About Libby
Like many of us in Northern Virginia and Arlington, I came here from somewhere else. Arlington and Fairlington have been my home since 1978. I moved a lot growing up and have lived here far longer than anywhere else.
My husband Kennan and I came here from the Central African Republic where we had gone to teach English with the Peace Corps. We both found jobs with the federal government. As a politics major at Mt. Holyoke, I’d always been fascinated by the Congress and government. I was thrilled when then Congressman Lee Hamilton hired me to be a legislative assistant.
Our first child was born in 1979. I was lucky enough to be able to stay home with her and work for Mt. Holyoke College as Associate Director of the Washington Internship program here. In 1984 I became certified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and have done that off an on for individuals and groups ever since.
My experience with our schools also began in 1984, when I worked as part of the leadership team of a community effort to build a new playground for our neighborhood school, Abingdon Elementary. My children were 2 and 5 at the time. I went on to be the volunteer co-coordinator for the PTA, then the ACI representative and finally the PTA President at Abingdon.
One of my early experiences working on a County level was when I led an effort to keep our Assistant Principal when the position was cut from the school system’s budget (she stayed). I went on to be Vice-Chair of the Advisory Council on Instruction (ACI), the County Council of PTAs and was part of the Futures process in 1992. In 1992, the schools were needing to address severe crowding in our part of the County as well as a rapid influx of non-English speaking students. My frustration with the decisions the School Board made after that process caused me to help elected Mary Hynes to the Board in 1994 and then to run myself in 1995. I lost that first race, but won in 1996. I ran on helping every child do as well in school as she or he can, on adequate resources for all our schools (including building a new school in South Arlington); better managing our capital improvement program, and making the School Board responsive to the community. Since then student achievement has gone up and the gap in achievement has closed by 50%; we have formulas to ensure that resources are equitable in our schools and that new school is now built – Carlyn Springs Elementary. We have taken many steps to improve our connection with the community, including bi-annual surveys, regular updates mailed to citizens and, during my first term as Chair, I began open office hours for the School Board, which have become well used.
My experience as a parent with children in the school system ended when our youngest daughter graduated in 2000. But It began again when my grandson began the pre-school Montesorri program at Drew 2006. Jeremiah is now at Abingdon Elementary. His cousin and younger sister will be starting Arlington Public Schools in a few years. Kennan and I are pleased that both our daughters live in Arlington, altho for my eldest that is only when they are not posted overseas with the State Department.
As a School Board member, I have found many ways to build networks that support our schools. One of these was Virginia CAREs. Virginia funds education through formulas called the Standards of Quality (SOQ). In 2000 a group of school divisions in Northern Virginia came together to try to strengthen those formulas so that state support more closely matched the educational need of our students. We formed VCARES (Virginia Consortium for Adequte Resources for Education). As Vice-Chair of the consortium, I helped lead a state-wide conference on the issue, determine our positions as a lobbying group and then lobbied for better funding. Because we worked across the state and with Superintendents and School Board members to educate and inform the State Board of Education about our needs and then Virginia legislators, we were successful in improving the SOQ’s in a number of areas.
Another network is the LEP (Limited English Proficient) Caucus. This is an ad hoc group of school board members and staff working with the Virginia School Board Association across the state to improve resources and education for our students who do not speak English well. The LEP Caucus has been a strong voice for our immigrant students advocating for reasonable testing under NCLB and for adequate support from the State to meet the educational needs of these students.
Arlington itself, of course, has wonderful networks for just about any interest. Mine include music and bike riding. When not entertaining grandchildren or working, I enjoy classical and early music and tandem biking with Kennan. We’ve participated in 3 of the last 4 Bike Virginia rides and usually cover about 300 miles in 5 days (and, yes, even on a tandem I have to pedal). Bike Virginia is one of the best supported state rides and I highly recommend it. We try to do the circuit route of Arlington at least once a week to stay in shape and, when we can, enjoy biking around Fort Valley in the Shenandoah.
Music has been a little harder to keep up. I take voice lessons about 3 times a month and call it my mental health therapy. At my age it is wonderful to be discovering many of the great opera arias and actually getting better at something. Both our piano and virginal (an early form of harpsichord) are not getting much use, altho Kennan and I still try to play some of our early music recorder/continuo pieces. I had a real treat this summer when I attended the Musica Dei Donum workshop at the Seminary where we sang nothing but Orlando de Lassus for a week and were taught by the rock stars of the early music world.
Kennan and I feel very lucky to have made Fairlington in Arlington our home. This is a wonderful community and has much to offer for just about anyone’s interests and certainly suits ours. I’m happy to discuss school issues, politics, music or bike riding any time and promise not to brag too much about my grandchildren!
Experience / Leadership
- Chair, Arlington County School Board, 1999 to 2001, 2004-2005, Jan-June ‘07
- Member, Arlington County School Board, 1996 to present
- Member, Council of Governments National Capitol Region Emergency Preparedness Council 2004 to present
- Member, Governor’s Commonwealth Preparedness Transition Policy Committee Dec ‘05- Jan ‘06
- Chair, Capitol Region Subcommittee, Commonwealth Preparedness Transition Policy Committee Jan ‘06
- Member, Governor’s P-16 Council Dec ‘05 to present
- Chair, Communications Workgroup of Governor’s P-16 Council, June ‘07 to present
- Independent Consultant/Facilitator for career and Myers-Briggs counseling/workshops, 1984-1996
- Associate Director, Mount Holyoke College Washington Internship Program, 1979-1984
- Legislative Aide, Representative Lee Hamilton (D. Ind.), 1977-1979
- Country Desk Assistant, Africa Region, US Peace Corps, 1976-1977
- Peace Corps Volunteer (English (TEFL) teacher) and Trainer, Central African Republic, 1973-1975
Community Service
Leadership Positions
- Leadership Team Member, VSBA Limited English Proficient Caucus, 2003 to present
- Vice-Chair, Virginia Consortium for Adequate Resources for Education, 2000 to present
- Vice-President Fairlington Civic Association, 1994-95
- Vice-President County Council of PTAs, 1993-1995
- Vice-Chair, Advisory Council on Instruction, 1994
- Assistant Editor, County Councilor Newsletter, 1994
- County Council Representative Parent Involvement Committee, 1994
- President, Abingdon PTA, 1990-1992
- Career Counselor, Center for Women and Families, Alexandria, 1987-1991
- Volunteer Co-coordinator, Abingdon PTA, 1985-1988
Political
- State Advisor, Edwards for President Campaign, ‘06 to present
- Founder/Steering Cttee Member, GWEN, Get Women Elected Now, ‘07 to present
- Participant/Permit Obtainer, weekly Silent Vigil for Peace ‘02 to present
- Vice-Chair, LEAD (Local Elected Association of Democrats) ‘04
- Delegate, National Democratic Convention, 2004
- Chair, Get Out The Vote, Arlington Democratic Committee, 1995
- Delegate, Virginia State Democratic Convention, 2004 and 1992
- District Volunteer Co-Coordinator, Tsongas for President Campaign, 1992
Writing
- 1990 Series of articles on Myers-Briggs and Parenting published in “Welcome Home.”
Education
- 1973 Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Political Science, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
Personal
- Happily married for 34 years with two children ages 25 and 29, both graduates of Arlington Public Schools and one grandchild in Arlington Public Schools and two future APS students
- Resident of Arlington/Fairlington since 1977