Delegate Shelly Simonds (pronounced Sy-monds)
Shelly Simonds represents part of the City of Newport News, District 70, in the Virginia House of Delegates. She is a former teacher, who started her time in elected office as a member of the Newport News School Board.
In the House, she is known for her commitment to workforce development as co-founder of the Career and Technical Education Caucus, a bi-partisan effort to connect students to careers. Delegate Simonds serves as the Vice Chair of the House Education Committee and the Chair of the K-12 subcommittee. Her other committee assignments include Finance, Counties Cities & Towns, as well as Agriculture and Natural Resources. She is acting chair of the Aerospace Advisory Council and a strong proponent of STEM education.
Delegate Simonds attended Bucknell University for her undergraduate degree and Stanford University for her Master’s degree. She speaks fluent Spanish after having spent two years in Chile studying economic development at the University of Chile and a year in Spain as an AFS exchange student. She lives with her husband Paul in the Denbigh area and has two daughters attending university.