About Us

Valaryee Mitchell is the President and founder of Thrive Leadership Solutions, LLC. Thrive’s goal is to strengthen the organizations that help people. Mitchell has over 20 years of progressive experience with human service programs, including those serving youth, adults, people living in poverty, dislocated workers, re-entry, and businesses. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience with policy development, program creation, and management. She believes building a solid organizational structure is necessary to ensure effective programming. Her career spans state and local program leadership and coordination. Mitchell was named one of Style Weekly’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2018.

She is the former Director of the City of Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building, which is charged with reducing poverty and building wealth. Before coming to the Office of Community Wealth, Building Mitchell was the Statewide One-Stop Coordinator for the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). During her tenure with the VCCS, she established a One-Stop Certification process that reviewed continuous quality improvement in 18 American Job Centers across Virginia. Mitchell also focused on integrating true partner collaboration into state and local programs. She believes that people benefit when programs work together. As a result, she has been sought after to facilitate conference training.

Mitchell received her bachelor’s degree from Hampton University in Political Science and her Master of Public Administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. She cites her time at her “Home by the Sea” (Hampton University) when she discovered her passion for helping others. She volunteers her time at her church and in the community.

Mitchell is the current board president for STORY, a non-profit in Hopewell, Virginia. She is in her third term as a member of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals Board of Directors (NAWDP). She is also the Virginia Area Manager for the National Council of Continuing Education and Training.

Having grown up in poverty, she is passionate about helping people. Mitchell aims to transform communities by helping people succeed and reach their goals. She feels this is possible through structural and systemic change and building programs that build up people. She believes everyone should have an opportunity to thrive.