M. Kirkland “Kirk” Cox, serves as the president of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council (VBHEC), a nonpartisan group focused on aligning the needs of business with higher education.  He previously represented the 66th House of Delegates District from 1990 until his retirement in 2022, and was unanimously elected Speaker in 2018 serving for one term. He was the first public school teacher to serve as Speaker and the first Speaker from the City of Colonial Heights.

Cox served on the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources; Appropriations; General Laws; Labor and Commerce; Privileges and Elections; and Rules committees. He was chairman of the ACNR Committee (2002 – 2007) and Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee (2010 – 2013).

Cox was elected by the Republican Caucus as House Majority Whip in 2007 and then House Majority Leader in 2010.

Cox’s time in the House focused on K-12 education, higher education, economic development, and veterans. Cox introduced over 120 pieces of legislation for the military, veterans, and their families, more than 20 percent of his total introduced while serving in the House. On the Appropriations Committee, Cox championed investments in education spending and behavioral health waivers.

Cox’s speakership coincided with the 400th anniversary of the House of Burgesses in 1619, and he served as chairman of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and co-chair of the 2019 Commemoration, a nationwide tribute to the First Representative Legislative Assembly in the New World and other concomitant anniversaries.

Raised in Colonial Heights, Cox graduated from Colonial Heights High School. He received his B.A. in Political Science and General Social Science from James Madison University. After graduation, Cox taught at Peabody Middle School in Petersburg, Providence Middle School in Chesterfield, and JEJ Moore Middle School in Prince George before moving to Manchester High School in Chesterfield, where he taught government for 26 years.