Virginia Walden-Ford Washington, D.C.

Virginia Walden-Ford currently serves as Executive Director of D.C. Parents for School Choice, Inc. Founded in 1998 DCPSC is a clearinghouse organization for parents in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to organize and educate parents in order to empower them to make the appropriate educational decisions for their children. If parents understand school choice, they can advocate for badly needed educational reform.

Prior to taking the leadership in DCPSC, Virginia served as Community Outreach Director/Media Specialist for Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS), an advocacy organization presently supporting the growing Washington, D.C. charter school movement. She worked with the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise as Parent Outreach Coordinator and organized parents to support school choice and the D.C. Scholarship Act in 1998. She worked as a volunteer with the Center for Education Reform in their parent outreach campaign in l997 and has worked as a financial manager of an international cultural exchange organization and owner/operator of a child development center in Washington, D.C.

Virginia’s community involvement began as a result of her own personal experiences. A single parent, she raised three children in Washington, D.C. Two of her children finished high schools in the District successfully, but with her third child she was faced with deteriorating public schools and violent times. After obtaining a private scholarship for her son to attend a private school, she became an outspoken advocate for school choice. She believes passionately that all children should have the chance to obtain a quality education and that parents should be able to choose and send their children to the schools that best meet their needs.

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