Rachna Heizer

This page was last updated during the official's most recent election or appointment. Please contact us with any updates.

Rachna Heizer

Nonpartisan

Fairfax County Public Schools, Braddock District

Tenure

2024 - Present

Term ends

2028

Years in position

1

Prior offices

Fairfax County Public Schools, At-large

---

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 7, 2023

Contact

Personal Twitter

Personal Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Rachna Heizer is a member of the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, representing Braddock District. She assumed office on January 1, 2024. Her current term ends on January 1, 2028.

Heizer ran for re-election to the Fairfax County Public Schools to represent Braddock District in Virginia. She won in the general election on November 7, 2023.

Elections

2023

See also: Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia, elections (2023)

General election

General election for Fairfax County Public Schools, Braddock District

Incumbent Rachna Heizer defeated Priscilla DeStefano in the general election for Fairfax County Public Schools, Braddock District on November 7, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachna Heizer (Nonpartisan)	60.6	21,796
		Priscilla DeStefano (Nonpartisan)	38.9	13,968
		Other/Write-in votes	0.5	183

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 35,947
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Heizer received the following endorsements.

• State Rep. David Bulova (D)
• Fairfax County Sch. Brd. Memb. Laura Jane Cohen (D)
• Fairfax Sch. Brd. Memb. Stella Pekarsky (D)
• Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D)
• Fairfax County, Va., Democratic Party
• Democratic Asian Americans of Virginia
• Everytown for Gun Safety
• Fairfax County Public Schools Pride
• NAACP, Fairfax County, Va.
• Vote Pro-Choice

Pledges

Heizer signed the following pledges.

• Everytown for Gun Safety

2019

See also: Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia, elections (2019)

General election

General election for Fairfax County Public Schools, At-large (3 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for Fairfax County Public Schools, At-large on November 5, 2019.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Karen Keys-Gamarra (Nonpartisan)	22.2	179,258
✔		Abrar Omeish (Nonpartisan)	20.0	161,258
✔		Rachna Heizer (Nonpartisan)	19.4	156,397
		Cheryl Buford (Nonpartisan)	13.9	112,108
		Priscilla DeStefano (Nonpartisan)	13.5	108,708
		Vinson Palathingal (Nonpartisan)	10.8	86,751
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	2,457

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 806,937
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Ilryong Moon (Nonpartisan)

Endorsements

To see a list of endorsements for Rachna Heizer, click here.

Campaign themes

2023

Rachna Heizer did not complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

Other survey responses

Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Heizer completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.

• ACLU Fairfax, 4PublicEducation, Stand and Deliver Virginia

2019

Rachna Heizer completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Heizer's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a college professor, lawyer, child of immigrants, disability justice advocate, and the parent of a current high school junior and a recent graduate of Fairfax County Public Schools. I am the product of public school from kindergarten through law school. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy and my law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. I am currently is the Program Coordinator for the Human Resource Development minor program and teach employment law, leadership, and diversity and cultural competency online at Texas Tech University. I have built a ten-year track record of enacting changes benefiting students, including closing a statewide loophole so thousands more can access college and federal financial aid. Formerly, I was a management consultant, corporate attorney, and criminal justice professor at George Mason University. I've served on several school and community boards, including as an appointed member of the Board of Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board. I've presented at conferences on effective advocacy for parents, on disability inclusion in education, the workforce, and society, and on juvenile justice reform. My most important role is groupie for my son, Jake, musician with autism, and cheerleader for my daughter, Laura, studying computer science at Cornell University. In my spare time, I am a fitness instructor. I want to provide a voice for our diverse communities and will work to ensure our schools provide an excellent strengths-focused education that fosters all interests and focuses on critical thinking, a collaborative, welcoming, and transparent environment for students, educators, and families, and strategic use of resources to close gaps and ensure consistency and quality across the county.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• I want to give our students a well-rounded education that teaches all the skills they need to be successful in 21st century: strong academics, vocational skills, technology, music and arts, communication, civics, critical thinking, and social and emotional skills and support.
• I want to ensure strong schools in every community that set high expectations for everyone, provide competitive pay and a positive working environment for our educators,address gaps by using resources strategically, and ensure consistency of implementation and program quality throughout the county.
• I want to build an inclusive, respectful and collaborative school environment, supporting our educators and working transparently with families, so that everyone is equally valued, included, respected, supported, and belonging.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am dedicated to a strengths-focused high expectations inclusive education for all, in particular our most vulnerable students, including those with disabilities. We must foster our students strengths, support their needs, and provide multiple paths to success for all, including strong academics, STEM, workforce development, and artistic exploration. We must teach all the skills necessary to be successful in college and beyond, which include critical thinking, reasoning, communication and teamwork. We must close achievement and discipline gaps. We need to ensure our students have a robust civics education so they can be informed participants in our democracy.We must support social and emotional needs and create a school atmosphere of mutual respect. All this starts by seeing our students first based on what they can do, not what they can't. When I learned thousands of students were receiving a type of diploma preventing them from accessing college or federal financial aid, I lobbied the Virginia State Department of Education to fix it by creating an alternate assessment path. As the child of immigrants, I am committed to ensuring that everyone receives a high-quality education no matter who they are and to making sure every community has a seat at the table. Our students' challenges should not limit their potential. Every child is equally worthy and equally capable of writing their own life story. Our job is to give them the tools and support to do so.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2023 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Personal

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn