Delegate Mark L. Keam represents the 35th District in the Virginia House of Delegates, which is considered the oldest continuous legislative body in the modern world, with roots dating back to Jamestown in 1619.
The 35th House District is entirely within Fairfax County, and includes over 80,000 residents living in parts of Oakton, Vienna (including the Town of Vienna), Dunn Loring and Tysons Corner.
In his first campaign for public office, in June 2009, Mark won a competitive four-way primary election for the Democratic Party’s nomination. He went on to win the general election in November of that year, thereby becoming the first Korean American and the first Asian-born immigrant to serve in the Virginia General Assembly.
As a freshman Delegate, Mark serves on the House Finance and on the House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committees. Additionally, he was appointed by Speaker of the House Bill Howell to serve as a member of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission, which the General Assembly created to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Mark was also appointed by Governor Bob McDonnell to serve on the Leadership and Policy Team of the Virginia Prisoner and Juvenile Re-Entry Council, which was established to improve the correctional system in Virginia.
As a part-time citizen-legislator, Mark and his staff maintain a year-round office in Vienna in addition to his Richmond office. When the General Assembly is not in session, Mark serves as senior advisor for strategic affairs at Verizon where he helps the company develop ideas that promote the use of technology to solve societal problems.
Mark joined the company in early 2007 after twelve years of public service, in both executive and legislative branches of government. For six years, he served as Chief Counsel to the Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Before working on Capitol Hill, Mark was appointed Assistant Chief Counsel in the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration, and had also served as an attorney with the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Bureau.
Mark’s long history of community service extends to a wide variety of local, state and national organizations. He serves on the board of Virginia Literacy Foundation, a nonprofit founded by former First Lady Jeannie Baliles to provide literacy services from pre-K through adulthood so that Virginians can acquire essential reading and writing skills they need to succeed.
Locally, Mark is a member of the Rotary Club of Vienna, Optimist Club of Greater Vienna, Vienna-Tysons Regional Chamber of Commerce, Vienna Arts Society, Historic Vienna, and Leadership Greater Washington, as well as the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. He is a former president of the Courthouse Oaks Homeowners Association and of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington Area. A lifelong Christian, Mark worships at Vienna Presbyterian Church.
Mark was born in Seoul, Republic of Korea, as the youngest child of a Presbyterian minister. At age four, Mark and his family moved to South Vietnam where his father established a church. In 1975, when Vietnam fell to communism, the family fled the war-torn country. They then moved to Australia, where his father established another church before eventually moving to America.
Mark received a political science degree from the University of California at Irvine, and had a chance to live in Falls Church, Virginia, while working as a college intern. After receiving a law degree from Hastings College of the Law, Mark returned to Virginia where he met and married Alex Seong Keam. They have two children, Tyler who attends Mosby Woods Elementary School and is a Cub Scout, and Brenna who attends Marshall Road Elementary School and is a Brownie.
