Ghazala Hashmi is currently the state senator representing district 10. She was first elected in 2019 and has been in office for one term. She is chair of the public education subcommittee. She is the first Muslim and first South Asian-American in the Virginia Senate.

Ghazala used to be a professor at Reynolds Community College and the University of Richmond. She was also the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Reynolds Community College.

Ghazala is from Hyderabad, India. She has lived in the U.S. since she was four years old. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Georgia Southern University and a PhD in American literature from Emory University. She lives with her husband, Azhar. They have two adult children.