Meet Kim Short
Raised in a family where service, community, and caring for others was the recipe for survival, Kim Short is a Christian servant who has dedicated her life to serving others, both in her community and for the nation.
Now she’s running for the Board of County Supervisors to fight for our community’s shared purpose of reclaiming and improving the quality of life we all deserve.
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.)
For 25 years, I proudly served in the United States Army, at home and abroad, and during both peace and war. Every move to a new location required me to learn the people of the community and culture — how they live, work, play, and sometimes how they communicate. During my military career, I held multiple unique positions offering a wide variety of complex requirements and challenges.
One of the most challenging was as a Combat Commander of a Preventive Medicine Unit, deployed to Iraq supporting Multi-National Division–North. Leading America’s sons and daughters in war is never a light task, and leading those charged with preventing disease, non-battle health illnesses and injuries of over 92,000 military forces and civilians seemed daunting. Preparation, common purpose, prayer, and the shared will to succeed brought us all home safely, and we successfully achieved the lowest percentage of disease and non-battle injuries in the history of land warfare.
The culmination of my military career came as a public health expert in the Pentagon, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Policy) — Homeland Defense and Global Security, the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Public Health Director), and The Army Staff (Office of the Surgeon General, G-357, Health and Wellness).
Serving our nation was one of the most gratifying and humbling experiences of my life. I am eternally grateful that through this tenure, I developed and honed my skill set as a leader, achieving mission-driven results through integrity and honesty, communication and collaboration, and compassion and empathy. Equally important, I learned how to guide diverse, multi-disciplinary talented people through a successful outcome to large and complex problems. I believe this last skill set uniquely positions me to effectively lead our county forward, especially through emerging challenges that we face.
The expression “It Takes a Village” can be applied to so many aspects of our lives.
My commitment to service has not stopped.
Since retiring in 2019, I’ve served as a Bible School teacher; on the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission Board of Commissioners; as President of my HOA; as Financial Secretary and Assistant Advisor for Top Teens of America, Alexandria City Chapter of Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc.; and as Vice President of Mentoring for the National Board of The ROCKS, Inc. and President of the Washington DC Chapter, The ROCKS, Inc. I am also a small business owner in the hospitality and travel industry. I balance my life with the important responsibility of being a daughter, sister, and Tee-Tee to my seven-year-old nephew and eleven-year-old niece.