About Bethany
An APS parent, 24-year Arlington resident, higher education professional, and community leader, Bethany Zecher Sutton brings proven leadership to the complex challenges facing Arlington’s schools.
Bethany has more than three decades of professional experience in higher education, nonprofit leadership, executive search, and leadership coaching, in a career focused on improving undergraduate education and developing women leaders. In 2022, she was elected to the Arlington School Board, bringing her professional expertise and deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion to bear on the challenges facing our local schools. In her first term on the School Board, Bethany proved to be a thoughtful and collaborative leader, advocating for strong public education not just in Arlington but throughout Virginia. In 2025, her School Board colleagues elected her Chair of the Board.
Bethany’s service to Arlington schools and our community comes from a deeply personal experience, as the mother of an HB Woodlawn graduate and a current Wakefield High School junior. As a PTA volunteer at Randolph Elementary School during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bethany led the Randolph Food Pantry to ensure food security for some of Arlington’s most vulnerable students and families. Arlington leaders recognized her service with the Distinguished County Service Award in 2020 and APS Honored Citizen Award in 2021.
Bethany holds a graduate certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University’s Center for Transformational Leadership, completed the HERS Leadership Institute, and earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Mary Washington.
Bethany’s Service
School Board, 2023-present
School Board Chair, July 2025-present
School Board Vice Chair, July 2024-25
Chair, Board Policy Subcommittee (July 2023-January 2026)
Board Liaison:
Facilities Advisory Committee (2025-26)
Student Advisory Board (2025-26)
Budget Advisory Committee (2024-25)
Virginia School Boards Association Federal Relations Committee (2026)
Virginia School Boards Association Delegate (2023-25)
Legislative Liaison (2023-25)
Joint Committee on Transportation Choices (2023)
Community Working Group on School Board Advisory Committees (2024-25)
Staff Working Group on Arlington Career Center Programming (2024-25)
Staff Working Group on Planning Factors (2023-24)
Community, 2013-present
APS Advisory Council on Teaching and Learning (chair, July 2021- Dec 2022; vice chair, 2020-21; representative, 2018-2020)
Columbia Pike Partnership Community Advisory Council member (2021-2024)
Arlington County Food Security Task Force member (2021-2022)
Randolph Elementary School Food Pantry Coordinator (2020-2022)
Randolph Elementary School PTA Board (vice president, 2018-20; president, 2015-2018; vice president, 2013-2015; co-representative to CCPTA, 2013-14)
APS Distance Learning Task Force member (2020-21)
South Arlington Working Group member (2015)
