Delegate Betsy B. Carr serves portions of the City of Richmond in the Virginia House of Delegates. A member of the House since 2009, Delegate Carr is focused on improving education, healthcare and preserving our environment. 

Betsy's biography

Betsy Carr was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2009 representing parts of the City of Richmond on both sides of the James River. In the House of Delegates she serves on the Appropriations, Transportation, and General Laws Committees.

She also serves on the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission, and Commission to Honor Women in Virginia. She served as Chair of the Task Force to Commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote. She is Treasurer of the House Democratic Caucus.

In addition to serving as a delegate, she served for 16 years as outreach director at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Richmond. She is a founder and past director of the Micah Initiative, which involves over 120 faith communities in partnerships with 25 city elementary schools, providing over 1,700 mentors, tutors and volunteers. This program is serving as a model for other similar partnerships in the country.

Betsy represented the fifth district of the City of Richmond on the Richmond School Board from 2006-2010. On the School Board, she chaired the Facilities Committee, served on the Audit and Finance Committees and represented the Board on the Community Partnerships Committee.

Previously, Betsy has worked as supervisor of statewide programs at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, community relations and resource development chairperson at the University of Richmond’s Women’s Resource Center, and as a Development Associate at the Virginia Historical Society. While active in the Junior League she chaired the training committee.

She is a graduate of Hope in the Cities’ Connecting Communities Fellowship Program and studied at the University of Richmond’s Management Training Institute. In 2005, Betsy was selected to receive one of the YWCA’s Outstanding Women Awards. In 2022, Betsy received the Policy Pathways Award for Excellence in Public Policy & Administration. She has also been recognized by numerous environmental advocacy groups as a champion for our environment. An exhibition of Betsy’s photographs, taken during a World Neighbors trip to Mali, Africa, hangs in the Wilder Museum at Virginia Union University.

Betsy is an honors graduate of Hollins College (now Hollins University). She is the first Hollins graduate to be elected to serve in the Virginia General Assembly. She has three grown sons and six grandchildren.