Mark Keam
{{short description|American politician}}
{{family name hatnote|Keam||lang=Korean}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Mark Keam
| image = Del. Mark Keam (11840639753) (cropped).png
| caption = Keam in January 2014
| imagesize = 180px
| state_delegate = Virginia
| district = 35th
| term_start = January 13, 2010
| term_end = September 6, 2022
| preceded = Steve Shannon
| succeeded = Holly Seibold
| party = Democrat
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1966|5|10}}
| birth_place = Seoul, South Korea
| death_date =
| death_place =
| education = Newington College
University of California, Irvine (B.A.)
Hastings College of Law (J.D.)
| spouse = Alex Seong Keam
| residence = Vienna, Virginia, U.S.
| profession = Attorney
| committees = Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources
Education
Finance
| website = {{URL|http://www.markkeam.com}}
}}
Mark Lee Keam (born May 10, 1966) is a Korean American lawyer. Since 2024 Keam has led the Korean American Institute. KAI is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to produce insightful and actionable research to improve decision making on issues facing Korean Americans.[https://ka.institute/teams/mark-keam/ Staff] Retrieved 13 April 2025.
He is a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates in the United States. A Democrat, Keam represented the 35th District, which encompassed a portion of Fairfax County, Virginia, including the town of Vienna, Virginia, where he resides.[http://dela.state.va.us/dela/MemBios.nsf/014f2f536999a31885256c0d005171db/1d6a1978e9acd4dd85257535005773aa?OpenDocument&Click=85256823005F1997.f0a3d2c6f9f07af1852570bd00646e36/$Body/0.23A2 Virginia House of Delegates Official bio], retrieved January 29, 2010 He resigned his seat on September 6, 2022, to take a position in the Biden administration{{Cite web |title=Press Release: Fairfax Democrats Chair's Statement on Resignation of Del. Mark Keam (D-35th) – Fairfax County Democratic Committee |date=September 6, 2022 |url=https://www.fairfaxdemocrats.org/2022/09/06/press-release-fairfax-democrats-chairs-statement-on-resignation-of-del-mark-keam-d-35th/ |access-date=September 6, 2022 |language=en-US}} as a deputy assistant secretary running the National Travel and Tourism Office in the International Trade Administration.https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-special-virginia-a40854b7b0944c469a166e9ad0f1557a
Keam was born in Seoul, South Korea, and has lived in Vietnam, Australia, and California. He was formerly an aide on Capitol Hill, and was an executive with Verizon Communications until he left in 2009 to run for the Virginia General Assembly.
Early life and education
Keam was born on May 10, 1966, in Seoul, South Korea, to a Presbyterian minister. His family later founded a church in Vietnam, before fleeing when the country became communist in 1975. After arriving in Australia, Keam and his brother attended Newington College[http://newsletter.newington.nsw.edu.au/alumni/newsletter/2015-02-04/print/ Newington College Alumni eNews] while their father was founding pastor of the Korean parish of the Uniting Church in Australia at Strathfield, New South Wales.[http://koreansafari.com.au/content/virginia-parliamentarian-mark-keam-secures-seoul's-victory-sea-japan-dispute Virginia parliamentarian Mark Keam secures Seoul's victory on Sea of Japan dispute] The family eventually settled in Orange County, California. To help support his family, Keam worked odd jobs, from construction to collecting shopping carts in a retail parking lot. He earned a degree in political science from the University of California, Irvine, and later earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Hastings College of the Law.
Career
Keam served as Senator Richard Durbin's chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2001 to 2007, when he left to join Verizon Communications as a Vice President and Counsel. In 2009, he took an unpaid leave of absence to run for the Virginia General Assembly.[http://www.markkeam.com/bio.htm Mark Keam Campaign website], retrieved January 29, 2010 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091223072237/http://www.markkeam.com/bio.htm |date=December 23, 2009 }}
=Virginia House of Delegates=
In 2009, Delegate Steve Shannon, the Democratic incumbent, did not seek reelection in the 35th district in order to run (unsuccessfully) for Attorney General of Virginia. Keam declared his intention to run for the seat. On Election day Mark Keam defeated Republican challenger James E. Hyland, making Keam the first Asian-born immigrant and the first Korean American elected to any state-level office in Virginia. He was sworn into office on January 13, 2010, at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia.
In February 2010, Keam and fellow freshman delegate James LeMunyon, a Republican, authored an op-ed in The Washington Post about their introduction of a bill to the General Assembly, which would attempt to make the voting records of General Assembly members more accessible to the public. The bill passed the House of Delegates 86 to 13 later that month.{{cite news|url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/2010/02/let_virginians_see_how_their_l.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922100920/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/2010/02/let_virginians_see_how_their_l.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 22, 2012|title=Let Virginians see how their legislators are voting|last=Keam|first=Mark|author2=LeMunyon, James|date=February 23, 2010|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=February 23, 2010}} A State Senate committee carried the bill over for a year, and it has not yet been voted on.{{cite news|url=http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/article/SLAW15_20100314-220004/330410/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120829200737/http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/article/SLAW15_20100314-220004/330410/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 29, 2012 |title=FOI council helps public with open government act |last=Martz |first=Michael |date=March 15, 2010 |publisher=The Richmond Times Dispatch |access-date=April 5, 2010 }}
He told a local newspaper in his district in January 2010 that he can legislate from an immigrant's point of view; saying that "I want to be able to speak on issues where people say, 'I've never met an immigrant in my life; I don't know what you guys think about it,'... I want to be able to say, 'Well, let me tell you what they think about it.'" He has also sponsored another bill which would raise the number of ESL, or "English as a second language" teachers in Virginia's schools from 17 full-time positions to 30 full-time positions for every 1,000 students.
Keam said in 2010 that he would abstain from voting on any bill which would pose a conflict of interest due to him being on an unpaid leave of absence from Verizon Communications, and he would not introduce any telecommunications legislation to the House of Delegates.{{cite news|url=http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=336871&paper=73&cat=104 |title=Keam Promotes 'Diversity of Views' |last=Garabelli |first=Veronica |date=January 20, 2010 |publisher=Vienna Connection |access-date=March 6, 2010 }}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
Keam was re-elected to his seat in Virginia's House of Delegates on November 7, 2017.[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/us/politics/democrats-women-minorities.html A Year After Trump, Women and Minorities Give Groundbreaking Wins to Democrats]. The New York Times. November 8, 2017.
In 2021, Keam co-founded the General Assembly's first Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus.{{Cite web|title=Virginia State Legislators Create AAPI Caucus|url=https://dcist.com/story/21/03/26/virginia-state-legislators-create-aapi-caucus/|access-date=June 18, 2021|website=DCist|language=en|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200213/https://dcist.com/story/21/03/26/virginia-state-legislators-create-aapi-caucus/|url-status=live}}
==Committee assignments==
Keam has served on the House committees on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources (2012–); Education (2012–); Finance (2010–); and Militia, Police and Public Safety (2010–2011).
Electoral history
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.markkeam.com/ Mark Keam website]
- [http://dela.state.va.us/dela/MemBios.nsf/014f2f536999a31885256c0d005171db/1d6a1978e9acd4dd85257535005773aa?OpenDocument&Click=85256823005F1997.f0a3d2c6f9f07af1852570bd00646e36/$Body/0.2DB4 Virginia House of Delegates official Bio]
- {{facebook|DelegateMarkKeam}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keam, Mark}}
Category:Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates
Category:South Korean emigrants to the United States
Category:Politicians from Orange County, California
Category:People educated at Newington College
Category:University of California, Irvine alumni
Category:University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni
Category:Biden administration personnel
Category:Politicians from Seoul
Category:People from Vienna, Virginia
Category:American politicians of Korean descent
Category:Asian American and Pacific Islander state legislators in Virginia
Category:South Korean expatriates in Australia
Category:South Korean expatriates in Vietnam
Category:21st-century members of the Virginia General Assembly