Va. First Lady Anne Holton is Commencement Speaker

By HEATHER BRADY

Virginia First Lady Anne Holton will be the speaker for Mary Washington’s 2009 commencement.

She will address this year’s graduating class in Ball Circle on Saturday, May 9, according to a message from the Office of the President. Holton has devoted her career to improving foster care and adoption. She has served as a legal-aid lawyer representing low-income families. She has also served as juvenile and domestic-relations district court judge in the City of Richmond.

The First Lady has received numerous awards for her work in the legal and judicial sectors. She recently received the YWCA of Richmond 2006 Outstanding Woman Award in the category of law.

Holton also received the 2008 Annie E. Casey Foundation Families for Life Award of Distinction for her initiative “For Keeps: Families for all Virginia Teens.” Her work with the initiative includes a focus on finding and strengthening permanent families for older children in foster care and on Virginia’s Youth Advisory Council.

Holton, a native of Roanoke, Va., graduated from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Law and International Affairs in 1980. She met her future husband Tim Kaine while obtaining her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1983.

Linwood Holton, Holton’s father, served as Governor of Virginia from 1970 to 1974.

She and Governor Kaine currently reside with their three children, Nat, Woody, and Annella, in the Executive Mansion.

Nana Lou Sauder, rector of the Board of Visitors, was instrumental in requesting Holton’s presence as commencement speaker.

“My daughter and Anne Holton went to camp together in the 1960s and early 1970s, and I have followed her career with great interest,” Sauder said. “I am delighted to welcome her as the commencement speaker at the University of Mary Washington.”