Dorothy McAuliffe (L '88)
Former First Lady of Virginia - Spring '18 Fellow
Dorothy McAuliffe (L '88) has been an impactful advocate for women’s health, public safety, social justice, and equal opportunity for all Virginians, particularly Virginia’s children.
As First Lady, she served as Chair of the Commonwealth Council on Bridging the Nutritional Divide and engaged stakeholders across the Virginia food system to seek solutions that eliminate childhood hunger, develop local agriculture, and empower community efforts linking locally grown food, education, health, and nutrition. In her role chairing the No Kid Hungry Virginia campaign, she has led efforts to improve school meal access and increased the number of school breakfasts served each year by more than 10 million.
Mrs. McAuliffe has championed the needs of Virginia’s active-duty military and National Guard and their families. She serves as the Governor’s designee to the Virginia Council on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, which assists in easing the transition of children of military families in and out of Virginia schools, a process that can be difficult due to frequent moves and deployment of their parents.
Long active as a volunteer in her community, Mrs. McAuliffe firmly believes that building a cultural expectation of national service in our next generation is necessary to solve many challenges and divisions our country faces today. In order to expand national service opportunities in the Commonwealth, the First Lady inspired over 50 institutions of higher education to sign on to the “Compact on National Service,” which will integrate service opportunities on college campuses, and helped establish Virginia as the first state designated as an Employer of National Service.
She is a graduate of The Catholic University of America, with a B.A. in Political Science, and completed her J.D. at Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a member of the Journal of Law and Policy in International Business.
In Spring 2018, her discussion group was: “Revitalizing American Democracy Through Public Service“.
Dorothy McAuliffe currently serves as the U.S. State Department's Special Representative for Global Partnerships.