Not only has Deb Davis earned a place as a leader at a major Fortune 500 federal contracting company, but she’s made it her mission to help train the next generation of leaders at Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of General Dynamics Corp. where she serves as vice president and general manager of the Mission Solutions Sector. She is also a member of GDIT’s Intelligence and Homeland Security Division Leadership Team.
With a focus on “high-potential leaders,” as Davis says, her main emphasis has been to expand diversity at the company and grow the talent pool at GDIT and the U.S. Intelligence Community as a whole.
“Our focus on building an inclusive culture and growing the cadre of women and diverse talent in the intel and technology fields ensures that the best minds are tackling our nation’s most complex challenges,” she says.
As a former teacher, Davis has long been interested in career development and also works closely with The Little Bit Foundation, which provides STEM and geospatial education opportunities to underserved students. Davis works to ensure that high school students, transitioning military members and other adults have access to tech training and jobs.
As chair of the GDIT Program Manager Council, Davis also focuses heavily on leadership development within her own company. During the pandemic, she led five virtual companywide program management summits, during which more than 400 program managers connected with GDIT’s senior leaders to learn more about customer engagement, best practices, diversity and inclusion, and emotional intelligence.
At an early June networking reception to celebrate this year’s Virginia Business Women in LeadershipAwards winners, many in attendance pointed out how unusual it was for dozens of women executives from across various industries to join together in the same room.
Held at law firm Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP’s Richmond office, the event brought together more than 20 of this year’s cohort of 37 Women in Leadership honorees to meet and forge professional connections. The reception’s uniqueness highlights how hard many women executives have worked to succeed and rise to the top of historically male-dominated industries, continuing to climb corporate ladders and break C-suite glass ceilings even today.
This impressive third annual cohort of awardees was chosen by our editors from a competitive field, with more than 320 nominations submitted this year. To qualify, nominees must be based in Virginia and hold C-suite or equivalent positions at their organizations. Deciding this year’s list, Virginia Business’ editorial staff considered factors such as overall professional accomplishments, civic engagement, mentoring and breaking glass ceilings. Our winners are divided by their organizations’ workforce size: small employers with 99 or fewer employees; midsize employers of 100 to 499 people; and large employers with 500 or more workers. Past winners were not eligible for consideration.
Congratulations to this year’s group of accomplished and talented leaders!
LARGE EMPLOYER
ELAINE BEEMAN Chief leadership officer and civilian portfolio lead, Accenture Federal Services, Arlington
DEB DAVIS Vice president and general manager of Mission Solutions Sector, General Dynamics Information Technology, Falls Church
JENNIFER DeBRUHL Director, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Richmond
LIZA WILSON DURANT Associate provost for strategic initiatives and community engagement and professor, College of Engineering and Computing, George Mason University; Director, Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Northern Virginia Node, Arlington
ELENA EDWARDS Chief markets officer and regional CEO for North America, Allianz Partners Group, Henrico County
CASSIE HARTOGS Tax regional managing partner, BDO USA, McLean
GHADA IJAM Chief information officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond
DR. MELINA R. KIBBE Dean, University of Virginia School of Medicine; Chief health affairs officer, UVA Health; Professor, Departments of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering, University ofVirginia, Charlottesville
MELINA DAVIS CEO and executive vice president, Medical Society of Virginia, Richmond
BETSY FRANTZ President and CEO, PathForward Inc., Arlington
REBECCA GELLER President and CEO, The Geller Law Group, Fairfax
LINDA HUTSON GREEN Vice president of economic development, Institute for Advanced Learning and Research; Executive director, Southern Virginia Regional Alliance, Danville
GRETA J. HARRIS President and CEO, Better Housing Coalition, Richmond
LAURA KOTTKAMP Executive director, Monroe Park Foundations at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
RITA McCLENNY President and CEO, Virginia Tourism Corp., Richmond
Since 2016, Joanne Inman has seen tremendous growth during her tenure at Sentara Leigh Hospital, one of Norfolk-based Sentara Health’s largest hospitals. Sentara Leigh’s emergency department surged from seeing more than 70,000 patients a year to 93,000 patients in 2022, while inpatient and obstetrics admissions increased by 30%, and surgical volumes are up by more than 13%, part of a post-pandemic increase at many health care facilities.
Sentara Leigh has received five-star ratings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2017 and 2021, as well as a Leapfrog Group “A” Hospital Safety Score, the industry standard for hospital safety, since 2012. Inman, who previously was vice president at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital and Sentara Leigh’s director of patient care, in 2018 was recognized on Modern Healthcare magazine’s list of Up & Comers.
In her leadership role, Inman has focused on improving mental health services for the Hampton Roads community. At Virginia Beach General, she oversaw the hospital’s inpatient behavioral health unit and launched a task force for behavioral health. She also established Sentara’s first orthopedic hospital in South Hampton Roads and the Sentara Hand Specialty Center.
Additionally, Inman serves on the boards of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association and the New E3 School — a model preschool in Norfolk — and served on United Way of South Hampton Roads’ board.
A real estate lawyer who is passionate about education, Lucia Anna “Pia” Trigiani enjoys training and mentoring new attorneys, and for more than 20 years, she has taught continuing legal education courses.
She has received numerous awards throughout her career, including being named Educator of the Year seven times since 1996 by Washington’s Metropolitan Chapter of Community Associations Institute.
“I have been the beneficiary of time invested in my training by much better lawyers than I could ever hope to be,” she says. “If my legacy is that I have taught someone else what was taught to me, I have returned the gift and done some good.”
In 2007, Trigiani and David Mercer opened a boutique real estate law firm in Old Town Alexandria that now employs seven lawyers.
For 11 years, Trigiani served as the chair of the Virginia Common Interest Community Board, a governor-appointed board that licenses and certifies common interest community managers and communities throughout the state.
Since 2012, Trigiani has been a board member for the Library of Virginia Foundation, and she has served as its president since 2020. She has been on GO Virginia’s statewide board since 2016 and is a former rector of Longwood University’s board of visitors.
Throughout her career, Linda Hutson Green has been the only woman on her work team more than once, but it hasn’t prevented her from making an impact.
Today, she’s the first woman to hold the role of vice president of economic development for the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, in addition to directing and overseeing the strategic vision of the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance. The complementary work at both organizations, which are focused on economic and workforce development and manufacturing, she says, creates a collaborative approach to marketing the region’s resources.
Green says she’s grateful male leaders believed in her, recognized her achievements, and helped her advance. To pay it forward, she mentors students and interns at her workplace and through regional organizations. “I want to see more women given the opportunity to participate in roles that can help mold and shape their future,” she says.
Since 2016, Green has worked in collaboration with economic developers to recruit 28 new companies to Southern Virginia and assist the expansion of 31 existing companies. Green says these efforts have created more than 5,300 jobs and spurred about
$1.5 billion in capital investment across the region.
Green previously served as district director for U.S. Rep. Robert Hurt, who represented Virginia’s 5th Congressional District from 2011 to 2017, and spent 15 years in leadership roles at the Center for Innovative Technology (now the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp.), including serving as director for federal funding and entrepreneurship.
During the past 12 years, My Lan Tran has led an organization giving a voice to more than 187,000 Asian American-owned enterprises in Virginia: the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce. The chamber’s executive director, she also is administrator of the Virginia Asian Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps develop educational programming for Asian American and Pacific Islanders with eight member universities in Virginia.
Tran came to the United States in April 1975 as a refugee from South Vietnam, earned degrees from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts and Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California, and pursued careers in workforce and economic development.
From 2003 to 2011, Tran served as program manager for Richmond’s Office of Minority Business Development, where she helped pilot a program in which more than 5,000 small, women-, minority- or veteran-owned businesses received business development services. She also was international trade marketing manager for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, and Tran taught Asian political theory, contemporary studies, international affairs and French at Virginia Commonwealth University for several years.
For nearly two decades, Tran has advised more than a dozen regional and state institutions on energy, transportation, higher education, community development, workforce development, economic development, minority business development and housing.
The thread throughout her experience, however, is being “laser-focused on promoting Virginia minority business development, especially working on behalf of the underserved Asian American communities and all others who are underserved and under-recognized,” she says.
During her 35-year career in hospitality, Kimberly Christner has seen major changes in female representation in her industry.
“For many of those years, I might be the only female at the table in a leadership position,” she says, “but that has changed, thankfully.”
As president and CEO of Cornerstone Hospitality LLC, Christner has found a passion for renovating historic properties and converting them into boutique hotels, each of which is pet-friendly — an amenity that’s important to Christner, who travels “everywhere” with her golden retriever, Adeline. In Virginia, these projects include the Craddock Terry Hotel and The Virginian in Lynchburg, the Western Front Hotel in St. Paul, the Sessions Hotel in Bristol, Hotel Weyanoke in Farmville, and Wytheville’s Bolling Wilson Hotel. Christner takes pride in the fact that each has served as an economic engine to encourage more growth in their respective communities. In 2018, the state Department of Housing and Community Development awarded the Western Front Hotel its award for best adaptive reuse. Christner also is on the Marriott Tribute Portfolio board.
Mentorship is also a top priority for Christner, who conducts one-on-one coaching with her hotel management teams. “I’m a promoter of women in business,” she says. “I like to see women rise through the ranks.”
Erin Burcham says she has “a growth mindset,” making her a perfect fit to lead Verge, an umbrella organization for the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council and the Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP). Burcham’s job is to pursue initiatives that can expand the tech and life sciences sector of the Roanoke Valley and New River Valley.
In February, the Virginia Tech grad helped score a coup for the region, when the City of Roanoke secured a $15.7 million state grant to build a 40,000-square-foot biotech lab and incubator. In collaboration with Carilion Clinic, the Virginia Tech Corporate Center, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Western Community College, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and the city, Verge will oversee an innovation studio associated with the lab as well as programming for the early-stage companies that will use the space.
Burcham wrote her master’s thesis about bringing organizations together — an education she’s using now for this project. That required keeping “a lot of balls in the air,” Burcham acknowledges, but she didn’t do it alone. “I see myself as a team player for this region,” she says.
In addition to her job, Burcham was recently appointed to the Roanoke College Community Advisory Group and for eight years ran the Roanoke Regional Partnership’s Experience networking conference for young professionals.
Since 2013, Melanie McGrath has worked for Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. and its subsidiary, Newport News Shipbuilding, and she’s seen some massive federal contract awards come in — especially since 2019, when she was promoted to director of its submarine division.
In February, HII broke ground on a facility to support nuclear submarine construction in Newport News. This project is jointly funded by the Navy and HII, and is part of $1.9 billion in capital investments at NNS between 2016 and 2025. McGrath oversees the Virginia Class Submarine Scheduling and Planning for NNS.
Overseeing projects of this size is an undertaking since these submarines are some of the “most important and most expensive assets,” according to the U.S. government. But McGrath has had impressive career advancement as a woman in a male-dominated industry, having served as a manufacturing technology manager and submarine scheduling manager before assuming her current director position. She has also been “instrumental in hiring, training and development of the leadership team” at NNS, according to her nominator, and encourages women to pursue careers in engineering.
“Just as my mentors invested in my development, so too do I feel the responsibility to cultivate the next generation of leaders, both at Newport News Shipbuilding and the community,” McGrath says. “It’s an honor to share my passion for supporting women in manufacturing and construction, especially knowing the important work we do in service of the nation.”
A Clemson University graduate, McGrath also is an alumna of the Hampton Roads Chamber’s Lead757 regional leadership program.
Politicians like to suggest every new election is the most important of our lifetimes, but Virginia’s off-off-year state legislative elections in 2023 might actually live up to the billing for once.
In November, voters will elect representatives to all 140 seats in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates, in the first campaign season since the state redrew districts through an unprecedented process outside lawmaker control. To compound matters, a startling number of legislators are retiring or competing against fellow incumbents in new “double-bunked” districts created by the December 2021 redistricting.
These factors contribute to a generational election that will determine Virginia’s legislative future for years to come.
“This upheaval has literally never happened in the history of Virginia,” says Greg Habeeb, a former state delegate and president of Gentry Locke Consulting, a Richmond lobbying, marketing and strategic communications firm. “We’ve never seen this raw number of retirements and departures coupled with the seniority of those people leaving.”
As an example, Habeeb points to the Senate Finance Committee — “the epicenter of the epicenter” of both power and the retirement wave. Committee chair Janet Howell of Reston is retiring after 31 years, along with fellow Democratic committee members John Edwards and Richard Saslaw, as well as Republicans Steve Newman, Tommy Norment and Jill Vogel.
Meanwhile, fellow Democratic committee members Sens. George Barker, Creigh Deeds, Louise Lucas and Dave Marsden all faced primaries. That left Democratic Sens. Adam Ebbin and Mamie Locke and Republican Sen. Frank Ruff as the only incumbent Senate Finance committee members guaranteed to run in November, although Deeds, Lucas and Marsden won their June 20 primaries.
Known for their moderate stances, Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw (left) and Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment Jr. are both retiring this year. Photo by Alexa Welch Edlund/Richmond Times-Dispatch via Associated Press
Many factors are converging into a perfect storm for remaking the legislature in 2023. For starters, Habeeb says, “it’s harder to do this job for a long time and have a family and private-sector job. Two, an inordinate number of senators had served for decades and naturally got to a point where they need to retire. Coupled with redistricting, that created this avalanche.”
A bipartisan commission created to redraw legislative districts ultimately deadlocked last year, leaving the process to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which appointed two special masters to carry out the task. Since lawmakers were no longer drawing lines out of self-interest, many ended up in new districts or sharing a district with one or two other incumbents.
“I think having those incumbent-versus-incumbent races was something that pushed the retirement rate up,” says J. Miles Coleman, associate editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
One example is Democratic Sen. John Edwards of Roanoke, who was drawn into a district with Republican Sen. David Suetterlein that voted 55% Republican in the 2021 gubernatorial election. Edwards opted to retire.
Other lawmakers faced primary challengers on June 20 — sometimes from fellow incumbents. One of the most dramatic examples played out in Hampton Roads, where longtime Democratic Sens. Louise Lucas and Lionel Spruill vied to represent Senate District 18.
Lucas, the Senate’s president pro tempore, beat Spruill with 54% of the vote in the Democratic primary, and incumbent Senate Democrats George Barker, Joe Morrissey and Chap Petersen all lost their primaries. Republican Senate incumbent Amanda Chase lost her primary to former state senator Glen Sturtevant. A strident Trump supporter who continues to argue baselessly that the 2020 election was “stolen,” Chase has disputed her own election results, claiming that early votes were made on computers that don’t comply with state law.
Retirements account for nearly a fifth of the House’s turnover and more than a quarter of the Senate’s. A Virginia Chamber of Commerce analysis suggests Virginia will see at least 11 new senators and 32 new delegates enter office in January 2024, although some may be familiar faces, with several delegates running for Senate, including Democrats Danica Roem in Prince William County and Schuyler VanValkenburg in Henrico County and Republican Christopher Head in Botetourt County.
It’s not just the sheer numbers of departing members that will affect the General Assembly, but also the depth of experience being lost.
“At a minimum, it’s 581 years of experience guaranteed not returning,” says Chris Saxman, a former state delegate and executive director of Virginia FREE, a nonpartisan business-focused political organization. Coupled with incumbent losses in primaries, Saxman adds, “We’re probably going to crest 600 years not returning. We’re in a generational shift.”
Turnover starts at top
In the state Senate, both parties’ leaders are stepping down after decades in office.
At the end of 2023, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Saslaw will have served 48 years in the Assembly, just short of the record 52 years set by the late Del. Lacey Putney. Republican Senate Minority Leader Norment has served for 30 years.
Together, the two relatively moderate leaders held the center of political power in the Senate for decades, playing leading roles in big, complex legislation affecting business, such as utility regulation, taxes and transportation funding. They cultivated a working relationship that largely kept the Senate a moderating force even as state politics grew more partisan and divisive.
“It’s almost hard to imagine the Senate without Dick Saslaw and Tommy Norment,” says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. “They are big personalities and leaders that know how to get things done. They can be partisan but also bipartisan, whatever the situation calls for. They are the old model of Virginia legislators, more interested in getting things done than scoring points for their party. I wish more junior legislators would model themselves after the two of them.”
The list of retirements goes beyond Senate leadership to include Democrats and Republicans from across Virginia. New candidates are already stepping up to fill the void. Numerous delegates announced Senate campaigns, while newcomers emerged to run for both House and Senate seats.
No matter what, the chamber will look dramatically different after November.
“It’ll likely be younger, more diverse in both parties,” Saxman says. “New perspective, new generation, more partisan and more focused on winning their districts through the nomination phase than in the past.”
The impending legislative turnover is creating a fraught moment for businesses and trade associations that routinely invest in the campaigns of officials most likely to be on committees affecting their respective industries.
Habeeb says it’s still unclear whether the shift will increase or diminish the power of lobbyists and the businesses they represent. “Anyone who thinks they know what’s going to happen is lying to themselves and to their clients,” he says.
Quick change
Virginia remains a largely divided state, with intensely Democratic and Republican regions. Most of its districts are so partisan that nominees of the favored parties are all but guaranteed election. That leaves just a handful of tossup districts where the parties will fight to win control of the legislature.
“As big an impact as these elections are going to have on the commonwealth and on the agenda of [Gov.] Glenn Youngkin in the second half of his term, it will come down to a relative handful of seats,” Coleman says. “District 31 in the Senate, which is basically western Loudoun County. District 17 in Southside. Democrats are in a situation where I think they’re favored in basically 20 seats in the Senate. They need to get one more. What’s that one more going to be?”
The parties’ respective calculation of Virginia’s most competitive districts will shape the fall campaign. Another likely force will be Youngkin, whose 2021 coattails helped the GOP retake the House majority and win the lieutenant governor and attorney general contests.
For Youngkin, the 2023 election also has provided a handy excuse to sidestep questions about his 2024 presidential ambitions. Asked at a California conference whether he’d campaign for president, Youngkin responded, “No, I’m going to be working in Virginia this year.” Some outlets took that as an indication he’d not join the Republican field of presidential candidates, while others noted the grammar seemed to apply only to this year, not next. The governor has continued to blur the issue, appearing in an ad that some observers saw as foreshadowing a national campaign.
Youngkin has endorsed 50 General Assembly incumbents, 16 nonincumbent Republican nominees and 10 candidates in contested primaries. The latter inspired blowback from a candidate who wasn’t endorsed and who complained about it on a conservative talk radio show. Former NASCAR driver and Southside GOP state Senate candidate Hermie Sadler also expressed frustration with Youngkin. The governor’s political action committee allegedly tried to change the nomination method in Sadler’s district from a primary to a convention, which likely would have favored Sadler’s Youngkin-endorsed opponent.
November’s winners will be rewarded with the opportunity to set the General Assembly’s tone for the next decade or more. To some extent, that tone also will be shaped by this year’s wave of retirements.
“For 20 or 30 years, it didn’t matter who was in charge of Senate — it was a stable body,” Habeeb says. “Those days are gone. Historically, the Senate has prevented massive changes in any given cycle. Now, there’s a scenario where historical change can happen overnight.”
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Sign In
Free Newsletter
