PLP 08 Profile: Pat Edmondson

Name:  Patricia G. Edmonson
Age:  Over 21
Born:  I was born in Atlanta and grew up in Manhasset, New York (Long Island)
Current Digs:  I live in Virginia Beach and work in Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Chesapeake.
Occupation:  School Board Member, VBCPS, Home-Based Counselor, The Barry Robinson Center
Favorite part about the job:  I love being a School Board Member because I am able to influence public education policy in the largest city in Virginia.  I also love being a SB Member because I get to interact with the students, teachers, principals, and all the other great people who make up our school division.  I love January because it’s Reading Month and I get to read to elementary age students and pass on my love of books.  I love graduations because I get to see the hope and ambition of so many outstanding young people.  I love graduations at the Adult Learning Center, Central Academy, and Open Campus because these students (of all ages) overcame great hardship to achieve a high school education.  They are true believers in the “American Dream.”  I love participating in the non-partisan political process that makes up local government.  I love campaigning (and winning!) and talking to all the stakeholders in my community. I love my work at The Barry Robinson Center as a Home-Based counselor because every now and then I really make a difference in the life of a child and their family. 
Your first job ever?  A book store of course!  The Little Brown Shop, Manhasset, New York.  A small, independent, neighborhood bookstore.  I got to read EVERYTHING!
Favorite book?  One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Favorite movie?  Now Voyager
Comfort food?  French Fries
What's in your car CD player right now?  Diana Krall, Live in Paris
Next journey?  Spain
Favorite Virginia vacation spot? Charlottesville
First political memory?  The assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights movement, the women’s movement.  1968.  The Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos.  Bob Dylan.  The War in Viet Nam.  The draft.  The Bomb. The Beatles.  And then I could vote:  George McGovern.  Richard Nixon.
Whom do you admire and why? The Dalai Lama.  He lives his convictions, and never defines “the other” as the enemy.
Best advice you ever got?  Live compassionately and life will always be meaningful.
If you could have dinner with any one currently living, whom would it be and why? Oprah Winfrey.  I admire her story.  She has overcome enormous difficulties and risen to become one of the most powerful women in the world.
Describe a perfect day.  Outdoors with good food, family and good friends
One thing most people might be surprised to learn about you.  How much I love jazz music.
Ambition, political or otherwise?  To continue a career as a public servant.