The University of Lynchburg Black Student Association will host Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth Levar Stoney for a public talk on October 21 at 6 p.m. in Hopwood Auditorium.
Stoney will discuss topics related to criminal justice and civil rights. “BSA members and LC students will be especially interested to hear what Mr. Stoney has to say about his work on helping to lower the barriers facing former prison inmates attempting to regain their voting rights,” said Dr. Lindsay Michie, LC history professor and faculty advisor to the Black Student Association.
Stoney is the first African American to serve as secretary of the Commonwealth and is the youngest member of Va. Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s cabinet. He co-chairs the governor’s Commission on Parole Review, which was organized in the summer of 2015 to examine Virginia’s policy on parole, which was abolished in 1995. He also leads the governor’s effort to facilitate the restoration of voting rights to convicted felons who have completed their sentences.
Earlier in his career, Stoney worked in various public and private sector capacities, including for Virginia State Senator R. Creigh Deeds and former Delegate C. Richard Cranwell. In 2008, he served as executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia. He is a member of VCU Massey Cancer Center Advisory Board; member of LEAD Virginia Board of Directors; member of the Virginia State Bar’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee; member of the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation 2019 Commemoration Steering Committee; and member of the Ujima Legacy Fund.
Levar received his undergraduate degree from James Madison University in 2004. In 2006, he completed the Virginia Commonwealth University Minority Political Leadership Institute’s leadership development program. He is a native of Yorktown and is a product of the York County public schools. He and his wife reside in Richmond.
