About Me

I have been honored to serve as Mason District’s representative on the School Board since my special election in March 2010, and was reelected to a four-year term in November 2011. For the 2012-13 year, I am the Board’s Budget Chair and a member of the Public Engagement Committee. My background includes two decades as a journalist, most of that time as a staff writer for The Washington Post. For several years, I free-lanced as a writer while becoming more involved in community activities and advocacy for children and our public schools. Concerned about the health and academic impact of FCPS’s 7:20 am high school start times, which run counter to teen sleep cycles and needs, in 2004 I co-founded an organization to advocate for later high school start times, SLEEP (Start Later for Excellence in Education Proposal).

Here are some highlights of my community activities: 

·         FCPS School Health Advisory Committee member, past chair

·         Northern Virginia Healthy Kids Coalition, Steering Committee member

·         Fairfax Education Coalition, founding member (2009)

·         Start Later for Excellence in Education Proposal (SLEEP), Co-Founder

·         FAIRGRADE Leadership Team advisor and active volunteer

·         Fairfax County Council of PTAs, past legislation committee chair

·         School Board Transportation Task Force member (2007-08)

·         PTA president, Sleepy Hollow Elementary School (2000-2001)

·         Girl Scout leader (1997-2004)

·         Future Problem Solving coach (2000-2009, Virginia State Champions 2007)

·         FCPS Health and PE Advisory Committee (2005-6)

·         Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Council (1999-2000)

·         Active PTA volunteer, room parent, classroom volunteer

·         Fairfax County Association for the Gifted member, since 1996

·         Swim team volunteer (Sleepy Hollow Bath & Racquet and TJ)

I am married to Steve Hoffman, an attorney. I have two daughters, Leah, a public health professional in Papua New Guinea specializing in AIDS prevention, and Zoë, a Fairfax County public schools graduate who attends Brown University.