September 24,  2026

Jill Palermo is managing editor of the Prince William Times. She joined Piedmont Media LLC, the publisher of the Prince William Times, as a reporter in 2016 after spending more than 20 years reporting and editing for daily newspapers in Illinois, Virginia, California, Florida and North Carolina -- including at the Potomac News in the early 1990s.

The Prince William Times is published weekly on Thursdays and is available online 24 hours, seven days a week at Prince William Times.com. It is one of two weekly newspapers published by the nonprofit Piedmont Media, which also publishes Fauquier Times.

A Chicago native, Jill studied journalism and earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She and her husband, a retired U.S. Marine, raised their three kids in Montclair, where they still live today.

Geary Higgins served in the House of Delegates 2024-26 representing Loudoun and Fauquier Counties.  He served on the Counties, Cities and Towns and Health and Human Services committees.

Prior that that he served on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors for two terms.  He also previously served on the Loudoun County School Board. On the Board of Supervisors. he served as Chair of the Board’s Transportation and Land Use Committee and was a member of the Joint Board of Supervisors/School Board Committee.

Geary currently owns a Consulting Business, Geary Higgins LLC.   He is the retired Vice President of Labor Relations for National Electrical Contractors Association in Washington, DC. In that capacity, he served on numerous industry-related educational and training boards and as a healthcare and pension trustee. He was also an arbitrator for the Council on Industrial Relations and Member of the Academy of NECA.  For several years he was Chairman of the 10th Congressional District Republican Committee.

Geary grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he was active in Boy Scouts, and earned five varsity letters in football and wrestling.

A graduate of Clarion University in Clarion, Pennsylvania, Geary earned a degree in Business Administration, with a double major in management and marketing.

He met his wife Gail at Clarion and they moved to Loudoun County in 1977.  They now live in Waterford in a historic home... During their years in Loudoun, he and Gail restored two historic homes in Loudoun, and were presented an award from the Loudoun Preservation Society.  In public life, Higgins’ preservation efforts include establishment of the Bluemont Historic District, Sweet Run State Park, restoration of the John Lewis Bridge, and expansion of Balls Bluff Battlefield. 

Geary and Gail have three daughters who graduated from Loudoun Valley High School, five grandsons and one granddaughter.

Tracey Lenox has been the Chief Public Defender for Prince William County since the founding of the office in 2020. Prior to her current position, she ran her own small law firm and was the criminal division lead in a mid-sized regional legal group. She has been a criminal defense attorney for 33 years, working as court appointed counsel, retained counsel, and now as the head of a 26-attorney, 40-person law firm, who is herself tasked with representing clients on a daily basis. As Public Defenders, she and her attorneys are committed to defending the rights and dignity of indigent clients in Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park, through zealous, compassionate, high quality legal advocacy.

Throughout her career, Tracey has served in various legal and non-legal roles in the Northern Virginia region, including as organizer and lecturer of numerous CLEs, mostly on trial practice; as a substitute judge for the District Courts of Virginia for 11 years; as a member of the Prince William County Evidence Based Decision Making (EBDM) Board for 8 years; as co-head of training and a frequent presenter for the “So You’re 18” program for District 31 high schools; as President of the Prince William Bar Association; as the Prisoner Advocate for the Georgetown University Institutional Review Board; as a member of the Prince William/Manassas Regional Jail Board; as coach, age league commissioner and Rules; Discipline Chair for the Northern Virginia Soccer Club; as a founding member of the Prince William County Fatality Review Team, and most recently, as a Board member of the Justice Forward Virginia Foundation.

Outside of the law, Tracey is step-mother to three and grandmother to three, and (along with her husband Bill) is a huge fan of touring WW1/2 sites in Europe. She is also a proud Baltimore Orioles zealot, who would probably rather be watching baseball.

Paul Milde is a Stafford County businessman who served 12 years on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, ending his term as Board Chairman in 2017. He served two years in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2025-2026. There he was a member of the Privileges and Elections Committee, which handles constitutional amendments, and the Committee on Transportation.

Paul is president and owner of CIP Finishes, a construction firm headquartered in Stafford County that provides turn-key installation of interior finishing hardware in multi-family residential, commercial and related construction projects.

Paul has lived in Stafford since 1989, is married and has two grown children and a four year old daughter. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Mary Washington University. Paul is a licensed private pilot. He is also an avid diver, with National Association of Underwater Instructors certification in scuba and enriched air nitrox scuba diving. Paul is Chairman, SaveCrowsNest.com and a former Virginia Land Conservation Foundation board member. In addition, he is a Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Transportation Action Committee member, and belongs to Andrew Chapel Methodist Church, Aquia Harbour Lions Club and North Stafford Rotary.

Scott Surovell

Scott Surovell was sworn in as a State Senator on January 13, 2016. He currently represents areas east of Interstate 95 in Fairfax County, but formerly served an area of Prince William County as well.  He currently Chairs the Courts of Justice Committee and serves on the Finance and Appropriations, Commerce and Labor, Rehabilitation and Social Services, and Rules Committees. He also chairs the General Government Subcommittee of the Finance and Appropriations Committee and has served as the Senate Majority Leader since November 2023. He chairs the Commission on Utility Regulation, State Water Commission, and the Joint Pandemic Response and Preparedness Subcommittee, and serves on the Joint Rules Committee.

Senator Surovell served as Senate Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman 2019-2023.     From 2009 – 2015, Surovell served as a State Delegate.

Scott Surovell is a 12th-generation Virginian and life-long resident of the Mount Vernon Community and has four children who children attended Fairfax County Public Schools. Scott graduated magna cum laude from James Madison University in 1993 where he received a B.A. with a Major in Political Science and a Minor in American Studies. In 1996, Scott received his law degree from University of Virginia School of Law and was Executive Editor of The Virginia Journal of Environmental Law.

Scott is a co-founding partner of a 10-attorney law firm in Fairfax. His areas of practice include family law, personal injury, criminal defense, small business litigation and consumer matters. Scott achieved the highest possible peer rating of “AV” from Martindale Hubble at age 31, has been recognized as a “Superlawyer” by Virginia Superlawyer Magazine, in The Best Lawyers in America in the fields of family law and personal injury, and in Washingtonian magazine as one of the top personal injury attorneys in the Washington Area. He was recognized as a Leader in the Law by Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly in 2016.  Scott has served as the Chairman of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Family Law Section, has lectured continuing legal education classes, and been published in numerous legal journals.

Scott worked as Congressman Jim Moran’s first constituent service intern in 1991, in Congressman Ron Wyden’s Washington Office, and with the Natural Resources Defense Council tracking the appropriations process. In 1993, Scott was appointed to a Governors’ Fellowship with Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.

Scott has been a member of the Lee-Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce since 2006. Scott has coached girls’ soccer for Lee-Mount Vernon Soccer League since 2007. Scott served as a member of the Fairfax County Public Schools Community Leadership Council from 2008-2009, and the Community Advisory Council starting in 2009. He was elected Chairman of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee in early 2008, where he led the Party’s efforts during the 2008 Obama-McCain election.

Scott played soccer in the Lee-Mount Vernon Soccer Association and played men’s tennis against numerous clubs throughout Mount Vernon. Scott played varsity golf at West Potomac High School and still plays when he can. He also captained a men’s softball team from 1996 until 2001. In 1996, Scott bicycled 4,200 miles across the United States. He has summited over 100 mountains including 19,341-foot Mount Kilamanjaro in 2021 and the 18,996-foot Mount Cayambe in Ecuador in 2023. He hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in 2017.  Scott played the French horn in his high school band and in the nationally-recognized JMU Marching Band. He still plays piano and guitar, and can still make noises on his French horn that amuses preschoolers.

Brad Marshall