District 68

Dawn Adams

Dr. Dawn Adams has worked with and advocated for healthy communities for over 30 years as a nurse, a nurse practitioner and an educator. She currently serves as the Director for the Office of Integrated Health for the Virginia Department for Behavioral Health & Developmental Services. In this role, she manages a multi-million-dollar state budget directed at creating new services for the developmentally disabled. In addition, she works with community and statewide stakeholders to create health-related policy proposals for submission to the General Assembly.

Dr. Adams also serves as adjunct professor teaching Health Policy to Doctoral students at Old Dominion University. As a nurse, Dawn has seen first-hand how our state’s most vulnerable citizens continually fall through the cracks as a result of limited healthcare access and coverage. Her own Doctoral research focused on identifying barriers to healthcare access for all people across the economic spectrum, for which she received the ODU Nursing Scholar award. As she studied and worked intimately in medicine, it became abundantly clear to Dawn that the right to affordable public education and access to adequate healthcare are inextricably linked—both necessary and critical to building healthy, successful communities.

When asked why she is running, Dr. Adams stated, "I believe our Commonwealth is a community and the health of the Commonwealth is reflected by the interdependence of healthy resources available to our citizens. Specifically, the availability of safe and clean food, air, water, and land; access to affordable and comprehensive healthcare; and access to the opportunities of quality education, economic growth, and jobs that pay a living wage. It is through the appropriate utilization of these resources that all Virginians can live, learn, work, and play in ways that positively impact the quality of their lives."

House District 68

[Content courtesy Project Blue Dominion ]