She served a brief stint in the Missouri House of Representatives in 2010, after winning a special election in Feb. of that year. She previously served as an Associate Administrative Law Judge for the Division of Workers’ Compensation and as the Director of the Division of Liquor Control. Whitehead has worked as the Associate General Counsel for the St. Louis Housing Authority and as a prosecutor for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. She received a degree in psychology from Fordham University and a Juris Doctorate from the Washington University School of Law. She is a former member of the Missouri Bar Board of Governors and former president of the Mound City Bar Association. Hope and her husband, Jon, celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary in 2012. They have two boys.