Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Lily Toombs has been appointed to Governor Northam’s newly established Commission on Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Education. Toombs is a 2019 graduate of Randolph-Henry High School (RH) and the first female student to complete the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center’s (SVHEC) Career Tech Academy-Mechatronics Program.

As a 2019 Virginia Council on Women Essay Contest Winner, and Siemens Mechatronics Level 1 certified technician, Toombs will provide an important voice to the Commission.

Gov. Northam established the Virginia STEM Education Commission on July 17 with the signing of Executive Order 36. According to the Governor’s announcement, “The Commission will develop a State STEM plan to create a unified  statewide vision and dynamic set of shared goals to strategically inform how we prepare Virginia’s students for the STEM jobs of the future.” The Commission is comprised of 43 stakeholders representing early childhood, K-12, post-secondary, out-of-school, informal and environmental education programs, as well as workforce development, business and industry partners from every region of Virginia.

Toombs joins an impressive panel of leading STEM stakeholders including Commission Chair, First Lady Pam Northam, The Honorable Megan Healy (Chief Workforce Development Adviser to the Governor) and Secretary of Education Atif Qarni.

Toombs is currently employed as an Administrative Support Specialist for the SVHEC’s Research & Development Center and Career Tech Academy program. Starting this fall, she will pursue an associate degree in Industrial Maintenance Technology from Southside Virginia Community College.