Vivian Watts

Before being elected, I was named the Washington Post Fairfax Citizen of the Year for my 15 years of community work. Despite only 21 women ever being elected to the General Assembly before me, after just 4 years, because of my work on changing transportation funding formulas, I was chosen to serve as Secretary of Transportation and Public Safety. I returned to the GA 10 years later and am now the longest serving woman in the House and the ranking member on Finance and on Courts, as well as, serving on Rules and Transportation. Professionally I have been employed by Big Six accounting firms in their government practice and was Executive Director of the CASA program — a non-profit that works with the most severe cases of child abuse and neglect. Dave and I were married in college and raised Cindy and Jeff in Annandale. I was raised on a small truck farm in a poor rural area and was the first in my family to graduate college.