Alexandria’s Office of Housing director Helen McIlvaine will retire at the end of April, the city announced today (Tuesday).
McIlvaine joined the city in 2006 as the deputy director of housing and has been housing director since 2015. Starting on May 1, Deputy Director Aspasia Xypolia will serve as acting housing director.
After spending more than half his life with the Alexandria Police Department, Bennie Evans Jr. is taking a small break.
Not for long, he says, because he wants to get back to doing what he considers his passion — working with people. Last month, Evans was congratulated for 28 years with APD and four years with the Sheriff’s Office at his retirement ceremony with city and APD leadership at police headquarters.
A familiar face has left Alexandria. After 25 years with the Alexandria Police Department, Captain Courtney Ballantine retired last month and just started his new job as deputy chief of the Georgetown University Police Department.
“I love Alexandria, but it was time to start my next chapter,” Ballantine told ALXnow. “It was an amazing journey.”
Gayle Reuter is retiring.
The news will travel fast around Del Ray, where the Alexandria Living Legend has lived and volunteered for decades. For the last five years, she’s also worked full-time as the accreditation manager for the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office (ASO).
Welcome to Friday’s weekly roundup of our top stories.
With ALXnow, it’s easy to catch up on the latest news in Alexandria. This week, we focused on coverage of our local, state, and federal governments. We also reported a lot of crime, including a homicide in the city’s West End.
After 15 years of teaching English at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), First Lady Jill Biden announced her retirement from her teaching post.
Jill Biden announced on Monday that she’d finished her final class at the Alexandria school the week before, NBC reported. Jill Biden started teaching at NOVA in 2009 after her husband Joe Biden became vice president. Jill Biden started teaching English in 1976.
Alexandria Police Chief Don Hayes is stepping down to take a new federal job, the city announced today. His last day is Feb. 9, and Assistant Chief Raul Pedroso will be interim police chief until a replacement is hired in a national search.
Hayes has been police chief since 2022, before which he was acting chief for a year after the departure of former Chief Michael Brown. He started his career with the Alexandria Police Department in 1981.
After a decade running Visit Alexandria, the organization’s president and CEO Patricia Washington announced today that she’s retiring in June.
Washington took over the tourism agency in 2012 and has overseen a growth in city tourism pre-pandemic and a difficult rebound after Covid. Visit Alexandria receives funding from both the city and state sources.
Updated at 11:45 a.m. Alexandria Fire Chief Corey Smedley announced his retirement today, and that he will leave the top job on Friday, Jan. 12.
After more than three years at the helm of the department, the 51-year-old Smedley did not say what his next move would be after his retirement. He’s the city’s first permanent Black fire chief, and led the department through the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as negotiated the AFD first-ever collective bargaining agreement with the fire department’s union.
Longtime Deputy City Manager Debra Collins is retiring at the end of this week after nearly 20 years working for the city.
Collins’ 19-year career in the City of Alexandria included helping to kickstart ACT for Alexandria and the consolidation of city services in the West End.
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