Meshea Poore served in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 2009 to 2014.

She graduated from Howard University with a bachelor’s degree, and from the Southern University Law Center with her juris doctor. She worked as a public defender in Kanawha County, and then joined the Dooley Law Firm.

Poore is an accomplished and sought-after motivational speaker, public and political leadership consultant and strategist. The Women’s Campaign Fund named her a “Game Changer” during her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives for the West Virginia 2nd Congressional District. In 2017, she became the first African-American woman to be named president of the West Virginia State Bar since its 1947 founding. Prior to operating her own practice, she was an attorney in the Office of the Kanawha County Public Defender in Charleston, West Virginia.

Effective Feb. 19, 2018, Meshea Poore is the vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at West Virginia University.