We’re beginning a new series called “Five Questions.” The goal is to let our readers know a bit more about the people in their community. Over the next several months, we’ll be asking five questions of elected officials, community leaders, artists, musicians, and just an array of interesting people. Some of the questions we ask will be serious; some kind of silly.

Leading off the series is a woman that we find to be quite extraordinary: Phyllis T. Albritton of Blacksburg. She is a financial advisor at Wells Fargo Advisers who specializes in socially conscious investing. She also represents District A on the Blacksburg School Board and has been a board member for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the NRV and the Valley Interfaith Child Care Center.

Albritton keeps a keen eye on the issues, corresponding frequently with elected officials, and she has her own listserv the she uses to keep people informed about the issues that concern her.

So without further ado, here are five questions with Phyllis!

1. What  motivates you to be so active in local, national, and international issues?

From the time I took a trip to Europe and the Middle  East in 1954 with Christian Youth Caravan for three months, with one napsack,  traveling third class all the way—giving back after the war by helping a village  in Northern Greece build a recreation area; living on a kibbutz; visiting a Palestinian refugee camp; staying in church orphanages, hospitals, and  camps throughout Europe and the Middle East—I have always believed we are  called to do God’s work in the world, “to do justice, to love kindness, and to  walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

2. Of all the issues you are  involved with, which one are you most passionate about and  why?

All programs that will help young people (especially for those beginning at 3 months of age, since that is when, data tells us, development begins so that a child is reading at third grade level at the end of  third grade), and that will help our young realize their gifts and  potential for a fulfilling and contributing life.

3. What  have been your most rewarding experiences?

Raising my two children and helping to raise my  step-daughter; working inner-city Chicago at Beacon House, a Presbyterian settlement house in 1958; organizing a desegregated preschool in Charlottesville in l965 for low-income 5-year-olds, when Virginia had no  public kindergartens; helping establish Boys and Girls Clubs of the New River Valley and the Valley Interfaith Child Care Center.

4. What do you do  on “a day off?”

I enjoy time with my husband, sharing life and thoughts; walking the Huckleberry Trail (Merrimac to the bridge); around the Virginia Tech Duck Pond; or up to the top of the town golf course—especially at  sunset.

5. If they made a movie about your life, who would you want to  play the role of you and why?

I don’t really know. Who would you  suggest? (Editor’s Note: After much thought, we’ve decided to go with Susan Sarandon—grit, glamor, and politically active.)