Member Profile

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JOSEPH S. PAXTON Joseph S. Paxton is a native of Salem, Virginia. Mr. Paxton received a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration and Political Science from James Madison University in 1978, and a Master of Business Administration degree from JMU with a concentration in Finance in 1983. He completed the Senior Executive Institute at UVA in 2000. Mr. Paxton's professional career spanned thirty-eight plus years with Rockingham County beginning as a management internship in January, 1978, and later served as purchasing and accounting officer, Director of Finance, Assistant County Administrator (7 years), and Deputy County Administrator (11 years). He was appointed County Administrator by the Board of Supervisors effective January 1, 2004. Mr. Paxton retired on July 1, 2016. He currently serves as a Senior Advisor for ICMA and VLGMA. Mr. Paxton is a member of several professional organizations, including a life member of the International City/County Management Association and Virginia Local Government Managers Association, and previously served as President of the Virginia Government Finance Officers Association (1989). He currently serves as Past Chair of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Community Foundation, Vice President and member of the Trustees of the Missionary Society of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, and is an active member of Emmanuel Episcopal Church and the Broadway-Timberville Rotary Club. He works on a contract basis providing executive management assistance with the Berkley Group in Harrisonburg. He is married to the former Annette Whitmore (38 years), and they have three children: Kathleen Paxton Palmieri, director of an early childhood learning center, who lives with her husband (engineer) and two daughters and a son in Pittsburgh, PA; William, and his wife, high school teachers living in the Broadway area; and Robert,and his wife, Robert is a senior web developer for UVA and his wife works in marketing for a regional beverage company; they live in Charlottesville, VA. The Paxtons reside in Broadway, VA.