By Debbie Funk – Contributor, Baltimore Business Journal
Sep 11, 2025
Watchen Harris Bruce weaves together her lengthy professional experience
with the lessons she learned from her parents to do work that brings her joy.
”I just love to help people,” she said.
Bruce, president and CEO of Baltimore Community Lending, calls herself “a
recovered banker.” She spent 40 years in the banking industry, moving from
Texas to Boston to Baltimore. Born and raised in Liberia before leaving for
college in Houston, Bruce also spent time working on an economic
development project in her birth country for USAID. In 2020, she settled in at
Baltimore Community Lending.
Baltimore Community Lending, unlike a traditional commercial bank,
specifically targets people who are from underserved communities to
help them join the “economic mainstream.” It provides loans to startups,
small real estate developers and small business entrepreneurs to help
community development.
Its clients might not qualify for bank loans due to a lack of collateral or other
borrowing requirements. But they must meet certain criteria, such as
reasonable credit and a good business model, Bruce said.
“We’re a mission-based lender. It’s not all about profitability,” she said. “It’s
about helping people help themselves.”
That doesn’t mean she’s disconnected from banking. Her background in the
industry helps Baltimore Community Lending clients know how to work with
banks, and the organization partners with banks to refer customers whom the
loan fund can’t help.
Under Bruce’s watch for the last five years, the organization took on a strategic
plan and a capital growth plan to achieve its goal of self-sufficiency. It has
expanded its service area beyond Baltimore City to include Anne Arundel,
Baltimore, Howard, Carroll and Harford counties. Business has grown 100%,
Bruce said.
”What we are doing is helping more people start their business and expand
their business. That’s why we are growing,” she said.
“We are profitable. We close our books in the black.”
This summer, the organization moved into a new downtown headquarters that
it owns debt-free. The four-story, 20,000-square-foot building includes a new
training center that will help entrepreneurs assemble loan documents, create
business plans, and teach clients how to make the best use of their money and
keep a business going.
“I strongly believe in advocacy and education,” Bruce said. “What clicks with
me is giving people access to capital and training and being sustainable. What
clicks with me is seeing people say, ‘aha.’”
It’s a skill she credits her parents with demonstrating in her native Liberia. Her
parents were missionaries and also entrepreneurs. They lived on a farm and
created businesses in food processing, light manufacturing and supermarkets.
They employed 200 people.
”My whole life has been about what they did,” she said. “Once you take care of
people, they take care of themselves.”