Parkinson's Policy Podcast: Del. Richard "Rip" Sullivan

In this heartfelt episode of the Parkinson’s Policy Podcast, we sit down with Del. Richard Sullivan to discuss Virginia’s proposed paraquat legislation, HB1375, and the growing movement to address environmental factors connected to Parkinson’s disease. Delegate Sullivan shares why the bill — which would ban paraquat use in Virginia — was introduced, what happened during the legislative session, and why the measure was ultimately tabled until next year.

Beyond policy, this conversation becomes deeply personal. Delegate Sullivan opens up about his wife, Beth, and her journey with Parkinson’s Disease, offering a moving perspective on how this issue affects families across Virginia and beyond. We also discuss the significance of securing April 11th as World Parkinson’s Day in Virginia and why recognition and awareness matter in the fight for better treatment, research, and prevention.

This episode is dedicated to Beth — and to every family navigating Parkinson’s disease with courage and resilience.

Topics covered in this episode:
• HB1375 and the effort to ban paraquat in Virginia
• The connection between environmental exposure and Parkinson’s disease
• The legislative process and what comes next for the bill
• The importance of World Parkinson’s Day recognition in Virginia
• Personal reflections from Delegate Sullivan 

If you enjoyed this conversation, please like, subscribe, and share to help raise awareness about Parkinson’s policy, advocacy, and research.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome everyone back to another episode of Parkinson's Policy Podcast, where we advocate toward uh to raise awareness toward a cure and advance meaningful policy for the Parkinson's community. From Washington, D.C., straight from the U.S. Capitol and beyond, we bring senators, representatives, researchers, and advocates to amplify the voices of people living with Parkinson's disease. My name is Dr. George Ackerman, Sharon Sen from Together for Sharon. Also joined by my incredible co-host, Margaret Preston, the president of Power Over Parkinson's, and we're honored to have you all back for another very exciting episode and discussion on policy.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Absolutely. Thank you, George. I have the honor and privilege to introduce our next guest, Delegate Richard Sullivan Jr., graduating Magna Coomb Laude from Amherst College and received his law degree from the University of Virginia. He's a partner in the law firm Bean Kinney and Corman PC in Arlington. Since beginning in the General Assembly here in Virginia, since 2014, he has passed meaningful legislation in many areas, including clean energy, gun violence prevention, support for electric vehicles, and supporting surrogacy for all. Having lived in McLean for over 50 years, McLean, Great Falls, Vienna, and the other parts of the 6th district have long been Delegate Sullivan's home. He lives with his wife, Beth, and they also have four adult children, and all of whom graduate from Fairfax County Public Schools. And he also has six grandchildren. Delegate Sullivan currently serves as the vice chair for the Labor and Commerce Committee, which considers bills related to labor, employment, energy, and business regulation in Virginia. He also serves as chair of the Labor and Commerce Committee's Energy Subcommittee, a role in which he has uh used his experience legislating in the energy space to help shape the way Virginia moves forward on these crucial issues. Currently, Delegate Sullivan serves on the Labor and Commerce Committee, the Courts of Justice Committee, the Rules Committee, and the Finance Committee. So, Delegate Sullivan, thank you so much for being with us today. And I think we can all agree you're a busy guy.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's uh it's a busy time of year. Um, I'll be back in Richmond uh the day after tomorrow. We have to reconvene and deal with uh with actions that the governor has taken on a variety of bills that we've sent her. But uh uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

We appreciate you being here.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

I'm happy to make time for this. This is uh enormously important uh topic.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Thank you again for joining us. Uh unfortunately, in a way, but also fortunately, uh this really this issue. Policy today and Parkinson's disease has affected both of us. Uh it does continually, whether me because I lost my mother or Margaret because her father's still battling. I was wondering, uh, we've had incredible guests who have been affected, and some never even knew what Parkinson's was. And it's really so equally important to have everyone uh in this uh fight as a family. I was wondering if you could tell our audience a little bit about your background and if you uh are aware of Parkinson's and how obviously we know a little bit more, but for the listeners, maybe that would also inspire them as you do us.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Terrible. Thank you, George. Um uh Margaret did a pretty good job on on you know on my background. Uh uh I would say uh I I put it this way. I I I knew about Parkinson's uh sort of just generally. Uh there are a lot of famous people uh who have or who have had Parkinson's. Um everyone remembers Muhammad Ali and of course uh Michael J. Fox. Uh so I had sort of I would call sort of a layperson's awareness of Parkinson's disease. It had never it had never um uh, at least to my knowledge, uh been in my family or anything like that. Uh but uh now uh five or six years ago, uh my wife Beth was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Um and so it obviously instantly became an area of of intense interest to me. Um and and uh uh Beth, by the way, I should just say she's she's doing great. Um she she uh uh one of the things I'm sure you're I'm sure your listeners and viewers know this. Uh one of the one of the things that they do know about Parkinson's, while there's no way to while there's no way to uh cure the disease, one one thing they do know is that exercise uh is enormously helpful. Staying in shape, lots of exercise, keeping moving is enormously helpful uh yeah uh to s in slowing the disease. And Bef has jumped into that part of it uh and is uh uh you know, she always was uh uh into exercise, but now she's sort of an exercise fiend. Uh she she spins, she works out, she lifts, and she's also taking up boxing. Uh and I I I I joke with people that I'm probably the only guy who who uh gave his wife a heavy bag for Christmas last year. Um uh and uh you know, and I sometimes I sometimes use those gloves with her, and I just worry about her missing in the middle, you know, is and knocking me out because uh she's just in great shape. Uh and she's a real fighter, and she's she has thrown herself into the Parkinson's community in the sense that she's um working with a lot of groups like this one, uh uh uh trying to educate people about Parkinson's, trying to advocate uh uh uh with legislators nationally and on the state level uh about Parkinson's. Uh and uh, you know, uh she is herself a medical professional. She's a nurse practitioner. Um so when I go to her, when I go to her doctor's appointments and the doctor starts talking about all the variety of medications and all the testing that's going on, uh the good news is she can explain it all to me later because it can get very complicated. Um so that's the source of my interest. It's highly personal to me. Um I uh Beth and I are in this together. She has the disease, and I'm um trying to help her. Uh and uh I guess in the Parkinson's community we call that I'm I'm her I'm her caregiver, much as she hates that term. Um so that's how I got interested in it and um uh got her permission now uh five years ago uh to uh maybe it was four years ago, to um uh to sort of go public with it, if you will, uh, by introducing uh a resolution on the House of Floor, the House of Floor in the Virginia House of Delegates, um establishing World Parkinson's Day here in Virginia uh as uh as an awareness-raising effort. Um kind of thing. Uh you know, when when when something like that, there is there is a World Parkinson's Day that's recognized worldwide, but um you know, a lot of states don't do it, a lot of states don't know about it, a lot of people don't know about it. Uh and so this was a this was an opportunity to uh to sort of put a spotlight on what is a um uh unfortunately uh growing disease. Uh I think I have this right, that it's the fastest growing uh neurological disease in the world. And um more people need to know about it, more people are going to become affected by it, or their families or friends and loved ones. Uh and so it's important to sort of spread the word and get people activated about it. Um there's a lot of good work going on, but as of now, there is no cure for Parkinson's. Um, and uh people need to know what it is, how it works, what's going on, and how they can try to help uh they can help the broader effort and how they might be able to help people in their families or friends that they may know uh deal with with the disease. So that's so I'm a I'm uh uh I'm a cheerleader for my wife and and trying to use my position to uh to shine shine a light on this um so that more people can can get involved and and and and uh and hopefully we can we can put an end to this disease in our lifetime.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Thank you for uh being a voice for so many. And obviously we send our love and support from the whole show and the community to your wife. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

And I think she's lucky to have a, like you said, cheerleader and caregiver. So those are two two great titles and important ones nonetheless. So I wanted to move uh Delegate Sullivan into HB 1375, that was a bill to ban paraquat here in the Commonwealth. You were directly involved with um in terms of uh co-patroning the bill. I wanted to share with our listeners who don't know it was tabled until 2027, which gives us another chance. So I wanted to ask your thoughts on what you believe will take to um end the use of paraquat here in Virginia and get this passed.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Well, Margaret, uh uh as I said, I I wasn't I wasn't an expert, still not an expert, but I was sort of a novice in Parkinson's. Um, but uh anyone listening can get online. It'll take you about 30 seconds of searching around to find that one thing uh that is very clear uh is a is a is a correlation between the use of paraquat uh and and Parkinson's. Uh and there's a lot of work going on around the world and around the country, um, and now in Virginia, uh to try to uh wean our uh farmers off of paraquat, which is a pesticide. Um and that's not to say that everyone who is who who is exposed to paraquat gets Parkinson's. It's not the case that everyone who has Parkinson's must have been exposed to Pariquat. There are lots of different theories as to why people uh develop Parkinson's disease. But there does seem to be a very clear correlation between uh exposure to paraquat and developing Parkinson's disease. Uh and so uh I was thrilled to join forces with a delegate, a young delegate named uh Nadarius Clark uh here in Virginia. And this year he introduced, and I was uh one of the chief co-patrons, as you said, HP 1375, which would make uh paracquat illegal in Virginia. Um and uh was was very pleased when that moved out of subcommittee. It went to the agricultural committee, as I suggested that. I mean, this is a pesticide, so it went to the agricultural committee because this way its ban would affect um farmers here in Virginia. Um and uh subcommittee passed it, um, but then it sort of hit a hit a roadblock in the full committee. And the full committee's action to table it uh was really an action that said, look, we're not sure about this. Uh, this is a new issue to us. Uh let's have Delegate Clark come back with this bill next year. Um, and and one of the first things I learned as a young legislator uh is that even the very best ideas uh can take a few, a session or two or three to sort of marinate uh as more delegates, uh more members of the General Assembly come to understand the issue, as more advocacy can go on, uh, and as more um conversation between the stakeholders uh can happen to hopefully find common ground uh and if possible get to get to some sort of get get to some sort of agreed path forward. In this case, um uh delegate Clark did a great job during this session of um in this bill's sort of first go-round, uh uh not only educating people but looking for some sort of middle ground. I think initially the the agricultural community uh was very aware that the the bill as it was introduced would have sort of instantly overnight made paraquat illegal. Um and uh I think there was a sense that that was moving too quickly. There might be people who have who had already purchased this year's uh you know stock of paraquat or uh people farmers who who didn't have you know a possible substitute. So delegate Clark offered uh the full committee an amendment, which would have sort of phased it in over a couple of years to make it less of a whiplash uh type of bill. Uh and while I uh well I think that was attractive to some of the members of the committee, it wasn't quite enough to get it over the hump. So the so the committee opted to wait uh and give us more time to talk, but as I said, both with other legislators and with with with uh the agriculture community. And Nadarius and I have already talked about talked about how we need to use these off months because the General Assembly won't meet again uh to take up new legislation until January of 2027. Uh Virginia, Virginia is a it's full-time work, but it's part-time legislature in the sense that we only meet for six or eight weeks every year. Uh, and that's the beginning of every year. So we'll be back next January with a bill that looks a lot like 1375. I don't know what the the new bill will look like. It'll depend on what the conversations are over the course of the next year, but I'm I'm quite confident that we'll be back with a bill that um uh takes another shot at finding a path forward to get paraquat out of Virginia. Wow, because the the science seems pretty clear that if we can get Pariquat out of Virginia, we're gonna see fewer cases of Parkinson's at Virginia.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Thank you so much. We're we're definitely hopeful and we'll continue to do the work kind of leading up to just oh we'll need your help.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

We'll need your help.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

I would be there. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

I know you will. I know you will.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

I think a lot of the issues are definitely awareness, even for anyone who might oppose uh such an incredible bill, in my opinion. But um, you know, what steps is Virginia taking to improve access also to specialized care? Because I know we're talking about banning uh toxins and things, but still, if that's not being passed or just still tabled, we have people still battling, as you know, Parkinson's. Is there any way to also reach underserved, uh underserved and rural communities who, again, I think even in South Florida, the biggest problem for our family was lack of awareness.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Well, George, you you you've made a great point, and frankly, the the question candidly goes way beyond Parkinson's. Um like a huge challenge we are facing in Virginia. And I don't think we are alone, as you as you suggested, Florida and other states. Um, and unless you know, unless we're talking about uh well, I can't even think of one. You know, every state, every state I can think of has got urban areas and then uh lots and lots of rural areas. Virginia um is a bigger state than people sometimes recognize. Most of Virginia is a rural state, and our biggest industry is agriculture uh here in Virginia. Um and we are very concerned as a legislature broadly with uh medical access in rural and other underserved parts of Virginia uh for all sorts of medical conditions. And of course, that would that would include that would include um Parkinson's. And given this is not a partisan podcast, um, so I'll try to keep it so. But you know, some decisions have been made in Washington over the course of the last year, which are going to have broad, and to my way of thinking, negative effects on healthcare in rural parts of uh the United States. And I know that to be the case uh in rural parts of Virginia. We have grave concerns about hospitals closing. Um when hospitals close, uh it makes it even harder to get um physicians to practice uh in these in in in more rural and underserved areas. Um so we are looking for ways uh to uh I can't I can't say fend off. We're not gonna be able to fend off all of it, but uh but to try to to to try to focus uh on the need uh uh to to uh improve and extend our our health care into areas of Virginia uh that currently are underserved and I think are at great risk of becoming even more underserved, hospitals closing and things like that. Um and to, for instance, incentivize physicians uh or other healthcare providers, nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, um, to go and practice in areas um that uh that uh don't have enough doctors and physicians. And when you get when it's now when you get down to uh you know more specific to to to Parkinson's, um one you know bet Beth and I live here in suburban Washington, DC. Um you know, lots and lots of doctors around, but finding a physician who really understands Parkinson's, even in a major metropolitan area, can be hard. Um you know the field of neurology has lots of different subspecialties. Um but to find uh a movement disorder specialist can be very can be very challenging, even in big urban areas. Um and and so that gets mag magnified tenfold if you're living uh in a rural part of Virginia. Um uh you know, I'm not banging on neurologists, but you know, you know, your average neurologist uh uh may not be as deep in the weeds on Parkinson's as a movement disorder specialist or some or other neurologists. Uh and so it is a relatively small specialty for this is this is from this is again from a layperson's perspective, it feels like it's a relatively small specialty for a for a disease that uh is is so rapidly growing. And that and that was frustrating to us. We quite thankfully uh have Beth has has connected with uh a great uh team of physicians, and one in particular who we're uh who is her principal movement disorder specialist, um, you know, who's a sort of a giant in the field and and and and knows it very well, and he's on sort of the cutting edge of a lot of the research that's going on. But that's you know, we're we're very privileged to be able to have that relationship. And I and and and I as a legislator, putting my legislator hat on now, recognize that uh this gentleman uh and his team are not available uh to to to most you know to most people. Um and so trying to trying to find ways to incentivize physicians not only to go into those specialties but to but to practice in places where people can get to them uh is a is a real challenge. And and that's something that can be solved you know next Thursday. That's a long-term, that's a long-term challenge.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Yeah. Go ahead, George.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Uh also following up on that, since you all uh have been doing so much work, literally both of you in the uh in your state, as somebody out of uh Virginia, just curious how state policy uh can also better support caregivers and families like yourself uh impacted by Parkinson disease. And in addition, how can uh everyone listening in our community throughout the country also support all the work you're doing for this community as well?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Well, the real answer to that is more people need to meet Margaret Preston and people like her, um because there is a uh uh I'm pleased to say, what appears to me at least, to be a growing advocacy uh community out there. Um typically fueled by uh either physicians who are in the field or families of people uh facing this challenge. Um because uh again, I'll I'll just speak for myself. As I said, I I I didn't I didn't really know what Parkinson's is, Parkinson's was uh until it touched me so closely. Um the other thing you find out uh when you start learning about Parkinson's it is you know if you stopped a hundred people on the street and ask them, you know, what's Parkinson's, they would conjure up you know Michael J. Fox, um, and they would uh describe it uh from the visual uh manifestations of the disease, whether that's tremors or other kinds of manifestations. But one thing you learn is that there's a lot that goes on with Parkinson's that you can't see that the that isn't visible to someone who meets someone with Parkinson's. Um and and that's the kind of thing that that needs a lot of a lot of a lot more education, both from a advocacy perspective and and from a and from a um an education perspective to teach people you know how uh difficult this disease is for those who have it. Um but also uh from a diagnostic perspective, in the sense that uh uh yeah, most people again, as I understand, this is my lay person's. view. Most people get diagnosed with Parkinson's whoever does that diagnosis will tell you that they have had it for some number of years before the kind of outward uh manifestations start showing themselves. And uh so I think there's there's uh uh a lot of education that needs to go on so that people might know some of those other uh you know symptoms and such that uh so that we can get diagnoses earlier in the process um so that we can maybe do some preventive work get as I said like in Beth's case you know do a lot of exercise and and other things that can try to slow things down. There's there's no stopping it but I mean you can try to slow it down. Yeah. So uh I keep coming back to to education and groups like this, podcasts like this. Um people need to people need to really understand uh how this is such a growing population of people it's a it's a real challenge. Um I it breaks my heart when I see funding being cut uh at the national level for research. Um I'm heartened that groups are out there uh you know whether it's Michael J. Fox or the Parkinson's foundation there are a lot of them that are still raising money and funding research um and uh while this is much more than just a fundraising uh challenge uh the fact is uh in order to keep all this good research going on we do need to we do need to make sure that that can get funded. Um so from a public policy perspective while while most of these types of grants come from national you know the NIHs of the world um I'm always looking for opportunities to see if Virginia can can can help there in our in our hospitals and and and places like that uh where we can we can do Virginia's part uh to try to to try to beat this disease.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Absolutely delegate Sullivan you hit the nail on the head and it's something that you know we at Powerbert Parkinson's I know George um in honor and memory of his mother are so passionate about is awareness and education and teaching that the the disease is so much more. Well uh there's this significant group of folks who have a tremor of course and a tremor is debilitating in and of itself in in a lot of ways it's so much more than a tremor. There's so many unseen things those non-motor related symptoms um and it's our job as advocates to teach about the complexities of the disease and how it's almost as you noted a snowflake disease everyone has a different myriad of symptoms that encompasses their Parkinson's which just aids in its complexities as we research it. So thank you for highlighting the importance of education education about the disease because like we all before we were touched with the disease, we didn't know a lot about it but we knew Michael J. Fox, we knew a tremor and we kind of knew the quintessential points but not you know the complexities that are often quite debilitating. So if I can volley it right back to you there needs to be more delegate Sullivans in the world because I wanted to highlight some of your achievements as we wrap up our conversation as you noted you championed uh HJR 135 um which made uh Parkinson's World Parkinson's day here in Virginia for 11 April 11th as one of our early advocacy works you met with my father and I you sponsored our state advocacy day in February of 2025 which was really meaningful and we hope to do more of that.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Please come back.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

We will come back we will we will bother your coworkers and have those meetings and we'll come back.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

I look forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

So you know you've truly been action oriented related to this disease what would you share to your colleagues um lawmakers here Virginia lawmakers who are other state representatives in other um states what would you share with them who might not know a lot about the disease or simply think policy related to the disease is not a priority what would you share with them well uh yeah what uh one thing another sort of uh role I have in the General Assembly uh I'm I'm I have uh carried some legislation and I'm involved in in uh something called the Health Insurance Reform Commission uh where we're where we talk about rare diseases and the difficulties of of um of getting attention for rare diseases what's interesting about Parkinson is is it's not particularly rare um uh you know it is as I as I suggested earlier it is a it is it is the fastest growing neurological disorder in the world um and uh it you know this is a sort of crass way to say it but we can't ignore it uh ever uh everyone will eventually be touched by it somehow whether it's a family member or a friend or even a co-work you know some a coworker uh it it it is growing and we need to find a way to stop that um and a big huge chunk of that will be education uh because education then leads to action uh on the part of whether it's our localities or our states or our country um uh you know the Congress passed last year a bill um designed to uh raise awareness of and fund research in Parkinson's uh named after I'm embarrassed I'm blanking the the uh on the congressman's name I think it's a congressman from Florida Jennifer Wexton uh Gus Billaracis Bill Arcus thank you who might we had a great pleasure of meeting recently um and he joined forces yes with uh Virginia uh uh then congresswoman Jennifer Wexton um who uh is a dear friend of of of Beth and mine um and who interestingly was initially diagnosed with Parkinson's um uh and then it became clear that she has a a a a variant uh uh of Parkinson's I think is a fair way to put it um uh called PSP and um it's an even more aggressive form of neurological uh degenerative disease but uh this bill passed Congress uh governor the president signed it uh and so that's you know sort of uh again just a first step but a very important first step to to have uh our our nation's leaders recognize the importance of of focus focus not only of of education not only of research but of our our literally our dollars we need to focus our our dollars uh and on finding a cure for for Parkinson's um and you know the the the news out there is really encouraging there's a lot going on um um but we're not there yet and so uh yeah the answer to your question I think is just keep working at it we got to keep working at it we keep talking about it we got it we keep you know having a buttonhole legislators we have to still you know talk to people about it uh at at the local level um so you know power over Parkinson's is is is um uh such a cool model you know helping you know Beth and I talk about this all the time in some ways you want to you want to get people together who have Parkinson's to support one another help one another uh work together but then you want you want to get more people involved who do not have Parkinson's we need you know this can't be just come from the Parkinson's community it needs to come not only from people who love people with Parkinson's but people with um uh you know this sort of civic foresight to realize that these are our friends and neighbors who are who are struggling uh with with with this disease and need our help and that's frankly uh that's what in my view that's what that's what government and and civic duty and service is all about is helping people who who who uh who need our help right well we really want to thank you for your time and uh all the work you're still continually doing we send our love again to your uh wife and the whole family and we also want to thank you for taking the time today we always say after the conversation ends today it just begins in reality because we need everyone out there to also support the work you're doing in Virginia but also reach out to your representatives and your congressmen and women because we need everybody in this fight throughout the country. So I want to just thank you again and also my co-host Margaret it's been an honor to be with you again for another important uh episode and this has been um another episode of the Parkinson's policy podcast where we advocate together to raise awareness and advance meaningful policy for the Parkinson's community but uh with our guest today I know uh Margaret will also agree hope that we uh are confident that the hope is still out there and great things are coming to everybody's doorsteps throughout the country so thank you again thank you wonderful to be with you thank you