Alumna Makes History in Virginia

In a historic feat, Georgia Southern University alumna Ghazala Hashmi (’86) has been elected Virginia’s new lieutenant governor. She is the first Muslim woman in the U.S. elected to a statewide office and the first Indian American to win statewide office in the commonwealth. In a previous interview with Georgia Southern Magazine, Hashmi recalled growing up in Statesboro and attending Marvin Pittman Laboratory School on the Statesboro Campus.

“It was a lovely childhood,” said the lieutenant governor. “As you know, growing up in a small town you pretty much knew everybody.”

As a Georgia Southern student, Hashmi was in the inaugural class of the University’s Bell Honors Program, and said her favorite memories are connected to that program. Both her father, Zia Hashmi, and her uncle, Shafik Hashmi, had distinguished careers as professors in the University’s political science department. She worked for nearly 30 years as a professor and administrator at colleges in Virginia and in 2019, she won in an upset race for a state senate seat in the commonwealth.