Dorothy Swann McAuliffe is an American attorney who is serving as the U.S. State Department’s Special Representative for Global Partnerships. She previously was the

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

of the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

from January 2014 to January 2018.

Early life and education

McAuliffe was born Dorothy Swann to Richard and Doris Swann. She graduated from the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science in 1985 and from the

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

Career

Early career

McAuliffe practiced banking and security law for several years and worked for the law firms of Thompson & Mitchell and Heron Burchette Ruckerett & Rothwell.

First Lady of Virginia

McAuliffe was the first Virginia first lady to set up an office in the

Patrick Henry Building The Patrick Henry Building is a historic building located in Richmond, Virginia. Formerly designated simply as the Old State Library or the Virginia State Library and Archives and Virginia Supreme Court, it was renovated, then rededicated and ren ...

, where cabinet secretaries and agency heads work. As First Lady of Virginia, McAuliffe launched and advocated for anti-hunger programs and food access initiatives in the state. In 2014, Terry McAuliffe created the Commonwealth Council on Bridging the Nutritional Divide and named Dorothy McAuliffe head of the council. Dorothy McAuliffe also advocated for several programs to feed hungry children in schools, including a Breakfast after the Bell program, which made breakfast part of the school day, and programs that provided summer and after school meals for students with food insecurity. McAuliffe also advocated for the creation of the Virginia Grocery Investment Fund, a fund set up to attract supermarkets to food deserts across the state. McAuliffe served on the Virginia Council on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, which helps military children integrate into new schools due to frequent moves while their parents are serving in the military. In 2016, McAuliffe initiated and led the effort for the addition of a disability ramp to Virginia's Governor's Executive Mansion.

Later career

Non-profit work

Dorothy has served on the boards of

FoodCorps FoodCorps is an American non-profit organization whose mission is to work with communities to "connect kids to healthy food in school." FoodCorps places service members in limited-resource communities where they spend a year working with teachers ...

, the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. After her term as First Lady of Virginia ended, McAuliffe joined

Share Our Strength Share Our Strength is a national organization working to end childhood hunger and poverty in the United States. Share Our Strength holds culinary events, solicits individual donations, and uses social media to raise funds, which are then used to ...

as the National Policy Advisor for the No Kid Hungry VA campaign.

Politics

In 2018, McAuliffe considered running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) for the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

Virginia's 10th congressional district Virginia's 10th congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is currently represented by Democrat Jennifer Wexton, who was first elected in 2018. The district includes all of Clarke County, Fr ...

, but ultimately decided not to. In 2020, McAuliffe advocated for the passage of a bill in Virginia that would allow workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child, or to take care of a sick family member. On 3 June 2022, it was announced that McAuliffe was appointed as the Special Representative for Global Partnerships by President Joe Biden.

Academics

She was a spring 2018 fellow at the

Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service The Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service is an academic center at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., dedicated to the study of regional and national politics. It is housed within the McCourt School of Public Policy and was c ...

Personal life

McAuliffe married

Terry McAuliffe Terence Richard McAuliffe (born February 9, 1957) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 72nd governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he was co-chairman of President Bill Clinton's 1996 ...

on October 8, 1988. They have five children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McAuliffe, Dorothy Catholic University of America alumni First Ladies and Gentlemen of Virginia Georgetown University Law Center alumni Living people Virginia Democrats Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women