Catherine Elizabeth Pugh (born March 10, 1950)[1][2] is an American former politician who served as the 51st mayor of Baltimore, Maryland's largest city, from 2016 to 2019.

[1][14] After graduation from Morgan State, Pugh began working as a branch manager for Equitable Trust Bank.

[10] Pugh got her start in government in 1975 when she joined the administration of Mayor William Donald Schaefer as the director of the Citizen's Involvement Program.

[18] In 1994, she returned to Philadelphia and became vice president of Brunson Communications and co-owner of a local Delaware Valley TV station, WGTW-TV,[19] where she was the host of "Another View", a weekly public affairs program that focused on policy issues within the black community and featured interviews with community leaders and public officials.

[10] In 2005, Governor Bob Ehrlich appointed Pugh to an open seat in the Maryland House of Delegates for the 40th district, where she served from June 21, 2005, to January 10, 2007.

[31] She won the November 8 general election with 57% of the vote, and resigned as state senator before taking office on December 6, 2016.

"[35] In July 2017, Pugh along with other city leaders announced a mandatory one-year sentence for illegal possession of a gun in many parts of Baltimore.

[36] The Baltimore city council voted to amend the legislation to only apply if it was a person's second offense or if the gun was connected to an already committed crime.

[38] In August 2018, Pugh ordered the removal of the Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument in Wyman Park as she believed it posed a "risk to public safety".

[40] In 2019, Pugh was involved in a scheme in which several organizations purchased large quantities of her children books in exchange for contracts with the city.

In March 2019, Pugh agreed to accept $500,000 from the University of Maryland Medical System while serving as a trustee to purchase her Healthy Holly self-published books to donate to Baltimore schoolchildren.

Maryland legislative leaders pledged to reform the medical center's practice of giving large contracts to trustees due to the conflict it poses to their decision-making, which includes approving a $4 million salary to the institution's CEO.

Associated Black Charities in turn resold some of its copies to other organizations, including CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, another Baltimore insurer.

[42][43] In April 2019 amid the ongoing scandal, Pugh announced she was taking an indefinite leave of absence to recover from pneumonia.

On April 8, 2019, all members of the Baltimore City Council signed a memorandum calling for Pugh to resign as mayor.

[47] On November 20, 2019, she was indicted by a grand jury on 11 counts of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy in connection with the Healthy Holly book transactions.

Additionally, Pugh will forfeit nearly $670,000, including her Ashburton home and the remaining balance of her campaign account totaling $17,800.