The Honorable Virginia L. Yrun

2007 Arizona Faculty

With 20 years of solid leadership experience, Ms. Yrun is recognized statewide for fostering constructive partnerships and coalitions among individuals, organizations, community and business leaders.  Her expertise and knowledge are significantly broad in scope, ranging from program development and management, to legislative procedures and lobbying. 

Recognized statewide as a member of Arizona’s Senate during the 45th Legislature, Ms. Yrun currently serves as the Executive Director of the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault.  She formerly served as the Director of Arizona Health Policy and Law Institute, concentrating on fostering the development of evidence based policies to address issue of health disparity.  From 1982 through 2000, Virginia served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona. In 1991, Ms. Yrun ran for the U.S Congress, becoming the first Arizona Latina to do so.

Ms. Yrun is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Arizona Family Planning Council Individual Service Award, the Tucson NOW “Women of Courage” Award, the Arizona Public Health Association Public Policy Award, and the Young Women’s Christian Association’s Women on the Move Award.  She was a National Program Fellow at the National Hispana Leadership Institute, and a participant of the Leadership 2000:  Investing in Our Future National Leadership Program, the Milbank Memorial Fund Annual Health Policy Seminar, and the Robert Woods Johnson Family Caregiver Alliance Conference.

Ms. Yrun’s community and volunteer service reaches from local and statewide organizations to national organizations – from the Board of Directors of the Pacific Institute of Women’s Health, the Arizona Family Planning Council, the Governor’s Commission on the Health Status of Women and Families in Arizona, the Tucson Committee on Foreign Relations and the Governor’s Commission to End Violence Against Women.

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