100 People to Meet in 2024: Public Faces

From the commander of the world’s largest naval base to a viral, small-town country music sensation, these people are highly visible representatives of their communities and industries.

Oliver Anthony

Singer and songwriter
Farmville

You would have had to be living under a big rock not to hear about the splash country-folk singer Oliver Anthony — the stage name of Farmville resident Christopher Anthony Lunsford — made this summer with his viral song “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Despite not having the same corporate backing as, say, Taylor Swift, Anthony’s populist-libertarian anthem about Washington, D.C., politicians hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in August, and as of early November, the song’s YouTube video had 89.5 million views. In September, Anthony signed with Nashville-based United Talent Agency and announced he will be recording his first full album in January — outdoors. He’s scheduled to play the ServPro Pavilion in Doswell on May 17, 2024.

Eric Bach

Broadcasting and media relations manager, Fredericksburg Nationals
Fredericksburg

The voice of the Single-A Fredericksburg Nationals Minor League Baseball team, Eric Bach is, by the time you read this, relaxing in the offseason and traveling to see friends and family, as well as officiating high school and college basketball and football games. In the spring and summer, though, “it’s six games a week and it’s 132 games in sixish months,” he notes. “It’s 75-, 80-hour weeks during the season. But you know, we all are here because we love baseball, right?” As the only openly gay MiLB broadcaster in the nation, Bach is a rarity, a fact noted in a July feature about him in The New York Times. “Visibility is so important,” says Bach, who hopes to work one day for a major league team. “Just the fact that you’re existing in that space is pretty profound for a lot of people.”

Angela Costello

Vice president of communications and marketing, Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp.
Norfolk

A longtime marketing strategist who started her own video company in 1989, Angela Costello is using her skills to build interest in VIPC, the state’s tech innovation not-for-profit corporation, which connects entrepreneurs with funding, training and mentors. An aviation lover, Costello is a licensed pilot who flies drones too. A graduate of Virginia Wesleyan University and the Harvard Kennedy School, Costello is a certified chaplain. In 2017, her virtual reality company, SwivelVR, produced what was billed as the first live VR concert, which allowed fans to watch and interact with a streaming concert by rock band Matchbox Twenty.

Capt. Janet Days

Commander, Naval Station Norfolk
Norfolk

Capt. Janet Days is the first African American commanding officer of the world’s largest naval base, a post she assumed in February. As a career surface warfare officer, her role as commanding officer of the Norfolk base, which employs 89,000 active-duty military personnel and 52,000 civilian employees, involves ensuring that the Navy’s operational forces have the necessary infrastructure and support for training and operations.

Days comes from a family with a long tradition of military service and values continuing that legacy. Off base, she enjoys traveling with her husband to jazz concerts and is an avid reader.

“I love what I do, and that matters,” she says. “I’ve been serving for a while and could have retired by now, but I’m not ready to yet. If there’s an opportunity to advocate, coach and mentor, I’ll continue to do that.”

Robby Demeria

Chief corporate affairs officer, Phlow
Richmond

A former Virginia deputy secretary of commerce for technology and innovation, Robby Demeria joined Phlow in 2020 as its chief of staff, becoming the pharma company’s chief corporate affairs officer this year. He’s also inaugural board chair of the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, a cluster of advanced pharmaceutical manufacturers and researchers developing a production hub in the Richmond and Petersburg region. So far, the companies collectively are bringing $500 million in investments to the effort, creating about 350 jobs, Demeria notes proudly. Phlow has a $354 million federal contract to create a domestic supply chain for essential pharmaceutical drugs and ingredients. With its new factories scheduled to be online in early 2024, Phlow has potential to earn a six-year extension on its contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which expires in May 2024.

Hayley DeRoche

Writer and @sadbeige TikTok creator; branch manager, Richmond Public Library
Petersburg

A Richmond Public Library librarian and mom of two, Hayley DeRoche still squeezes in time to create satirical “sad beige clothing for sad beige children” videos for the more than 300,000 followers of the TikTok account she started in 2021 and its accompanying Instagram.

A reaction to marketing of neutral-colored children’s clothes modeled by somber kids, DeRoche’s videos feature catalog pictures and her imitation of stoic German filmmaker Werner Herzog in voiceovers like, “I call this one ‘the faceless misery of existential dread romper.’ $70. Available in cinnamon.” In November, the unthinkable happened: Herzog acknowledged DeRoche’s videos and declared, “A little bit of self-irony is not bad at all, anyway.”

The Petersburg resident has written several humor pieces for McSweeney’s and authored “Hello Lovelies!: A Novel,” an audiobook satirizing mommy blogs. As of early October, DeRoche had a novel and a picture book out for submission. 

John Fishwick Jr.

Attorney and owner, Fishwick & Associates
Roanoke

Lawyer John Fishwick Jr. has become a go-to legal commentator on former President Donald Trump’s court cases over the past year, as well as other high-profile legal matters, including the infamous Murdaugh murders in South Carolina. A former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, Fishwick jokes, “Some of the big dogs must not have answered their cell phones,” when he got his first cable news invitation. But with a background in civil rights, federal criminal law and personal injury law, Fishwick is accomplished in his field. Outside of work, he’s an avid tennis player and is aiming to get Congress to rename a federal courthouse in Roanoke for the late civil rights attorney Reuben E. Lawson. “That’s not an easy thing,” Fishwick says, “but we’re in for the long haul.”

Stephen Kirkland

Executive director, Nauticus
Norfolk

Stephen Kirkland used to spend his days as a cruise director on Carnival Cruise Line’s ships traveling around the world. Now he brings cruise ships into Norfolk, an initiative that will majorly expand in 2024 and 2025, when Carnival plans to operate year-round from the cruise terminal in Norfolk. Kirkland built Norfolk’s growing cruise ship program from the ground up, starting as cruise marketing director, and using his relationship-building skills and experience working on cruise ships to bring it to life. Kirkland’s other baby, Nauticus, a maritime discovery center adjacent to the cruise terminal, is also undergoing a multimillion-dollar refresh that will be done at the end of 2024. Working in the cruise industry wasn’t Kirkland’s first career, though. The University of South Carolina graduate got his start in broadcast news.

Linda Peck

Executive director, Norfolk Innovation Corridor and Greater Norfolk Corp.
Norfolk

A Portsmouth native, Linda Peck had a career in corporate finance in Manhattan after earning degrees at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, but she wasn’t passionate about the work. “It wasn’t what I wanted to read about on vacation or think about in the shower,” she says. So, she tried a few other paths, including teaching middle school for 19 years and being executive director of a synagogue before landing at Greater Norfolk Corp., one of the city’s economic development partners, in 2021. Peck became executive director of the Norfolk Innovation Corridor, part of downtown Norfolk zoned to incentivize tech startups focused on sea-level rise and recurrent flooding, and then was named GNC’s executive director in 2022. Through these posts, Peck says, she’s able to “help make Norfolk better” and follow her passions.

Valentina Peleggi

Music director and Lewis T. Booker music director chair, Richmond Symphony
Richmond

Considered a rising star in classical music circles, Valentina Peleggi joined the Richmond Symphony during the 2020-21 season, a less-than-auspicious time for live performances. But since returning to in-person concerts, Peleggi has made up for lost time, guest conducting for the Chicago, Dallas and Baltimore symphonies, and in May 2024, she’s scheduled to conduct “The Barber of Seville” at the Seattle Opera. The Richmond Symphony renewed her contract in September to extend through the 2027-28 season.

With degrees in conducting from Rome’s Conservatorio Santa Cecilia and the Royal Academy of Music of London, Peleggi was resident conductor at the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Brazil and has worked with orchestras around the world. She is a native of Florence, Italy, and was part of a children’s choir directed by Zubin Mehta, conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Chris Piper

Executive director, Virginia Public Access Project
Richmond

Chris Piper has been interested in electoral politics since watching Rock the Vote programming on MTV as a 15-year-old, which led him to his professional purpose: informing voters so they can make the choices that most align with their values.

After serving as state elections commissioner during the Northam administration, Piper joined an election administration consulting firm. In June, he started his newest role: leading VPAP, which keeps politically minded Virginians up to date on campaign finances and statewide races.

The job was a “natural fit,” he says, since he has firsthand knowledge of the workings of state government and had worked in his previous role with former VPAP Executive Director David Poole.

In 2024, VPAP will focus on its next phase, which could include growth beyond Virginia’s borders, says Piper, who has run 14 marathons.

Colleen Shogan

Archivist of the United States
Arlington County

The first woman to serve as the federal government’s head archivist, Colleen Shogan was nominated by President Joe Biden in August 2022 and was sworn in as the nation’s 11th archivist in May. Before starting her new job, Shogan was an associate professor of government and politics at George Mason University, served as director of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History, worked at the Library of Congress and has published eight D.C.-set murder mystery novels. Speaking at Shogan’s September swearing-in by Chief Justice John Roberts, first lady Jill Biden quoted the new archivist: “[Shogan] said, ‘Although this truth is self-evident, we know from our almost 250 years of American history that it is not self-executing. It’s our job, collectively, to uphold these principles and protect them.’ Well done.”

Jayme Swain

President and CEO, VPM Media/Virginia Foundation for Public Media
Richmond

After 60 years on Sesame Street in Chesterfield County, VPM plans to move in 2026 to a new downtown Richmond building on Broad Street. That’s just one of the changes Jayme Swain has instituted since becoming CEO in 2019 of Virginia’s public television and radio stations serving Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. The new building will have capacity for podcast studios and live performances, as well as up-to-date radio, digital and TV production facilities.

“We are public media, and it felt increasingly isolated in Chesterfield,” says Swain, who looked at about 70 properties before deciding on Broad Street. “Being right in the heart of downtown Richmond better represents the citizens that we serve across the commonwealth.” Also in the works is a rebrand of Style Weekly, the Richmond alternative weekly publication VPM purchased in 2021.

Outside of work, Swain is an avid swimmer who occasionally competes in triathlons and loves to travel.

Renée Turk

Mayor, City of Salem
Salem

A Roanoke College graduate, former teacher, car salesperson and radio station account executive, Renée Turk narrowly lost her 2018 bid for Salem City Council by 79 votes. She decided in 2020 to try again — and succeeded. Then she was chosen by the council to serve as Salem’s first female mayor. Though it’s not a position intended as a full-time job, Turk says, “I’ve gotten out and gone to a lot more things in the community and in the region … because I happen to be retired and have the time. Every single day, I think it’s important for us to communicate with each other and to work together.” Her council term ends in 2024, but Turk plans to run again.

Lakshmi Williams

North America general counsel and corporate secretary, Transurban; board chair, Virginia Chamber of Commerce
Tysons

Lakshmi Williams watches the ribbons of connected roadways that are visible from her Tysons office window and realizes how critical her work is to getting travelers to their destinations. Williams manages legal matters for Australian toll road company Transurban’s North America branch, which operates express lanes throughout Northern Virginia.

“Unlike toll roads, customers can choose if or when to use express lanes,” she explains. “Transportation is on the cusp of exciting changes,” she adds, noting that managed lanes are candidates for the future use of connected autonomous vehicles. In October, Transurban took part in a CAV trial on a closed-off section of the 395 Express Lanes.

As of January, she’s also serving as board chair for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. Keeping Virginia ranked as a top state for business is one of her highest priorities, she says.

This feature has been corrected since publication.

Check out the other 100 People to Meet in 2024.