Gayle Conelly Manchin (born June 20, 1947) is an American educator and government official who was the First Lady of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010 and has served as the Federal Co-Chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission since 2021.

[5] Additionally, Manchin worked for the Office of Secretary of Education and the Arts, where she established the West Virginia Partnerships to Assure Student Success initiative (WV PASS).

Incoming Governor of West Virginia Jim Justice appointed Manchin to his cabinet as the state's Secretary of Education and the Arts on January 13, 2017.

[13][14] After the January 27, 2019, bombing of the Jolo Cathedral in the Philippines, in an interview on EWTN News Nightly, she expressed disapproval of Rodrigo Duterte's prior "angry, violent language" against Church leaders.

[16] In 1967, Gayle Conelly married Joe Manchin, with whom she had three children, Heather, Joseph IV, and Brooke, and settled in Fairmont, West Virginia.