Benming “Benny” Zhang ’16, J.D. ’20

Benming “Benny” Zhang has been an active member of the community since arriving at William & Mary as a Sharpe Community Scholar. As a freshman, he worked with a fellow Sharpe scholar to start a tutoring program at the local juvenile detention center, an initiative that later turned into a full-fledged group mentoring program that serves the entire center. As a self-designed Asian-American Studies major, he was involved with the Asian American Students Initiative and wrote his senior honors thesis on Arthur Matsu, the first Asian-American to graduate from the university.

During his senior year, Benny was the youngest person ever to be elected to Williamsburg City Council, becoming the second William & Mary student and the first-ever Asian-American to do so. As a councilman, Benny pushed to increase transparency and inclusion of the city's "invisible" populations. After graduating, Benny went on to pursue his law degree at the William & Mary Law School, then became an associate attorney at Kaufman & Canoles, P.C. He currently serves as the county attorney for New Kent County, Virginia, and is extensively involved in the Hampton Roads region, serving on numerous boards.

Learn more about Benny

• Read the news story from when he was elected to city council.