District
Raised in a farm family, Carole Pratt is a life long resident of Southwest Virginia except for four years at Medical College of Virginia where she attended dental school. She is married to Rick Mansell, with whom she shared a family dental practice for 32 years. Their daughter, Megan, has just graduated from medical school. Her son-in-law, Chris, is a local police officer. Carole’s son, Matt, works in politics in Richmond.
Carole has served her community as a family business advocate and also as an education and rural healthcare expert at both local and state levels. She has served as president of the Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce, and chaired both the New River Economic Development Alliance and Virginia’s Small Business Advisory Board. Pratt currently serves as a member of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Board, and Pulaski Encouraging Progress (PEP), the economic development organization for Pulaski County.
Education is the key to meeting many of the district’s challenges, and Carole is a past chair of the New River Community College Foundation Board. She serves on Virginia Tech’s Biology Department Advisory Board, College of Science Roundtable, Women and Leadership and Philanthropy Council, and the Va. Tech Alumni Association Board. She is a member of the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia School of Dentistry Advisory Board.
As a health care professional and local hospital board member, Carole is concerned particularly about health care in rural Virginia. She served as chair of Virginia’s Board of Health and vice-chair of the Virginia Medicaid Board. She is currently one of eleven National Rural Health Association Fellows in the U.S. and is working to establish a data base of rural health professional educational programs. She volunteers to provide dental care to underserved people, and will again participate this July at the largest medical clinic of its kind in the country, in Southwest Virginia.