Trina A. McLaughlin
Candidate for School Board · Danville City · Independent
On the ballot for Virginia's November 3, 2026 election.
Campaign finances
From 5 reports filed with the Virginia Department of Elections, covering Jan 1, 2026 to Sep 30, 2026: $713.38 raised and $613.38 spent. Cash on hand: $102.72.
About Trina A. McLaughlin
In November 2025, Trina McLaughlin was elected by the citizens of Danville in a special election to fill the vacant Danville Public Schools School Board seat previously held by the late Dr. Keith Silverman. She brings to the School Board a strong record of leadership, service, workforce development, and community engagement, with a commitment to ensuring students, educators, families, and the Danville community have a voice in the future of public education. Trina is an economic development professional and currently serves as Regional Workforce Attraction & Retention Manager for the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance (SVRA) at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR). In her day-to-day career, she works to strengthen the connection between education and industry, ensuring Danville Public Schools remains at the table in regional workforce conversations and employer partnerships. She advocates for the district's Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs and helps connect businesses with the talent being developed in our schools. As companies continue to recognize and admire the quality of DPS's CTE programming, Trina works to ensure those partnerships translate into real-world opportunities, career pathways, internships, and future employment opportunities for students. With a career spanning human resources, recruitment, talent development, education, and community engagement, Trina brings a unique perspective to workforce challenges and opportunities. Her work centers on helping communities and employers build stronger talent pipelines while creating meaningful opportunities for individuals to learn, work, grow, and remain in Southern Virginia. Trina is also deeply engaged in professional and community leadership. She serves as President-Elect of Southside Virginia SHRM and is actively involved in advancing the human resources profession throughout the region. Through her leadership with SVRA, she has helped develop regional workforce initiatives, employer engagement strategies, talent pipeline programs, and the annual SoVa Workforce Solutions Summit, bringing employers, educators, economic developers, and workforce partners together to address the region's most pressing workforce needs. A veteran of the United States Army, Trina served as a Combat Medic and was assigned to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she served as a Tactical Officer Education Program Administrator. Her military experience helped shape her commitment to leadership, service, accountability, and developing people. As a member of the Danville Public Schools School Board, Trina brings her workforce and organizational leadership experience to conversations surrounding student achievement, fiscal responsibility, teacher and staff support, workforce readiness, and the future of public education. She believes strong schools are essential to a strong community and that students should graduate prepared for college, career, military service, or other pathways to success. Beyond her professional and public service, Trina is passionate about faith, family, women's leadership, community service, and creating opportunities for others to succeed. She has been married to her husband, Jeff for 19 years. They have four children and three grandchildren. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, mentor, and lifelong advocate for Southern Virginia. Her guiding philosophy is simple: Leadership is not about a title; it is about service, accountability, and leaving things better than you found them. DPS is accredited but there is still work to do!