Bonnie LePard is named Executive Director of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553 | M: 202.225.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org
Washington, D.C. (January 18, 2018) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) today announced that Bonnie LePard has been named as the foundation’s Executive Director. Ms. LePard will work with TCLF’s President & CEO, Charles A. Birnbaum, and its Board of Directors and will be responsible for leading the operations of the organization, managing staff, identifying new business opportunities, driving fundraising, building internal and external relationships, reviewing and negotiating contracts, and enhancing the presence of TCLF both locally and nationally.
Ms. LePard has a B.A. in English from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law (with an emphasis on environmental law). She clerked for two district court judges (1987-89) and was an Environmental Crimes Prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice (1989-1994).
Most recently, Ms. LePard was Executive Director of Oatlands Historic Home & Gardens, a 400-acre National Trust for Historic Preservation site near Leesburg, Virginia. She joined Oatlands in 2015 and was responsible for fundraising, along with overseeing education and programming, marketing, advertising, buildings and grounds, visitor center, and other functions. From 1995 to 2015, Ms. LePard was, for the first ten years, Executive Director of the Friends of Tregaron, a community-based organization that led a campaign to save Tregaron, a historic landscape in Washington, D.C., designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. For the second ten years, Ms. LePard was the Founder and Executive Director of the Tregaron Conservancy, the non-profit that preserved and restored the estate grounds of Tregaron. During this period she raised more than $3.5 million and was responsible for community engagement, event organizing, and land acquisition. She secured the property’s tax-exempt status from the Washington, D.C., City Council and the U.S. Congress.
“As TCLF embarks on its twentieth year, it’s a pleasure to welcome Bonnie, a seasoned and impassioned professional, as Executive Director of the foundation,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s President & CEO.
“I look forward to taking my experience working at two important cultural landscapes – Tregaron and Oatlands – and harnessing it on behalf of the nation’s diverse landscape legacy,” said Ms. LePard.
About The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 to connect people to places. TCLF educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures, and other events, TCLF broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes.