The Honorable Elaine McConnell has joined the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Board of Directors, following her appointment by Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell. McConnell, a former Member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, represented the Springfield Magisterial District for 24 years.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, McConnell and her husband, Warren “Mac” McConnell and their three children, moved to Fairfax County in 1961.

She started her own business in 1964, and in 1969 started the first school for learning disabled children in the Metropolitan area, later opening the first multi-disciplinary diagnostic facility on the East Coast. McConnell remains the President and CEO of four schools.

In 1983, she was elected to represent the Springfield District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, repeating the process six times. Among her accomplishments was the initiation of the VRE rail service. She was a member of VDOT’s team overseeing construction of the Springfield “mixing bowl.” She chaired three of the major transportation boards in the County.

During McConnell’s last term of service on the Board of Supervisors, the McConnell Public Safety and Transportation Operations Center was constructed and named in her honor. This building, which serves as a model to organizations around the world, houses representatives of public safety agencies in Fairfax and the Commonwealth under one roof to provide integrated public safety operations to the region.

McConnell remains involved in the education and rehabilitation of the many disabled students enrolled in her school located in the Springfield area of Fairfax County, striving to unlock the hidden capabilities of each child struggling to become a successful member of today’s society.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority was established in 1987 by the governments of Virginia and the District of Columbia to manage and operate Washington’s Ronald Reagan National and Dulles International airports, which together serve more than 40 million passengers a year. The Airports Authority also operates and maintains the Dulles Airport Access Road and the Dulles Toll Road and manages construction of the Silver Line project, a 23-mile extension of the Washington region’s Metrorail system into Loudoun County, Va. No taxpayer money is used to operate the toll road, which is funded by toll revenues, or the airports, which are funded through aircraft landing fees, rents and revenues from concessions. The Silver Line construction is funded by a combination of toll-road revenues, airport contributions and federal, state and local government appropriations. The Airports Authority is led by a 17- member board of directors appointed by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., and the president of the United States.

###