Fairfax County Stories

Honoring over 400 years --since 1607 Jamestown Settlement-- of Fairfax County History
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It Began with the 1898 Spanish-American War....
(Filipino Americans and other Asian Americans in Fairfax County and Virginia)
Corazon Sandoval Foley of Burke, Virginia
Filipino American National Historical Society of Northern Virginia
(FANHS-NoVA) Founding President and Executive Administrator

Cora retired from the U.S. Department of State on April 1, 2007 with some thirty five years of experience as a Foreign Service spouse, a Foreign Service Officer, and a Civil Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. She served as chairperson of the Secretary's Open Forum, senior economic analyst, INR program manager, congressional fellow, and led the Asian Pacific American Federal Foreign Affairs Council.  Cora earned the Director of Central Intelligence Exceptional Analyst Award, the State Department EEO Award, and numerous superior and meritorious honor awards.

Building on her Fairfax County Stories 1607 - 2007 experience, Cora has initiated the Fairfax County Asian American History Project that has been sponsored by Supervisor Sharon Bulova. 
 
In January 2008, Cora was appointed by Fairfax County Chairman Gerry Connolly to serve as a Board Member of the Fairfax County History Museum Subcommittees. In June 2009, Chairman Sharon Bulova appointed Cora Foley to the Fairfax County Census 2010 Complete Count Committee.  She served as a Founding Member in 2009 of the Friends of the Virginia Room of the Fairfax County Public Library System.  She was an author in the Fairfax County Jamestown Legacy Book "Fairfax County Stories 1607 - 2007."
 
On June 1, 2009, Cora Foley was honored as 2009 Lady Fairfax At-Large by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova for her work on the Fairfax County Asian American History Project and for initiating and organizing the Burke/Springfield District Senior Center Without Walls.  The Lord and Lady Fairfax Awards are part of Celebrate Fairfax!.
 
She served as a State Department Congressional Fellow in 1992 with then Congressman Norman Y. Mineta and was the lead congressional staffer in his office to manage successful passage of legislation  to establish a national memorial to Japanese American Patriotism in Washington, D.C. 
 
Cora has initiated and managed several exhibits honoring Filipino Americans and other Asian Americans, including: a 1989 Smithsonian Exhibit honoring 226 Years of Filipino Americans who established a 1763 settlement in Louisiana; a 1997 State Department Exhibit cosponsored by Hawaii's Bishop Museum that highlighted the history and culture of Hawaiian Americans; a 1998 State Department exhibit honoring Filipino American history in Hawaii as part of the centennial celebration of Philippine independence; and a 1999 State Department Exhibit on Japanese American WWII soldiers. 

Cora and her family have lived in Fairfax County, Virginia, since 1980, after overseas tours with the U.S. Department of State in Haiti, the Philippines, and Russia. Cora graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in economics (magna cum laude) from the University of the Philippines and a master's degree from George  Washington University. She is married to Michael Daniel Foley and they have two children, Joshua Daniel and Melinda Corazon. She was born in Manila, Philippines and, as of 2007, has been a US citizen for some 35 years and a Fairfax County resident for 27 years. She has been writing Fairfax County stories for local newspapers. Cora can be reached at corafoleyfanhsnova@hotmail.com.