Lisa Vedernikova Khanna is a community and business leader who is the living embodiment of the American Dream. Her mom risked everything to flee Soviet Russia in hopes that America would be different. Freer. Fairer. Her mom spent years undocumented, building a small business and raising Lisa on her own. In just one generation, Lisa worked her way out of poverty, proving how access to opportunity, hard work, and a strong community can change a life’s trajectory.

Life in America wasn’t easy for Lisa or her mom. They were evicted when Lisa was five. She didn’t learn English until she started public school at age six. When Lisa was a teenager, she had to file bankruptcy on her mom’s behalf because Lisa was the only one who could navigate the system well enough to do it. She relied on free school lunches to get by and had Medicaid for healthcare, while her mom had no access to healthcare at all.

But they both worked hard to make it in America. Lisa’s mom deeply believed in the American Dream and instilled in Lisa the values of hard work, integrity, and grit, bringing her along to help clean houses to make ends meet. By age 13, Lisa was working three jobs at once - from making sandwiches at a gas station deli to working at a card shop - and she continued holding up to three jobs at a time through college.

When Lisa was finally able to channel everything into just one career, she took off - bringing the same work ethic from her childhood into roles spanning public service, media, and tech. Lisa has worked with C-suite executives at multiple large organizations that employ thousands of people. Throughout this work, Lisa learned how to navigate complex, high-intensity, challenges and lead teams toward shared goals.

In Virginia, Lisa and her husband, Harry, have remained deeply involved in their community. Lisa has served on the board of Chesterfield Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), advocating for abused and neglected children; led revitalization efforts through the Church Hill Association in Richmond; and served as President of the Metro Richmond Area Young Democrats, helping organize and empower the next generation of Democratic leaders.

Now Lisa is running for Congress because the American Dream is under attack. She knows what it means to live in a country where freedom is just a slogan and the system is rigged, because that’s what her mom risked everything to escape. We need a new generation of leaders in Washington who know what’s at stake and will stand up and fight to protect it.