Meet the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Staff

IAN MACDOUGALL, Executive Director

Ian joined the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area in June, 2021. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2017. After completing his degree, Ian worked for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Military Programming department from 2017- 2021, focusing on organizing museum programming concerning Virginia’s role in the American War for Independence, as well as researching the experience of the British Army in the Commonwealth. Ian served as Public Programs Coordinator for VPHA from 2021-2025, managing the many public programs offered by the organization, including the popular Annual Conference on the Art of Command in the Civil War. He also served on the LoudounVA250 Committee in the role of Programs Chair from 2022-2025, having recently overseen the committee’s bicentennial commemorations of the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit in 1825. Ian became VPHA’s Executive Director in 2025, and oversees the Association’s daily business, development, fundraising, membership, and preserving the integrity of the historic landscape of the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area. He and his wife Christine share a home in the bucolic village of Taylorstown in Loudoun County, and he spends his free time traveling to historic sites across Virginia the east coast.

TRAVIS SHAW, Director of Education

Travis joined the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area as the Public Programs Coordinator in April, 2017. In March 2021 he was named Director of Education. He brings over two decades of experience in the fields of historic preservation, archaeology, and museum education. Prior to joining VPHA he spent time at Historic St. Mary’s City, The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab, Mount Vernon, and Oatlands Historic House and Gardens. He holds a BA in history from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and an MA in public history from American University.

Travis is former Vice President of the Loudoun Preservation Society, former Chair of the Loudoun VA250 Committee, and served on the Loudoun County Heritage Commission. He is a guest contributor to the Emerging Revolutionary War series and has written a number of articles on the American War for independence for the American Battlefield Trust. If you look closely, you might also spot him in the historical films at Mount Vernon, the American Battlefield Trust, the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, and the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown.

RICHARD T. (RICH) GILLESPIE, Historian Emeritus

Rich came to the Heritage Area in 2004. A 30-year veteran history teacher at Loudoun Valley High School in Purcellville, Virginia, he retired to pursue a second career in museum education. Rich has expanded classroom programming, now reaching 5,000 students a year, written four Scavenger Hunts and Driving Tours, as well as providing expertise for VPHA programs. He also created the very popular "Cavaliers, Courage & Coffee" program. Rich became executive director on February 1, 2015 and has been Historian Emeritus since January 1, 2017.