Levar Stoney

Levar was raised in Virginia by his father, Marvin, and his grandmother, Mary; neither graduated high school, but both worked day and night to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. And thanks to a strong family, a strong education - and a Virginia that believed in his potential - Levar was able to become the first in his family to graduate high school, then the first to graduate college. After college, he moved to Richmond to begin a career in public service.

Levar rose through the ranks from Fellow in then-Governor Mark Warner’s office to become the first African American Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the youngest member of Governor Terry McAuliffe’s cabinet. As Secretary, Levar was the driving force behind restoring the voting rights for nearly 200,000 disenfranchised Virginians — more than the past seven administrations combined.