Doris Anne Crouse-Mays (1958 - )

Wythe County

Labor Leader

Born in Rural Retreat, Doris Crouse-Mays started her career as a telephone operator and quickly became involved in the labor movement as a shop steward. She joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and later worked as an organizer for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (later UNITE/HERE). Winning accolades for increasing union membership, Crouse-Mays became the Virginia state field director for the national American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in 1997. She attracted new members and expanded the organization's political influence. In 2001 she served as the statewide coordinator for the AFL-CIO's political program and two years later was named political director of the Virginia AFL-CIO. A member of the Virginia Democratic Party Steering and Central Committee, she was elected to the Democratic National Committee in 2008 and was named to the transition committee for governor-elect Terry McAuliffe in 2013. She serves on the board of Emerge Virginia, which seeks to identify, encourage, and train women to run for political office.

In 2006 Crouse-Mays became the first woman to hold executive office in the Virginia AFL-CIO when she was elected to a four-year term as its secretary-treasurer. In August 2010 she was the first woman elected president of the Virginia AFL-CIO and was reelected to another four-year term in 2014. In leading the state AFL-CIO, Crouse-Mays has emphasized the importance of labor unions working with businesses to achieve fair wages, health care, job safety, and retirement security for Virginia's workforce.


2017 Virginia Women in History honoree, Library of Virginia.

Photograph by Bob Brown, courtesy of Richmond Times-Dispatch.