Connie’s StoryChildhood
My mother, Dorothy McCulley Brennan, went back to her home in the high-desert country of northern California for my birth while my dad, John Thompson Brennan, Jr., was flying bombers over Europe during World War II. After the war, my father became one of the first pilots to open up new commercial airline routes for TWA through the Middle East, South Asia and the Far East. Because of his career, we moved around the United States, and we also lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for a couple of years during a peaceful time, long before the recent troubles.
Life Experiences Before my graduate education, just after my first child was born, I left the nursing profession for several years and entered the business world. My first husband and I owned and operated a bookstore in Charlottesville and later, a land-surveying business in Nelson County, Virginia. With his dedication to our country and its place in the world, my husband then joined the Foreign Service. While he did his first tour of duty in Vietnam, my second child was born in Singapore. We then lived in Central America, and I had the good fortune to study and learn to speak Spanish. Finally, we realized that foreign policy was not made by Foreign Service officers, the folks that really do know and understand the parameters of international relations, so we moved to Nelson County. Because we had moved around a lot, both as children and as adults, we knew we wanted to raise our own children as part of a community. As a result of that good decision, all of the children were educated in Nelson County public schools. The proof of the pudding for me is that my older kids went off to college, furthered their education and have returned with their families to live and make their homes in Nelson. My youngest child is a senior at James Madison University.
In the early 1980’s, I co-founded the Women’s Health Center in Charlottesville, a nonprofit organization which provided affordable and accessible health care to women throughout this area. It has continued to serve women and their families well. I was employed at the University of Virginia Medical Center for 32 years, first as an Emergency Room nurse and then as one of the first nurses in the new Dialysis Unit. After completing my nurse-practitioner education, I worked at the University’s Department of Student Health and retired from there almost three years ago. Political Journey My long involvement with the public school system and raising my own three children gave me the background and the inspiration to run for the Nelson County School Board. I was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Board, and then elected to serve on that Board in 1997. While on the School Board, I served as Chair and on a variety of committees, including the Health Occupations Advisory Committee and the Technical and Career Education Committee. In 2001, I ran for a seat on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors and won handily in a three-way race, becoming the first woman ever to be elected to serve on the Board. I was re-elected in November of 2005, and am completing my eighth year of service.
Because I love regional cooperation efforts, I was elected to represent Nelson and six other counties on the Virginia Association of Counties Board of Directors, and served as Chair of that organization’s Health and Human Services Committee, and was a founding member of the Rural Caucus. With the increasing urbanization of our state, I am particularly keen on making sure rural issues do not go unrecognized or unappreciated. In 2005, I was selected to participate in the Sorensen Institute’s Program for Political Leadership, and graduated from the program in December 2005. My local contributions to Nelson County include serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Wintergreen Performing Arts association, and membership in the Historical Society, the Wintergreen Nature Foundation, Friends of the Rockfish Watershed, the local Democratic Committee, NAACP , the Farm Bureau’s Women’s Committee, and I serve on the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce. During the gubernatorial campaign of 2005, I served as a member of Tim Kaine’s Health Policy Task Force. After the election, I joined the governor-elect’s Health and Human Services Policy Group, and later became a member of the Governor’s Transition Team. The governor also appointed me to the Virginia Geographic Information System Advisory Board.
My home is in Faber, and my husband, John Hesselbart, and I feel blessed to have found Nelson County and to live in this beautiful part of Virginia. We have three beloved children, Vanessa, Jeremy, and Luke, and one adored grandson, Oliver, and it is for them that I dedicate my energies toward working for a just, safe, healthy, and prosperous future. Current Civic Involvement Local:
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I was born on November 25, 1943, in the small town of Alturas, California.
After high school in Alexandria, Virginia, I graduated from the University of Virginia School Of Nursing and from Virginia Commonwealth University, becoming one in the earliest group of nurse-practitioners in the state of Virginia. My field of specialty is women’s health care.
I dove right in when I first moved to Nelson, joining the Rescue Squad as a first responder, and running with them for several years. There were also numerous PTA and PTO meetings and school committees. I was a founding member of The Nelson County Historical Society, and even created an historical map of the county.
Since being elected, I have been the Chair, and have organized several committees of great importance to our County, including a Seniors’ Issues Committee, an AG-Forestal District Committee, and a committee to study dental care in our community. I also represent Nelson on the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, serving as Chair in the past, which keeps me well-informed about transportation and planning issues in the region. I have been appointed to the Thomas Jefferson Community Criminal Justice Board because of my interest in restorative justice.
My Family