Devon Williams Cushman ’93
In June, the Virginia Governor’s Office announced the appointment of Devon Williams Cushman ’93 of Richmond and Patricia “Pat” Gwaltney McGinnis ’69 of Washington, D.C., to the University of Mary Washington Board of Visitors. They will serve four-year terms, which expire June 30, 2021. They succeed Kenneth J. Lopez ’92 and Lisa D. Taylor ’85.
Cushman has served as senior counsel at Capital One in Richmond since 2012. From 2005 to 2012, she worked as an attorney for Hirschler Fleischer. Law & Politics named her a Virginia Rising Star in business litigation, and Virginia Business recognized her as Legal Elite among lawyers under 40. She was an attorney for Morris & Morris P.C. from 2003 to 2005.
Before building her law career, Cushman was an account executive for GMMB, a public relations and communications agency in Washington, D.C., where she worked with Fortune 500 companies.
Cushman has taught advanced trial practice at the University of Richmond School of Law, where she earned a juris doctor degree. She chairs ChamberRVA’s Richmond Business Council Cabinet and Government Affairs Committee.
A native of Greenlawn, New York, Cushman received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Mary Washington. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, served as Student Government Association president, and was selected as a Virginia Governor’s Fellow.
Patricia “Pat” Gwaltney McGinnis ’69
Pat McGinnis is a distinguished professor of practice at The George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. Before joining GW, she served during the first two years of the Obama administration as adviser to the White House on presidential appointee leadership programs.
She is the former president and CEO of the nonpartisan, not-for-profit Council for Excellence in Government. She formed the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy and created SAGE, Strategic Advisors to Government Executives, which works to make the government more efficient and effective. McGinnis was co-founder and principal of the FMR Group, a public policy consulting firm.
McGinnis served during the Carter administration in the Office of Management and Budget, where she led the effort to create the U.S. Department of Education. She has held senior posts with the Senate Budget Committee and the U.S. departments of Commerce and Health and Human Services. She is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and serves on the board of the Congressional Management Foundation.
McGinnis serves on the UMW College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Advisory Board. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and government from Mary Washington and a master of arts in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.