Gerry Connolly and Cathy, his wife of more than 30 years, live in Mantua and have been
residents of Fairfax County since 1979. They have a teenage daughter, Caitlin Rose.
Gerry was elected Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on November 4, 2003. Prior to that, he served nine years as the Providence District Supervisor. As Chairman of the ten-member Board, Gerry oversees a budget of $4.5 billion and a county that, based on size, would make it the nation's 13th largest city, 12th largest school district, and 6th largest office market. He serves as the Chairman of the County's Legislative Committee, and is Vice-Chair of the Economic Advisory Committee. Gerry is a member, and past chairman, of the Board of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), incoming chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC), and member of the Board of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) where he is past Chairman and has served as a key member of the region's Emergency Preparedness Taskforce. Gerry represents Fairfax County on the Board of the Virginia Association of Counties (VaCo) where he serves as past president. He is on the Board of Directors for the Executive Committee of the Foundation for Virginia, an entity that seeks to educate the public and policy makers about unmet funding needs in core government services.
Gerry also serves on the Boards of Directors for the following groups: Fairfax Partnership for Youth, the American Red Cross of the National Capital Area, the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Washington Initiative Board of Trustees, the Medical Care for Children Partnership, the Institute for Regional Excellence, and the University of Virginia - Virginia Institute of Government.
In 2000, Gerry received COG's Scull Award, the region's highest award for leadership, for his work on promoting telework/telecommuting throughout the Metropolitan Washington Region. In 2002, he received an environmental achievement award from the Hunter Mill Defense League and was awarded recognition by Fairfax Trails and Streams for his role as "father" of the 40-mile-long Cross-County Trail. He has been recognized by the Fairfax Federation of Citizens Associations for his authorship of the County's Value Engineering program that has saved taxpayers millions of dollars, and by the Fairfax Firefighters for his role in improving public safety. In 2005 Gerry received an award from Catholics for Housing for outstanding political leader. Also in 2005, he was named Outstanding Local Elected Official of the Year by the Virginia Transit Association. In 2006, he was named Outstanding Local Official in the United States by the American Public Transit Association. Gerry has been recognized for his leadership on a number of issues including gang prevention for which he was named Boys' and Girls' Clubs 2006 Man of the Year.
Gerry's career as a public official began on March 28, 1995 when he was overwhelmingly elected as the Providence District Supervisor to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, and was re-elected to a four-year term in November that same year. Gerry was unopposed for re-election in November 1999. In 2003, he was elected Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and was overwhelmingly reelected in 2007.
Gerry is a dedicated community leader, and his leadership and common-sense approach to community issues marked his term as Mantua Citizens Association (MCA) president and his two terms as president of the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations, the premier nonpartisan citizen organization in Fairfax County. (He was the first president to be re-elected in the Federation's 54-year history.)
The Star-Texaco storage facility oil spill at the Pickett Road tank farm was discovered during Gerry's tenure as MCA president. Under his leadership, the community and officials from Fairfax County, the state, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Fairfax City began working together to resolve the devastating problem. Gerry's cool leadership under great stress allowed the Mantua community to come together and heal.
In 1992-93, Gerry served on the Fairfax Government Reorganization Commission, chaired by former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton. In addition, he was the Providence District representative to the Fairfax County Airports Advisory Committee.
Gerry received a B.A. in Literature from Maryknoll College in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and an M.A. in Public Administration from Harvard University in 1979.
After graduating from Harvard, he began a 10-year career with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His ability to grasp and manage a wide range of complex issues led to his managing committee oversight of international economic issues, international narcotics control, and United Nations and Middle East policies. He wrote numerous published reports, notably on U.S. policy in El Salvador, Central America, Israel, and the Persian Gulf region. During his tenure with the U.S. Senate, Gerry developed a reputation for pragmatism and the ability to reach out to Democrats and Republicans alike to get things done.
In 1989, Gerry joined SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) where he served as the vice president of the Washington Office. He managed a 100-member staff and was responsible for an annual multi-million dollar budget and for guiding SRI relations with senior federal government officials. Gerry's ability to tackle a broad range of issues led to his responsibility for research projects on economic policy, trade, investment, and general oversight of Washington legislative and regulatory developments. During his eight years at SRI, Gerry worked closely with Fortune 500 and business leaders throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.
Gerry also helped found the Washington International Corporate Circle program, a specialized program that provided international corporate executives from major European, Asian and North American companies with strategic counsel and policy analysis on business issues. Gerry currently serves as Director of Community Relations for SAIC, a Fortune 500 company that specializes in scientific and technology solutions for government and commercial clients.
