<hr><b>Who’s in Charge?</b><hr>The Arlington County Board is a five-member body elected at large by the voters of Arlington. It is the sole legislative body in the county and is responsible for all county services including real estate taxes, issuing building permits and funding local schools.
The Arlington School Board is a five-member body that is responsible for governance of Arlington County Public Schools. It deals with any school-related matters such as class size, teacher pay and constructing new facilities. The School Board does not have the authority to impose or collect taxes.
Both School Board and County Board Members serve four-year terms and face re-election in staggered intervals.
<hr><b>Meet the Arlington County Board</b><hr><b>Chairman Jay Fisette</b>
A resident of Arlington since 1983, Jay Fisette served as the director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia before his election to the Arlington County Board. He has a master of arts in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor of arts from Bucknell University.
Fisette was first elected in 1998, and he currently serves as chairman — a position he also had in 2001 and 2005.
While serving as president of the Virginia Municipal League in 2007 and 2008, Fisette created the Go Green Virginia Initiative. He is a member of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, and he also represents Arlington on the Greater Washington Initiative of the Board of Trade. Fisette was appointed by Democratic Gov. Mark Warner and re-appointed by Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine as a commissioner to the board of the Virginia Housing Development Authority. He is also a member of the Ashton Heights Civic Association, Unitarian-Universalist Church of Arlington, Arlington Committee of 100, Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance, Washington Area Bicyclist Association, Equality Virginia and Leadership Greater Washington.
Fisette and his partner Bob Rosen have been residents of the Ashton Heights neighborhood since 1987.
<hr><b>Vice Chairman Chris Zimmerman</b>
A resident of Arlington County since 1979, Chris Zimmerman was a civic association president and planning commissioner before his election to the Arlington County Board. He holds a master of arts in economics from the University of Maryland and a bachelor of science in political science and economics from the American University.
First elected in 1996, Zimmerman served as chairman in 1998, 2002 and 2006. He also served as vice chairman in 1997, 2001 and 2005.
Zimmerman is one of Virginia’s two members on the board of directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and currently served as chairman in 2002 and 2008. He also served as chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. In 2004, he was Chairman of the Transportation Planning Board for the National Capital Region. From 2004 to 2006, Zimmerman served as president of the Virginia Transit Association.
Zimmerman and his wife Mary Beth live in the Douglas Park neighborhood of south Arlington where they have raised three children: Madeleine attends Wakefield High School in Arlington County, Rebecca attends Marymount University, and Nathan, a graduate of Virginia Tech.
<hr><b>Walter Tejada</b>
A native of El Salvador, Walter Tejada moved to the United States at the age of 13. He has been a resident of Arlington for more than 17 years. He’s worked as an investigator, a business consultant and as an aide to U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8), and he studied government and communication at George Mason University.
First elected to the County Board in a 2003 special election, Tejada was reelected in 2007. He served as chairman to the board in 2008 and vice-chairman in 2007.
During his time on the board, Tejada helped establish the Community Volunteer Network and the Shirlington Employment and Education Center. Former Democratic Virginia Gov. Mark Warner appointed Tejada to serve as the first chairman of the Virginia Latino Advisory Commission. In October 2006, Tejada was appointed by Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine to the Governor’s Urban Policy Task Force
Tejada is the founding chairman of the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, the founding president of the American Salvadoran Association of Virginia and of the Latino Democrats of Virginia.
<hr><b>Barbara Favola</b>
A resident of Arlington since 1982, Favola was a policy advisor for 15 years at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before being elected to the Arlington County Board. She also worked on the House Budget Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. She holds a master’s of public administration from New York University and a bachelor of science degree from Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn.
First elected to the County Board in 1997, she served as chairwoman in 2000, 2004 and 2009. She served as vice chairman in 1999, 2003 and 2008.
In 2006, Favola was appointed by Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine to the State Health Board. She is the first vice president on the board of directors of the Virginia Association of Counties and chairwoman of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Washington Area Housing Partnership. She serves on the board of the Ballston Science and Technology Alliance and the Child and Family Network Centers
Since 1995, Favola has been a part-time employee at Marymount University, where she works in the area of institutional development and government relations.
She and husband Douglas Weik live in Arlington 's Lyon Village neighborhood with son Donald Patrick.
<hr><b>Mary Hynes</b>
An Arlington County resident for more than 30 years, Mary Hynes served on the Arlington School Board before her election to the Arlington County Board.
Hynes served on the Arlington School Board from 1995 to 2006, and she was first elected to the County Board in 2007.
Hynes represents Arlington County on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, where she chairs the Aviation Policy Committee. She is also a member of the Virginia Municipal League and Virginia Association of Counties, where she serves on the Legislative Committee and the Education Committee. She currently serves on the Board of Vanguard Services and Bowen McCauley Dance.
Hynes and her husband Patrick are parents of five Arlington Public School graduates. She is a graduate of the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn.
<hr><b>Arlington County School Board</b><hr><b>Chairwoman Libby Garvey</b>
A resident of Arlington since 1977, Libby Garvey has a bachelor of arts from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She served in the Peace Corps in Central Africa and worked as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill. She has two daughters who graduated Arlington Public Schools, and four grandchildren.
Garvey joined the School Board in 1997, and served as chairwoman from 1999 to 2001, 2004 to 2005 and January through June 2007.
She has served as the vice president of the County Council of PTAs, vice president of the Fairlington Civic Association and vice chair of the Advisory Council on Instruction. She has also been involved in the PTAs of Abingdon Elementary, Drew Model School and the H-B Woodlawn program. She has served as the president of the Abingdon Elementary PTA and as secretary of the H-B Woodlawn Program Parent Advisory Committee.
<hr><b>Vice Chairwoman Abby Raphael</b>
A resident of Arlington since 1989, Abby Raphael is a former prosecutor. She has a juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law and her bachelor of arts from Duke University. Raphael and her husband Stuart have two daughters who attend Williamsburg Middle School and Washington-Lee High School.
Raphael joined the School Board on Jan. 1, 2008.
Before that, she served as vice chairwoman of the Advisory Council on Instruction and as president of the Arlington Science Focus School PTA. As a member of the School Board, Raphael has served as the liaison to the Student Advisory Board, the Washington Area Boards of Education and the Partnership for Children, Youth and Families.
<hr><b>Sally Baird</b>
A native of Ohio, Sally Baird earned an undergraduate degree in political science from Kenyon College. A South Arlington resident for more than 20 years, she lives in Arna Valley with her two sons who are students at Drew Model School.
Baird began her term on the School Board on Jan. 1, 2007.
She has been active in the Arlington community and schools with the Arlington Public Schools Early Childhood Advisory Committee, the Drew Model School Association, the Nauck Civic Association, the East Nauck Community Action Group and the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
<hr><b>James Lander </b>
A product of the Philadelphia public-school system, Lander has a bachelor of science in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and a master of engineering from the University of Virginia. Lander, his wife and their daughter live in the Oakcrest neighborhood.
Lander began his term on the School Board Jan. 1, 2009. He also serves as an officer in the Naval Reserves, having been recalled after 9/11 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He is also a veteran of the first Gulf War, having served in Saudi Arabia.
<hr><b>Emma Violand-Sánchez </b>
A native of Bolivia, Emma Violand-Sánchez has lived in Arlington since 1978. She received a bachelor of science and a master of science from Radford University and a doctorate degree in education from George Washington University. She is currently an adjunct faculty at Georgetown University. Violand-Sanchez has two children, James and Julia, who are also educators and graduates of the Arlington Public Schools.
Violand-Sánchez joined the School Board Jan. 1, 2009. Before that, she was the supervisor of Arlington Public Schools’s Office for English for Speakers of Other Languages and High Intensity Language Training. Violand-Sánchez represents Arlington on the Northern Virginia Community College Board.
She is the founder and past president of the League of United Latin American Citizens and the founder and past president of the board of directors of Escuela Bolivia, Inc.