox, she worked as a senior counsel for Marriott International until 1999, when she became the vice president of legislative affairs for Marriott. In 2001, she worked as a minority counsel for U.S. Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee. In 2007, Kittleman, Marie Royce, and Joan Athen formed a company called GenderStrategy.
Author
In 2008, Kittleman's book, with contributing edits from Joan Athen and Marie Royce, Why Must There Be Dragons? Empowering Women to Master Their Careers Without Changing Men was published. The story takes place at Feline Foods and highlights a conflict between the dogs that run the company and the cats that work there, who are threatening a lawsuit for not getting promoted, a practice they call "discatination". Feline Foods CEO Bernie Rottweiler then hires Kathryn Woo, a training specialist, to identify the problem and fix it for the cats by working with Ryan "Wolfe" Wolfhound, the executive vice president of Special Projects and Bernie's right-hand man. The book is divided into three sections, each representing the early, middle, and peak years of one's career.
Political career
Kittleman first got involved with politics by working as a coordinator for the Catonsville Republican Headquarters in 1968. In 1972, she became the co-chair of the Howard County Republican Election Headquarters, and in 1973 she became the president of the Howard County Republican Women's Club. She worked as a political columnist for Howard County Times from 1975 to 1976, after which she was elected to the Oakland Mills Village Board. In 1978, she unsuccessfully ran for the Howard County Council in 1978 alongside her husband, Robert Kittleman. From 1982 to 1986, she served as the chair of Robert Kittleman's and Robert Flanagan's election committees, and later co-chaired the Maryland Republican Party legislative candidate recruitment effort in 1988. In 1998, Kittleman worked on the gubernatorial campaign of Ellen Sauerbrey.
In January 2003, Governor Bob Ehrlich appointed Kittleman to serve as Deputy Secretary for the Maryland Department of Transportation, where she worked until October 2004, after which she served as Executive Secretary of the Maryland Transportation Authority until her resignation on January 22, 2007. During her service, the authority experienced a 450 percent increase in its capital program, including new lanes planned for Interstate 95, financing the Inter-county Connector in Montgomery County, and planning for toll-road bridge renovations.
Following the death of her husband in September 2004, Kittleman declined to serve the rest of his term in the Maryland Senate, saying that she was not able to focus on politics.
In October 2009, Kittleman said that she was "exploring" a run for Howard County Executive. She announced her candidacy for executive in February 2010. She ran unchallenged in the Republican primary, but was defeated by Ken Ulman in general election with 37.1 percent of the vote.
Since 2010, Kittleman has been a member of various women's groups, including the Business Women's Network, the American Association of University Women, and the League of Women Voters.