Viola Baskerville was born in
Richmond, Virginia. Her educational background includes a B.A. degree from the
College of William and Mary earned in 1973, and a
J.D. degree from the
University of Iowa College of Law earned in 1979. Furthermore, she also studied abroad on a
Fulbright Fellowship in
Bonn,
Germany. Prior to her appointment as Secretary of Administration, Baskerville served on the Richmond, Virginia City Council from 1994 to 1997, including a stint as the city's Vice Mayor under then-
Mayor Tim Kaine. Following her tenure as Vice Mayor, she was elected to the
Virginia House of Delegates, serving from 1998 to 2005. In the
2005 election, she became the first African-American woman to seek the
Democratic Party nomination for
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, coming in second place in the four-way primary behind State Senator
Leslie Byrne, but ahead of State Delegate
Chap Petersen, and State Senator
Phillip Puckett. Following the 2005 general election, she served as Co-chair of Governor Tim Kaine's Transition Team, and was succeeded in the State House by Democrat
Jennifer McClellan. As Secretary of Administration in the
Virginia Governor's Cabinet, Baskerville was responsible for overseeing several state government agencies including the
Virginia State Board of Elections, the Department of General Services, the Department of Human Resources Management, and the Department of Minority Business Enterprise. She was the only African-American woman to serve in Governor Kaine's Cabinet. Baskerville was succeeded as Virginia Secretary of Administration by
Lisa Hicks-Thomas in January, 2010, and was subsequently appointed as CEO of the
Girl Scouts of Virginia. ==References==