Spanberger names transition team leaders

Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger announced her transition team Wednesday, as she prepares to take office in January 2026.

The Democratic governor-elect, who will be Virginia’s first female governor, named seven transition team co-chairs. They include:

• Yohannes Abraham, former executive director for the Biden-Harris transition team, former U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a visiting professor at the University of Virginia;
• Kelly Cannon, CEO of Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association Foundation;
• Marvin Figueroa, vice president of health and life sciences for BGR Group, and former state deputy secretary of health and human resources under former Gov. Ralph Northam;
• Daun Hester, City of Norfolk treasurer and former Virginia delegate;
• Laura Lafayette, CEO of the Richmond Association of Realtors and the Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service;
• Chris Lu, former executive director for the Obama-Biden transition team, former U.S. deputy secretary of labor and James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at U.Va.’s Miller Center;
• Samson Signori, campaign manager for Spanberger’s gubernatorial campaign and former manager of her 2022 congressional campaign.

Spanberger’s transitional chief of staff will be Bonnie Krenz-Schnurman, who previously was her chief of staff for five years in the U.S. House of Representatives, and her transition director will be Karen Mask, Spanberger’s former district director. Mask will serve as deputy chief of staff for operations once Spanberger takes office, according to the announcement.

Krenz-Schnurman was a senior policy adviser during the Obama administration, focusing on energy and climate change policy. Mask was a senior policy analyst for the Virginia Department of Health and led the state’s K-12 schools pandemic response. In the private sector, she was in senior leadership at Toys”R”Us, and later worked in pediatric health and clinical research.

Five current and former elected officials also will serve as honorary co-chairs. They include: Virginia State Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas; House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott; Del. Candi Mundon King; former U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton and former U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, a Democrat who represented Southwest Virginia from 1983 to 2011. Wexton, a Democrat who represented parts of Fairfax and Loudoun counties from 2019 until January, did not seek re-election due to her diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy.

Spanberger will take office Jan. 1, 2026, along with fellow Democrats Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi and Attorney General-elect Jay Jones. Democrats also increased their majority in the 100-seat House by 13 seats and will be coming in with a 64-seat majority.