“A Moment Found Me”: An Interview with Len Foxwell on HopStart, Teaching, Consulting, and the Fight for Pastor Daniel
By Barry O’Connell, Maryland Wire
Few people in Maryland politics and civic life carry as many roles — or as much weight — as Len Foxwell. Director of Johns Hopkins University’s HopStart entrepreneurial competition, lecturer in the Whiting School of Engineering, founder of Tred Avon Strategies, and now an unexpected public voice in the fight against ICE abuses, Foxwell has spent the past year navigating professional success alongside unimaginable personal loss.
In this conversation, he speaks candidly about the explosive growth of HopStart, the purpose behind his teaching, the evolution of his consulting practice, and the moral line he drew when ICE detained a man he considered family — just weeks after the death of his son.
HopStart: A Program Growing in Size, Scope, and Purpose
Maryland Wire: HopStart is happening this week. You’ve been directing the program for several years now. What does this year look like?
Foxwell: “This will be my fourth year as director. When I started in 2023, we were just coming out of COVID. The 2022 competition had been entirely online, and when we reconvened in person we had 28 teams. This year, nearly 80 teams are advancing to competition day — and more than 100 signed up. The program is growing exponentially, and the quality has improved every bit as much as the quantity.”
Maryland Wire: Who can compete?
Foxwell: “Any team with at least one Johns Hopkins student in good standing. We’ve had teams with doctors, attorneys, intellectual property lawyers — all working alongside a Hopkins student. We designed HopStart to be inclusive because it’s not just a competition. It’s an educational exercise, and the more people who can take advantage of it, the better.”
Maryland Wire: You’ve also brought in increasingly prominent judges. What’s the strategy behind that?
Foxwell: “Many of our students come in with strong scientific or technological backgrounds, but they may not know how to build a business plan, develop financial assumptions, or navigate regulatory processes. So we balance our roster with judges who bring those skills. And I intentionally recruit judges who aren’t subject‑matter experts. In the real world, entrepreneurs pitch to investors who don’t know the science. Students need to learn how to meet people rhetorically where they are.”
Maryland Wire: HopStart isn’t just a one‑day pitch event.
Foxwell: “Not at all. We start in the fall. Some teams have been at this for years — they have prototypes, IP lawyers, seed funding. Others are beginners taking entrepreneurship classes. To keep it fair, we match competitors at the appropriate level. We don’t want a beginner walking away with a bad taste in their mouth because they were up against a team that’s been operating like a startup for years.”
Teaching at Johns Hopkins: Writing, Ethics, and Democracy
Maryland Wire: Beyond HopStart, you’re teaching in the Center for Leadership Education.
Foxwell: “This is my tenth year. Every day I walk onto campus and still find it hard to believe that a kid from Cambridge is teaching some of the world’s brightest students at one of the world’s great institutions.”
He teaches crisis communication, professional writing, and ethics — with a civic mission.
Foxwell: “I focus on how persuasive writing can re‑engage people in government and the political process. Through that engagement, we can create a healthier and more vibrant democracy. And we need that, because our democracy is under a great deal of stress right now.”
Tred Avon Strategies: A Consulting Firm Coming Into Its Own
Maryland Wire: You’ve also built a successful consulting practice. What does that look like today?
Foxwell: “For the past five years I’ve run Tred Avon Strategies, providing communications and media relations services to corporate and political clients. I started it out of necessity and had no idea what I was doing. Last year was the best year I’ve ever had financially — and the most rewarding.”
His clients include the American Heart Association, the Maryland Transportation Builders and Materials Association, and Delegate Adrian Boafo.
Foxwell: “I’m in a good spot. If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life — and that applies to me right now.”
ICE, Pastor Daniel, and a Year of Unimaginable Loss
Maryland Wire: You’ve become a prominent voice on ICE and immigration abuses. How did that begin?
Foxwell pauses before answering.
Foxwell: “Honestly, this is a case where a moment found me, not the other way around.”
Last summer, his son Darren — 18 years old — was killed in an automobile accident on the Eastern Shore.
Foxwell: “My beautiful son Darren passed away at 18. At his funeral, Pastor Daniel Fuentes Espinal spoke. Darren and his son were best friends. Darren spent more time at their dinner table than at mine.”
Three weeks later, the pastor was arrested by ICE.
Foxwell: “He was on his way to work. He stopped at Lowe’s for supplies, grabbed breakfast, and was picked up on the roadside. He was sent to Salisbury, then Baltimore, where he didn’t even have a bed or bathroom facilities — just a hard wooden bench. Then he was shipped to a detention center in Louisiana. No due process. He had never harmed anyone, never broken a law.”
The experience radicalized him.
Foxwell: “Whatever this is, it’s not America. It’s wrong. It’s undemocratic. It’s fundamentally un‑American.”
Support came from unexpected places.
Foxwell: “One of the first media outlets to reach out was the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Politically, we don’t have much in common. But they told me, ‘What’s happening here is wrong. It violates every principle of the Christian faith.’ I’ll never forget that.”
A Closing Reflection: Grace in the Hardest Year
As the conversation winds down, Foxwell reflects on the people who showed up when he needed them most.
Foxwell: “The last year has been the worst year of my life. But it has also been heartwarming to see how many friends rallied around me, Darren’s mother Kerry, and his sister Colleen. The people who reached out — to help, to listen, to let me talk and vent and cry — it has been a powerful lesson in grace. I will never forget their friendship, and I’ll spend the rest of my life paying it forward.”
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