BIOGRAPHY

Kristin Szakos is a writer and freelance editor, and has co-written two books on community organizing. She has served as grant writer or administrator for several local nonprofits, including Children, Youth & Family Services, Congregation Beth Israel, and Camp Holiday Trails. She previously served on the Board of Directors of the local chapter of the NAACP. She served as Volunteer Coordinator for the local Obama campaign, and was Virginia statewide coordinator for the 2009 National Day of Service and the initial days of Organizing for America.

Ms Szakos has lived in Charlottesville since 1994. She has served as president of the Burnley-Moran PTO and was a member of the Charlottesville City Schools Special Education Advisory Committee. She is a Vestry member and choir member at Trinity Episcopal Church and sang for 15 years with the Virginia Consort.

After graduating from Grinnell College in 1981 and earning a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, she worked for a short time for the Associated Press, but quickly discovered that her heart lay in local communities. She left the AP to become a reporter at the Appalachian News-Express, a small town newspaper in Pikeville, Kentucky. Her family moved to Hungary in 1993 and to Charlottesville the following year. She spent a year writing in Lyon, France, in 2004-05.

Her husband, Joe, is Executive Director of the Virginia Organizing Project. They have two daughters, Anna, 20, and Maria, 18.

E-mail Kristin

To contact a Council member, you can send an email to Clerk of Council or send a letter to Box 911, City Hall, Charlottesville, VA, 22902 or call (434) 970-3113.