Eileen Filler-Corn ’86

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Eileen Filler-Corn ’86 insists that while she was at Ithaca College, she had no aspirations of running for office—even though the politics major founded the school’s College Democrats and arranged to bring to campus Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominated for national office by a major party when she ran as Walter Mondale’s vice presidential running mate in 1984.

Filler-Corn went on to make electoral history of her own, becoming the first woman in the 402-year history of the Virginia House of Delegates to become speaker of the House. Her fellow Democrats in the House, newly in the majority after two decades, elected her to the post in November 2019. She was sworn in in January 2020, and at that time was the only delegate who was a mother with school-aged kids.

Filler-Corn credits some of her success to the many extracurricular activities she engaged in at IC, including the Ithaca College Democrats, the New York State Mock Legislative Assembly, the Jewish organization Hillel, and the Delta Phi Zeta service sorority, where she was the service chair.

“I have many happy memories from my years at Ithaca College,” said Filler-Corn, who received her law degree from American University. “I got a great college education and felt really prepared for law school.”

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