Danny Avula | |
---|---|
Mayor of Richmond | |
Elect | |
Assumed office January 1, 2025 | |
Preceded by | Levar Stoney |
Personal details | |
Born | 1978 (age 45–46) India |
Political party | Democratic |
Education | University of Virginia (BA) Virginia Commonwealth University (MD) Johns Hopkins University (MPH) |
Danny Avula (born 1978) [1] is an American public health professional and politician who is currently mayor-elect of Richmond,Virginia following his victory in the 2024 election. He is a member of the Democratic Party and the city's first immigrant mayor.
According to Avula,his father immigrated to the United States from India when he was 19 years old and joined the U.S. Navy. After his father retired from active duty,both his parents spent their careers working for the Department of Defense. [2] He grew up in Northern Virginia. [3]
Avula attended the University of Virginia studying biology for his undergrad,graduating when he was 19. [3] He then attended medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University to become a pediatrician. [4] Later,he earned a Masters of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. [2]
Avula gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic earning the nickname "Richmond's Dr. Fauci" and led vaccination efforts in Virginia. [5] He previously served as director of the Health District covering Richmond and Henrico County. [6] In 2020,he was named Style Weekly's Richmonder of the Year. [3] He went on to be appointed Commissioner of Social Services for the Commonwealth of Virginia by Governors Ralph Northam and Glenn Youngkin. [4]
Avula announced his campaign for mayor of Richmond,Virginia on April 10,2024. [7] On November 5,2024,Avula won the 2024 Richmond mayoral election becoming mayor-elect of the city. [8] This made him the city's first immigrant mayor. [7]
Avula is married to Mary Kay,a Richmond Public Schools elementary school teacher. He and his wife have five children. [9] One of their children is adopted. [10]
He serves on the board of the Medical College of Virginia Foundation and previously chaired the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation. [11]
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond,Virginia,United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College,becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968,the Virginia General Assembly merged MCV with the Richmond Professional Institute,founded in 1917,to create Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2022,more than 28,000 students pursued 217 degree and certificate programs through VCU's 11 schools and three colleges. The VCU Health System supports health care education,research,and patient care. It was the only school in the South to have graduated a class every year during the American Civil War.
Lawrence Douglas Wilder is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era,and the first African American ever elected as governor. He is currently a professor at the namesake Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Monument Avenue is a tree-lined grassy mall dividing the eastbound and westbound traffic in Richmond,Virginia,originally named for its emblematic complex of structures honoring those who fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Between 1900 and 1925,Monument Avenue greatly expanded with architecturally significant houses,churches,and apartment buildings. Four of the bronze statues representing J. E. B. Stuart,Stonewall Jackson,Jefferson Davis and Matthew Fontaine Maury were removed from their memorial pedestals amidst civil unrest in July 2020. The Robert E. Lee monument was handled differently as it was owned by the Commonwealth,in contrast with the other monuments which were owned by the city. Dedicated in 1890,it was removed on September 8,2021. All these monuments,including their pedestals,have now been removed completely from the Avenue. The last remaining statue on Monument Avenue is the Arthur Ashe Monument,memorializing the African-American tennis champion,dedicated in 1996.
Anthony Stephen Fauci is an American physician-scientist and immunologist who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022,and the chief medical advisor to the president from 2021 to 2022. Fauci was one of the world's most frequently cited scientists across all scientific journals from 1983 to 2002. In 2008,President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom,the highest civilian award in the United States,for his work on the AIDS relief program PEPFAR.
Oswaldo Gonçalves Cruz,was a Brazilian physician,pioneer bacteriologist,epidemiologist and public health officer and the founder of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute.
Howard Hearnes Carwile was an American lawyer and politician.
John Fulmer Bright was an American politician and physician from Virginia. He served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. He served as mayor of Richmond,Virginia,from 1924 to 1940.
Richard Juien-Dah Pan is an American Democratic politician and physician who served in the California State Senate from 2014 to 2022,representing the 6th Senate district,which encompassed parts of Sacramento and Yolo counties. He is also a practicing pediatrician and professor at the University of California,Davis.
Benjamin Joseph Lambert,III was an American optometrist,community leader and politician. A Democrat,Lambert served for more than three decades in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly,initially in the Virginia House of Delegates and then in the Senate.
William Foushee Sr. was an American medical doctor,politician,and socialite. After serving with distinction as a surgeon in the American Revolution,he entered into local Virginia politics,notably serving as the first Mayor of Richmond. He went on to become a political,social,and commercial leader in Richmond for the next half century of his life.
Levar Marcus Stoney is an American politician who has served as the 80th mayor of Richmond,Virginia,since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party,he previously served as the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2014 through 2016,being the youngest member of Governor Terry McAuliffe's administration.
William Ferguson "Fergie" Reid is a Virginia physician,politician and civil rights activist. In 1968,Reid became the first African-American elected to the Virginia Assembly since the days of Reconstruction. He won re-election twice to the Virginia House of Delegates,representing Richmond and part of surrounding Henrico County.
Eleanor Parker Sheppard was an American civic activist and Democratic politician who became the first woman to be elected to the city council of Richmond,Virginia,and later became her adopted city's first female mayor,then represented its citizens in the Virginia General Assembly for a decade.
James Davis Hagood was a Virginia physician and Democratic member of the Senate of Virginia. Allied with the Byrd Organization,Hagood represented a district centered around Halifax County part-time for three decades. For the last six years and in the absence of Virginia's Lieutenant Governors,Hagood led the Virginia senate as its President pro tempore.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Virginia is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first confirmed case was reported on March 7,2020,in Fort Belvoir,and the first suspected case arrived in Virginia on February 23,2020,which was a man who had recently traveled to Egypt. In response to the spread of COVID-19,the state mandated a stay at home order from March 18,2020,until May 12,2020,when the state began a four-phased reopening plan that lasted through July 1,2020. From May 31,2020,until May 28,2021,the state enforced a mask mandate,being one of the first states in the nation to enforce a statewide mask mandate which was to stop the spread of the disease. The state remained relatively stagnant in COVID-19 cases through November 2020,until there was a large surge in COVID-19 cases during the winter of 2020–21,as part of a nationwide surge in cases. Cases gradually subsided to summer and fall 2020 numbers by March 2021,with numbers falling to early pandemic numbers by June 2021.
Richmond,Virginia,experienced a series of riots in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Richmond was the first city in the Southeastern United States to see rioting following Floyd's murder. Richmond,formerly the capital of the short-lived Confederate States of America,saw much arson and vandalism to monuments connected with that polity,particularly along Monument Avenue.
The statue of the Confederate States of America cavalry general Williams Carter Wickham by Edward Virginius Valentine was installed in Richmond,Virginia's Monroe Park in 1891,near Virginia Commonwealth University's main campus. It was toppled in June 2020 during the George Floyd protests.
Maria Sheilah "Honey" Honrado Lacuna-Pangan is a Filipina physician and politician who has served as the 24th and first female Mayor of Manila,the capital city of the Philippines since 2022. The first woman to serve as the city's Mayor,Lacuna previously served as the city's 27th and second female Vice Mayor from 2016 to 2022,as Officer-In-Charge of the Manila Department of Social Welfare from 2013 to 2015,and as a member of the Manila City Council from 2004 to 2013. She is a daughter of the former Vice Mayor Danilo Lacuna.
Eppa Hunton III,known as Eppa Hunton Jr.,was an American lawyer,railroad executive,and politician. The son of Confederate general Eppa Hunton,he experienced a turbulent childhood with the American Civil War and Reconstruction as its backdrop. After graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law,he practiced law with his father in Warrenton,Virginia,for a number of years before moving south to Richmond in 1901 to help found the law firm Munford,Hunton,Williams &Anderson.
The 2024 Richmond mayoral election took place on November 5,2024,to elect the mayor of Richmond,Virginia. The election was won by Danny Avula who will take office as the city's 81st mayor in January 2025. He will become the city's first immigrant mayor.