As the fourth-ranking leader in the U.S. Senate, and throughout her 20-plus year career in Washington, Shelley Moore Capito has been on the frontlines of key decisions, and had the opportunity to influence national and world policy and the ability to help many people.

She has earned a reputation and respect for being a pragmatic bipartisan voice who looks to find ways to help the people of her native state as well as the nation.

She can point to numerous achievements and countless feel-good moments, and could easily feel above the norm — she is both a state and national leader.

But it’s her ability to balance being true to her native state of West Virginia while walking among the nation’s most powerful that is the most intriguing attribute. She is at home in the halls of Congress, in the White House or in the grocery store.

Her hard work has landed her the chair of the Republican Policy Committee, the fourth highest-ranking leader in the Senate, as well as the Environment and Public Works Committee. Those roles put her in a position of achieving her goal of helping people, but they don’t define who she is or the impact that she’s made in the Mountain State.

Capito’s commitment to West Virginia, to the issues of importance to her fellow residents — from the big picture items to the small tasks — have left a lasting impact and earned her WV News’ West Virginian of the Year honor.

“It’s obviously a tremendous honor to be recognized for my contributions, and really ties in with being raised in a family of service,” Capito said. “No. 1, they taught me to love West Virginia so much, to care about people and neighbors.”

Capito says while she has embraced the opportunities to serve in the U.S. Capitol, first for 14 years as a member of the House and now the past 10 as a Senator, she is still most at home in the Mountain State.

“It is the best part of the week, really, when I’m on my way home,” Capito said. “And for a lot of reasons … the Beltway has a whole different feel … but when I get within the boundaries, literally it’s almost like as soon as I get inside the boundaries of the state, I can feel the warmth, the community that I think West Virginia offers all of us who live there, have raised our families there.”

While some elected officials become more residents of Washington and visitors to the states or districts that elect them, Capito has taken a different but equally successful approach.

“So I get a good personal feeling being home, but I think it helps me do my job better. I go to the grocery store, I hear a lot of concerns, what’s going right, what’s going wrong. I get ideas, I go to functions, see friends, go for long walks … recharge my batteries.”

Clearly staying connected to the Mountain State and its people provides Capito a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not when it comes to policy decisions. And she’s been a champion for legislation that addresses programs and causes designed to help people.

She’s been a driving force on improving broadband in the Mountain State, and her role in championing the state’s natural gas and coal industries are well known. She is a strong proponent of business, but not at the sacrifice of policies designed to help people.

She's also an advocate of health care funding, helping to secure millions of dollars in grants for health care research as well as facilities in West Virginia.

"I have a great passion for health care and health care outcomes ... being able to be an appropriator for health, to be able to get more research dollars for areas like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and cancer that I know are going to have individual impacts all across the state," is very rewarding.

But her work is far from limited to the Senate floor and committee meeting rooms. She and her staff pride themselves on being responsive, on finding answers to the problems that constituents face, from helping someone secure back Social Security payments to helping miners receive their pensions and benefits.

Capito has been a champion of science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) training, as well as developing ways for more females to enter those fields, or other rewarding endeavors.

She created WV Girls Rise Up as a way to influence young West Virginians and provide them with the knowledge to find pathways to success.

Drawing on inspiration from her own daughter, and what she hoped to leave as a legacy, Capito set her sights on helping West Virginia girls "dream bigger."

The program has visited 32 schools and brought in inspiring females, including Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry, political leader Nikki Haley, commentator/writer Dana Perino as well as doctors, an astronaut and other great role models.

"We try to go to schools where really the girls may not have the exposure to these different types of opportunities. We want them to know what's out there for them, and we want them to dream big."

That's a message she also carries to all of West Virginia, a state she has watched firsthand deal with struggles of the past but one that is clearly headed to an even brighter future.

"I'm an optimistic person by nature, and I am extremely optimistic about the future of West Virginia," Capito said. "I see all the dynamism ... I see it in our educational institutions around the state. ... I see the tourism development around the New River Gorge area, the high tech corridor from Bridgeport to Morgantown in the North Central region, the rebuilding of our manufacturing in the Northern Panhandle, the growth of the Eastern Panhandle and the resurgence in the coal fields.

"There's a whole lot of good for people to see in the future. ... I believe we should feel really good about ourselves. I think West Virginia is a vital part of this country's energy dominance, of the tech revolution, of all the different lifestyles in terms of tourism."

Capito's upbeat approach signifies someone who has seen the good and bad of life, but knows that our approach and attitude are paramount to success.

"I try to live with an attitude of gratitude," Capito said. "We're so lucky in our state to have that feeling I described about coming back home (from Washington each week). To live in a state of good people, of communities ... we're lucky to live in a country that provides us a lot of these freedoms.

"We've got to keep focusing on the good, and I try to do that every day."