Virginia Professional Communicators held a Fall Meeting & Luncheon, Saturday, Oct. 13, to honor Newsmaker of the Year Del. Danica A. Roem.<\/p>\n
Roem made headlines throughout Virginia and the nation last November with her election to the Virginia General Assembly. One of the nation\u2019s first openly transgender elected officials, she defeated a 13-term incumbent. Of particular interest to VPC, she is a former journalist who credits that experience with preparing her for public service. \u201cI will always be a reporter before I\u2019m a politician,\u201d she said in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.<\/p>\n
Roem, a native and resident of Manassas, Virginia, worked as a reporter for the Gainesville Times and the Prince William Times, both in Virginia, and as the news editor of the Montgomery County Sentinel, in Maryland. After 10 years in journalism, she left in 2016 to run for office.<\/p>\n
Roem delivered an inspiring keynote to the 30 members and guests at the VPC luncheon focusing on the role of journalists fact-checking people in power.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t be in this room right now if you weren\u2019t civically engaged. Stay engaged. Keep holding people like me accountable!\u201d Roem encouraged.<\/p>\n
Since her time in office, Roem has worked on legislation related to both Freedom of Information Act and shield laws. She says the skills she developed as a reporter have directly transferred to her role now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do a lot more listening than I do talking, and that\u2019s the mark of a good reporter too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also spoke about how her sense of journalistic integrity has transferred to politics and asked that attendees take a serious look if they see candidates who have a background in journalism on the ballot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you elect more reporters into office, you will have more people to fight for holding people\u2019s feet to the fire,\u201d Roem said.<\/p>\n
Roem received a standing ovation and happily engaged with audience members in a half hour Q&A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Virginia Professional Communicators held a Fall Meeting & Luncheon, Saturday, Oct. 13, to honor Newsmaker of the Year Del. Danica A. Roem. Roem made headlines throughout Virginia and the nation last November with her election to the Virginia General Assembly. One of the nation\u2019s first openly transgender elected officials, she defeated a 13-term incumbent. Of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"yoast_head":"\n