Delegate

Masters of Science in Nursing, University of Virginia (1989) West Springfield High School (Springfield, VA) (1982) Delegate Dawn M. Adams is a nurse practitioner elected to represent House District 68 in 2017 and re-elected in 2019. She was the first Democrat elected to represent the district in three decades and the first openly lesbian member of... Virginias General Assembly. She has been an incredibly effective representative working across the aisle to pass key legislation important to her and her district. She is a healthcare and environmental champion and serves as the Health Professions Chair within the Health Welfare and Institutions Committee. Her other committee assignments include General Laws, and Privileges and Elections. In 2020 she was appointed to the Joint Commission on Health Care, the Disability Commission, the Committee on Coal and Energy, and the Joint Subcommittee on Block Grants. In 2021 she was also appointed to the Cannabis Oversight Commission, the Task Force on Maternal Health Data and Quality Measures, and the Human Services & Public Safety Committee of the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) of The Council of State Governments (CSG). Dr. Adams has thirty-five years of diverse clinical and administrative health care experience, and formerly taught Health Policy in the doctoral nursing program at Old Dominion University. She holds four academic degrees from four Virginia universities and is currently a small business owner and clinician specializing in alternative pain management, medical cannabis, and internal medicine. She is particularly passionate about addressing the crisis in healthcare, specific to aging, dementia, and physical and emotional pain.Read More