First District RVA Representatives

Elected in November of 2016, Councilman Andreas Addison and School Board Representative Elizabeth Doerr work together to support the First District, its residents, and its schools. They are thrilled to represent the First District, serve as resources to City residents, and work together to advocate for the District.

Andreas Addison

Andreas was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and his family moved to Shenandoah County when he was 4 years old, where he lived in a rural farm setting, taking care of many animals from which he learned responsibility and hard work. In 2000, he graduated from Central High School in Woodstock, Virginia. He graduated from Virginia Tech with a major in Political Science in 2004.

Upon graduation, Andreas moved to Richmond to capitalize on the many opportunities the State Capital of Virginia provided him. Andreas pursued jobs in the public sector for many years, while employed at Wachovia as a financial specialist and Circuit City as a operations analyst. In 2008, Andreas finally found his place in the public sector, hired to work at City Hall as a Management Analyst to support the performance management program.

In August 2009, he began his MBA studies at the University of Richmond, which he completed in 2012. While working full-time at City Hall and studying at night, he supported the implementation of the use of SeeClickFix, a mobile application to empower Richmond residents to use their smartphones to report infrastructure issues. During the next three years, Andreas combined his business studies and public sector job to create the role of Civic Innovator.

His role as Civic Innovator was to bring best practices and new ways of thinking to the operations of City Hall. Andreas focuses on improving public engagement, enhancing government accountability, collaboration, and transparency. In 2013, Andreas successfully led the awarded application for Richmond to be an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge partner, one of 100 cities chosen from around the world to work with IBM to tackle a social challenge. In 2015, he led the prestigious Code for America partnership in coordination with the Richmond City Health District, Bon Secours and VCU Health Systems to improve how low-income residents’ access and utilize healthcare. The result of this yearlong project is being implemented citywide. Andreas also brought the Nextdoor platform to Richmond in coordination with the Richmond Police Department to support community policing and public engagement.

Liz Doerr

My husband Mike and I chose to build our lives in Richmond because this is a great city to live and work, with an amazing quality of life. We’re excited to start our family here and send our children to Richmond Public Schools. However, like many families in Richmond we are concerned about the future of our public education system. Now, more than ever, I believe that it is critical that we elect leaders who will work together to ensure every child in our city has a ladder to success.

I am inspired by my grandfather, who was superintendent of the Susquehanna, PA Public School System and from an early age instilled in me the importance of quality public education and public service. As a graduate of public schools, I strongly believe in the value of quality public education. I have always been active in my community from my first internship in high school working for my town’s mayor to my work as a community organizer helping to elect leaders who understand the importance of investing in education.