Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Association Welcomes New Executive Director, Alexander Madison Nance

The Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Association (VPHA) is pleased to announce the hiring of their new Executive Director, Alexander Madison Nance. Mr. Nance brings an impressive skill set to the Heritage Area team and has been an active member of the organization since he and his wife, Jane Latham, purchased a 19th-century farmhouse outside of Middleburg in 2020. Having grown up in the Virginia Piedmont, he developed a passion for local history and preservation at an early age, visiting dozens of historic sites and every battlefield within 100 miles of his home with his father.

Mr. Nance has worked as a military analyst with the federal government for the past five years, and before that spent five years as an engineer officer in the US Army. During two separate tours overseas, he served as a staff operations and plans officer, and was responsible for designing and monitoring complex projects, building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders across agencies and countries, and managing and reporting on day-to-day operations within a multi-disciplinary team. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Politics from Georgetown University and a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy from the University of Virginia. In his free time Mr. Nance enjoys exploring the region’s historic sites and driving along Virginia Piedmont backroads in his grandfather’s pickup truck.

As VPHA’s Executive Director, Mr. Nance will be the chief operating officer of the organization and responsible for the active management of the Association’s daily business, development, fundraising, membership, and preserving the integrity of the historic landscape of the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area. Mr. Nance noted, “I couldn’t be more excited to start as VPHA’s new executive director. History has been a passion of mine for my entire life, and I am extraordinarily grateful for the opportunity to build on the outstanding work that VPHA has done to preserve the irreplaceable historical and scenic resources of the Heritage Area over the last 26 years.” In addition to his leadership and development capacity, Mr. Nance brings a powerful next-generation enthusiasm for the mission that will fuel the success of the organization as they push towards 30 years of “Preservation through Education.”