Vivian Watts

Vivian Watts is the longest-serving woman in the Virginia House of Delegates, where she currently serves as the ranking member on both the Finance and Courts of Justice Committees, as well as a member of the Rules and Transportation Committees. Her distinguished public service career began with 15 years of community work that earned her recognition as the Washington Post Fairfax Citizen of the Year. Despite only 21 women having ever been elected to the Virginia General Assembly before her, Watts quickly made an impact. After just four years in office, she was appointed Secretary of Transportation and Public Safety due to her work reforming transportation funding formulas.

Before returning to the General Assembly a decade later, Watts built a professional career that included working for Big Six accounting firms in their government practices and serving as Executive Director of CASA, a nonprofit supporting children in the most severe cases of abuse and neglect.

Watts was raised on a small truck farm in a rural area and was the first in her family to graduate from college. She and her husband, Dave, married in college and raised their children, Cindy and Jeff, in Annandale.