Alyia Gaskins, born May 1, 1989, is an American public health professional, urban planner, and politician who assumed office as the first Black female mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, on January 1, 2025. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, her single mother and grandmother raised Mayor Gaskins. She has siblings born to her father but was raised as an only child. In 2016, Gaskins and her husband, Greg, moved to the West End, a suburban section of Alexandria, where they and their son, daughter, and beagle live.
In sixth grade, Gaskins received a scholarship through the Fund for the Advancement of Minority Education, which took her out of public school and placed her into an all-girls private school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduation, Alyia attended Vanderbilt University where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Medicine, Health, and Society in 2010. Next, she quickly earned a Master of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. After that, she then earned a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree at Georgetown University in 2018.
Gaskins began her career working on hunger policy at the Washington, D.C. Hunger Solutions, an initiative of the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) to end hunger in the nation’s capital. Later, she joined the National League of Cities and, as part of the health team, she managed an affordable housing investment program at the Center for Community Investment. Gaskins also managed the Let’s Move! initiative that was launched by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2010 and dedicated to solving the problem of obesity. Most recently, she was a Senior Program Officer at the Melville Charitable Trust, a national philanthropic organization devoted to ending homelessness.
Alyia Gaskins’s professional career as a public health strategist and city planner motivated her to participate in politics and become an elected official. In 2021, she was elected to the Alexandria City Council to serve a three-year term beginning in 2022. As a council member, her many accomplishments include initiatives to expand access to affordable housing, support quality job opportunities through prevailing wage and labor agreements, pass two historic collective bargaining agreements for police and firefighters, and fund critical infrastructure such as stormwater management and flood mitigation expansion.
In 2024, Gaskins won the Democratic primary and ran unopposed for mayor in the November general election. She was elected and immediately focused on a variety of city issues including housing, education, public safety and health, building the economy, and a more prosperous Alexandria for all.
As the first African American woman to serve as the Mayor of Alexandria in the city’s 244-year mayoral history, Gaskins is a tenacious fighter for families, communities, and health equity. She is the founder and owner of CitiesRX, a consulting firm that focuses on enhancing community health through partnerships in physical, social, and economic aspects.
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City of Alexandria, VA, “Mayor Alyia Gaskins” https://www.alexandriava.gov/city-council/person/mayor-alyia-gaskins, 2025; Alexandria Times, “Mayoral Profile” https://alextimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/5.2.24-Layout.pdf, May 2, 2024; Alyia Gaskins, “Alyia Gaskins – Democrat for Mayor” https://alyiaforalexandria.com/, 2024.
