Anita Poston

Ms. Poston received a B.A. with honors (education) from the University of Maryland in 1971 and her J.D. from the College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law in 1974.  She is a partner with the law firm of Vandeventer Black LLP, in Norfolk, Virginia, concentrating her practice in Business Law, and serves as general counsel for the Norfolk Airport Authority.  Ms. Poston is a member and past president of the Norfolk and Portsmouth and Virginia Bar Associations and is also a member of the American Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar, where she serves as Secretary of the Board of the Virginia State Bar Section on the Education of Lawyers.  She has been recognized by selection to the Virginia Law Fellows and the ABA Law Foundation Fellows.  Ms. Poston is active in many civic and business-related organizations; she currently serves on the boards of the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association (WHRO), which she chaired 2002-2004, the ACCESS College Scholarship Foundation, the Norfolk Hospital Authority, TowneBank-Norfolk division, and the United Way of South Hampton Roads Foundation, where she serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees.  From 1985 through 1990, Ms. Poston served on the Board of the Virginia Community College System, and was chair in 1989.  She served on the Norfolk School Board from 1990 to 2002 and as chair of that Board for four years.  She serves as a member of the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners, having been appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court in 1990.  She was the 1992 recipient of the Professional Woman of Hampton Roads Award and the 2001 recipient of the Citizen Lawyer Award from the William and Mary School of Law.  In 2008 Ms. Poston was recognized with the Humanitarian Award by the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities and by the William and Mary Law School with the Order of the Coif; in 2009 she received the Influential Women of Virginia Award from Virginia Lawyers Weekly, and the Community Building Award from the Norfolk Foundation.  She is the mother of three children, two of whom graduated from William and Mary.  Ms. Poston was appointed to the Board of Visitors in 2003 and reappointed in 2007.  Currently she serves as Chair of the Committee on Academic Affairs and is a member of the Executive Committee, the Committee on Buildings and Grounds and the Richard Bland College Committee.  She is a past Chair of the Committee on Public Affairs and Economic Development.