Virginia York was a professor of economics for the European Division of the University of Maryland and later at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida.

Dr. York moderates forums, frames issues for deliberation, trains moderators and has been on the faculty of Public Policy Institutes at numerous universities since 1991.  She moderates forums for: Florida Senators and State Representatives, Congressmen, architects in Florida, Nature Conservancy, Judicial Committee of the American Bar Association, and is a national trainer introducing civic engagement in disaster preparedness.  With the Kettering Foundation, York has engaged in public dialogue in England, China, Cuba and across the United States.

She mentored four Community Colleges in the Bridging Cultures Project of the Community Colleges Humanities Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities.