Profile: Kaye Kory, 38th District State Delegate

At A Glance

Born: Chicago, Ill.
Education: B.A. in English from The Western College for Women (now part of Miami University of Ohio)
Family: Married, three children
Occupation: Full-time lawmaker
Public Office: Former member of Fairfax County School Board, 38th District State Delegate

For Kaye Kory, community problems usually have political components. To effectively tackle local challenges, she realized years ago she could make the greatest impact through holding public office.

“I decided to run for office because there were so many problems, so many issues that I thought needed resolving,” she said. “ … I found it was difficult to work through existing organizations to get done what I really thought people who lived here needed to have done.”

Her first venture into politics landed her a seat, in 1999, on the Fairfax County School Board, where she set about using public office to effect change.

Kory, a Democrat, is up for election again this year, this time as the incumbent 38th District state delegate. A native of Chicago, Kory moved to Northern Virginia in 1984. She is married and has three children.

Kory’s first became involved in community organizations when her children were young and she emerged as a leader of the Montessori School of Northern Virginia and later the local PTA. She won a special election for the Mason District seat on the county school board and went on to win three regular elections. She was elected state delegate in 2009.

Along the way, Kory has also been a leader in groups including the Annandale Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia League of Conservation Voters and the NAACP.  She has served as a counselor for troubled youth, as a volunteer with VISTA (predecessor to AmeriCorps), as program manager for a community agency on aging, executive director of the Saunders B. Moon Senior Citizens Center and as program analyst for the Fairfax County Department of Community Action. Before turning her attentions to becoming a full-time delegate, she worked in policy and program management for global governance.

In Richmond, Kory currently serves on the Science and Technology Committee and the Cities, Counties and Towns Committee. She said she believes the top three area of interest for her and the 38th District are transportation; education, including higher education; and, increasingly, the environment.

“These issues are so interconnected,” she said. “It’s difficult, if not impossible, to work on one of them without considering the others.”

Kory said she considers her style of representation progressive, honest, clear and accessible. She is an advocate of increased citizen participation, meets regularly with constituents and has formed an Education Advisory Committee and an Environmental Advisory Team.

Her dedication to communicating and providing complete constituent services, she said, is what sets her apart as a candidate, along with a style of politics that is proactive and solution-oriented.

“In order to find solutions to problems in government, you always have to compromise, and I don’t think education, transportation and the environment should be dealt with through an ideological lens,” she said. “ … Education is not Democratic or Republican, shouldn’t be. It should be about providing the highest quality of education and investing in our future, and I would say the same for transportation and environment.”