Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine on Wednesday appointed a veteran Richmond city agency chief to head the Virginia Lottery.
Sheila Hill-Christian will take over the state agency that grossed sales of $1.3 billion in fiscal 2005 and yielded a record $423 million for state public schools.
She succeeds Donna VanCleave, who became the Lottery's interim director in June after Penelope Kyle, the agency director since 1994, was appointed president of Radford University.
Hill-Christian takes over the Lottery after serving since 2003 as executive director of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Before that, she headed the region's bus line, the Greater Richmond Transit System.
During Kaine's term as mayor, she had served as Richmond's assistant city manager and chief of staff to the city manager as well as the city's parks and recreation director.
She became Richmond's Juvenile Justice Services director in 1995, and then-Gov. George Allen appointed her to head the state Department of Juvenile Justice two years later.
"I have every confidence in Sheila Hill-Christian's abilities to lead a customer-driven state agency such as the Virginia Lottery," Kaine said in a release announcing the appointment.
Kaine also appointed Richard E. Williams as Hill-Christian's top deputy at the Lottery. Williams was an adviser to former Gov. Mark R. Warner, had directed the state Commission on Local Government and had worked as state liaison for then-Sen. Chuck Robb.
She should do a good job. While she doesn't have any lottery experience, the agencies she has run have been run efficiently and with a minimum of controversy. It is interesting that Governor Kaine picked someone whom he worked with while he was in Richmond local government to head up the agency.
As long as she keeps the rank and file upper management, the ones who have been commendably running the lottery since Penny's leaving, she should do fine.
She should do a good job. While she doesn't have any lottery experience, the agencies she has run have been run efficiently and with a minimum of controversy. It is interesting that Governor Kaine picked someone whom he worked with while he was in Richmond local government to head up the agency.
As long as she keeps the rank and file upper management, the ones who have been commendably running the lottery since Penny's leaving, she should do fine.
Look for a new NY lottery director next year after Eliot Spitzer takes office. Hopefully s/he will clean up NY's lottery corruption.