Valerie Foushee is a lifelong resident of Chapel Hill. She is a former Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners and served for 10-years in the NC General Assembly, in both the House and Senate. Now Foushee is in Washington, D.C. proudly serving as representative of the 4th Congressional District in the House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party.
Her life is full of “firsts,” though it’s nothing she would ever grandstand about. As Chapel Hill resident and former School Board member and County Commissioner Mia Burroughs says, “Valerie is a strong leader because she has a deep understanding of human nature. She combines that with hard work, a passion for public service, and, possibly most important, humility.”
In many ways, Valerie’s history parallels the history of Chapel Hill and the South itself. She attended segregated Northside and Frank Porter Graham Elementary Schools, and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools which gradually desegregated during her middle school years. Living through one of our nation’s most tumultuous eras contributed to her empathy for all people, which is so evident in her world view to this day.
She left UNC as a sophomore to marry her childhood sweetheart, Stan Foushee, and for 21 years served as an administrator at the Chapel Hill Police Department. Toward the end of her tenure there she returned to college and completed her bachelor’s degree in 2008 – a full-time student with a full-time job.
“Education meant a lot to my parents because they didn’t get an education, and because of what they were relegated to do in terms of employment, they wanted to see to it that their children didn’t have to either be domestics or cooks, or taxicab drivers,” she has said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with those, but they knew that we would need to do something more.”
Congressman David Price (far right), Sen. Valerie Foushee, Rep. Graig Meyer, and Hillsborough Town Board Member Matt Hughes
And she has done something more, much more. She succeeded Rep. David E. Price to represent the 4th district, who had held that position for over 30 years.
Valerie was born the eldest of six siblings in Chapel Hill. She and her husband live in Hillsborough. They have been married for nearly half a century. The couple has two adult sons, Stanley II and Terrence, and a grandson, Stanley III, who goes by Trey.
The Foushee family including Valerie and husband Stan and children and grandchild.
Valerie’s acumen for politics began, of all places, at First Baptist Church in Chapel Hill. It was here she honed the skills she would need to work with and for people. In church, she says, “you have to network, just like in politics. You have to have a message, just like in politics. You have to be able to identify a base for any position that you get in church. So I learned politics — the good, the bad and the ugly — in church.
She’s a champion of human rights — not just for some — but for everybody, supporting legislation ensuring civil rights, equality, and freedom are accessible for every person.
Proud Grandma
