Brent Finnegan

Brent has spent most of his life serving communities across the Shenandoah Valley. Raised in Broadway, Virginia, Brent lives in Harrisonburg where he now serves on the Planning Commission.

He has volunteered by teaching citizenship classes at Skyline Literacy and raised funds for Our Community Place, a local faith-based community center that provides support to marginalized members of the community. Brent was an integral part of the local grassroots organizing team for Bernie Sanders’s presidential primary campaign that won in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in 2016.

He has produced TV shows and documentaries at the local PBS station about immigration policy and farming issues. He founded and ran a local news website, hburgnews.com, which broke local news stories and implemented innovative ways to include readers in the newsmaking process.

Currently, Brent works at the Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services at JMU, where he collaborates with local educators and health professionals to reduce drug abuse and teen pregnancy, and support rural health initiatives in our community.