JENNIFER HUNTER

Education and mentorship are important to Jennifer Hunter.

“If you want to create change and create opportunities … you’ve got to bring people to the table,” she says. “And that means supporting folks, equipping them, preparing them and then pulling them to the table with you.”

Outside of mentoring others, she was appointed by former governors Bob McDonnell and Terry McAuliffe to two terms on Virginia State University’s board of visitors. “I do miss it,” Hunter says.

She also has served on the foundation board for the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development since 2012.

“As you talk about how to create more equitable opportunities for all, education plays such a key role in that,” Hunter says.

In her career working for the lobbying and compliance arm of Fortune 500 tobacco manufacturer Altria Group Inc., she has been proud of her involvement in efforts to prevent underage tobacco use and to help adults to choose to quit tobacco products. Examples, she says, include supporting state legislation to raise the smoking age to 21, supporting U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning labels and public health information campaigns.

“One of the real points of pride that I have is that cigarette rates today amongst underage users [are] the lowest recorded in a generation,” Hunter says.