Thursday, March 26, Gov. Abigail Spanberger D.P.S. ’26 and Chief of Staff Bonnie Krenz-Schnurman held a fireside chat for Women’s History Month in Richmond, Va. Several students from the College of William and Mary were invited to attend.
Spanberger is the first woman to be elected governor of Virginia. Krenz-Schnurman is the first female chief of staff to a governor of Virginia, who is currently serving under the new administration.
Student Assembly Sen. Mackenna Wyckoff ’28 was among the invitees.
“I really find that Abigail Spanberger being our first woman governor is so inspirational,” she said. “As somebody who wants to go into politics and policy, she’s really an inspiring figure for me.”
Spanberger began the fireside chat by discussing her political journey with Krenz-Schnurman. Although Spanberger initially hired Krenz-Schnurman as a policy expert, Spanberger promoted her to chief of staff because of her high qualifications.
“The record that we had in terms of effectiveness within the halls of Congress, the number of bills that I got passed into law, not all of them standalones, [was] because Bonnie created a team,” Spanberger said.
Krenz-Schnurman joked about Spanberger’s praise, relating it to her boss’s philosophy surrounding her work. She said that Spanberger’s career in public service and her commitment to serving the American people drew her to the governor’s team.
“Can you tell that the governor is one of the world’s most supportive, uplifting bosses to work for?” she said. “She demonstrated the kind of leadership that I wanted to work on behalf of in government.”
The conversation shifted to how the two balance their careers with their personal lives. Both Spanberger and Krenz-Schnurman are mothers: Spanberger has three school-aged children, while Krenz-Schnurman has a three-month-old daughter.
“There’s a lot of multitasking in my life right now,” Krenz-Schnurman said. “But it’s such a privilege to make it all work.”
Krenz-Schnurman explained how her work schedule is typically filled with meetings with various cabinet members, Virginia legislators and external stakeholders.
“[My job is] essentially a lot of keeping the operation of government going,” she said. “[I’m] trying to keep those gears turning so that we can make the decision about what we need to bubble up to the governor and where her time can be most strategically deployed on the most important issues.”
Esma Akram ’26, chief of staff for the 2025-26 SA administration, attended the talk and commented on the value of learning about Krenz-Schnurman’s work.
“I thought it’d be a great opportunity to see what her life is like and what her job is like,” she said. “It is something that is similar to what I’ve seen at such a small scale at William and Mary, [and it is] something that I would love to pursue in the future.”
The discussion turned to the legacy the two women hope to leave following their historic Virginia administration. Spanberger said that she wanted to change assumptions about mothers’ capabilities in the workplace.
“I do want people to see that if you want to do what we are doing, you can do it,” she said. “It isn’t easy, and to be clear, it isn’t for everyone. But, I want to change expectations.”
Spanberger emphasized the significance of motherhood during her first congressional campaign. She described how she defied apprehensions surrounding her family life with strong leadership.
Spanberger also hopes her administration will help Virginia navigate the challenges posed by the federal government.
“People have gotten into this place where they think that government doesn’t work, or everything’s broken,” she said. “Particularly when it’s contrasted with what’s happening at the federal level, our ability to just have Virginia be a little bit of a sunny spot, and it’s that larger scale of chaos, is a goal.”
The pair looked at a series of photographs significant to both their political careers and women’s history in Virginia.
One photo depicted the moment just after Spanberger won her first election for the House of Representatives in 2018. Her youngest daughter, a toddler at the time, played at Spanberger’s feet, asking the then newly-elected congresswoman to pick her up as she gave a speech.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can’t figure out what it’s going to look like,’” Spanberger said. “And then I thought, ‘Well, f—, I just won.’ For me, this represents the determination to make both of these really important things in my life work at the same time.”
Spanberger expanded on how that moment mattered to her constituents.
“I had multiple women say that they had that framed photo on their desk at work or in a place of prominence for them to remember as they were coming up in their motherhood/career road that you can find your balance,” Spanberger said.
Krenz-Schnurman added that the Spanberger administration tries to accommodate its own staff’s family lives in the workplace.
“I think that both of us would like it to be the case that people don’t feel like they have to hide their family obligations, that those can be out in the open and that that isn’t seen as detracting from the work that you’re doing,” she said.
The talk ended with a few pre-selected questions from audience members, including one asking what advice the two had for women striving to make meaningful change during this unprecedented time.
Krenz-Schnurman responsed to the audience question by highlighting the importance of stepping up to challenges when things get difficult.
“Things are only going to get worse if the good people who really care and really want to make things better say, ‘This is too much of a mess, I’m out,’” she said. “The last thing you want to do is take yourself out of the discussion.”
Spanberger gave one last piece of advice to the women in the audience.
“Sometimes, our ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘I’m afraid’ becomes that ‘I can’t,’” she said. “And so, I would say, try to be fearless.”
