2020 West Virginia Wonder Woman Marie Redd

The mothers, the millennials, and the mavens. Changing our communities.

This is our seventh annual unveiling of 50 amazing women who are raising the bar in their communities, serving as beacons of light in their industries, and forcing change for the greater good. Meet this West Virginia Wonder Woman, Marie Redd, and many more that are creating a better West Virginia with their can-do attitudes and Mountain State spirit.

Cabell “Can-Do”

After working as a senior account representative at IBM for almost 20 years, Marie Redd switched gears. She became a professor in the Criminal Justice Department at Marshall University and, in 1998, was presented with an unexpected opportunity—to run for the West Virginia Senate. Redd won, becoming the first Black woman elected to the West Virginia Senate and the first female senator from Cabell County. The Huntington native comes from a politically active family, and her “can-do” attitude allowed her to serve her Cabell County constituents.

Today, she is the social security advocate at The Redd Law Firm, where she works with her husband, attorney William L. Redd. She is an active member of the Beta Tau Omega Chapter of the servicecentered sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha as well as a member of the League of Women Voters, the Cabell County Democratic Women’s Association, and the Huntington Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.

“My future is still community-oriented,” Redd says. “The community is just an extension of my family.” And it’s Redd’s family that she views as her greatest accomplishment. She is the proud mother of two grown children and grandmother to three teenage grandchildren.

Click here to read about our other 2020 West Virginia Wonder Women