Doers

Pathfinders

Doer’s Profile: Claire Cassel and Derek Capizzi

Doer’s Profile: Claire Cassel and Derek Capizzi

Background Claire — Retired communications and outreach specialist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and later the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; board member, Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community (RAAC) and co-chair, RAAC Fall Art Tour; board...

VPA Award Winners

Grassland birds in serious decline

Can new farming practices increase numbers? The call of the northern bobwhite, the trill of the eastern meadowlark, the sweet high notes of the grasshopper sparrow — imagine a walk down a quiet country lane without enjoying the beautiful songs of these and other...

Who murdered Doris Critzer?

Five months later, what we know — and don’t know — about a murder in Washington, Virginia Five months have passed since the body of Doris Ann Critzer was found in a grisly scene on the kitchen floor of her home, located within easy walking distance to the historic...

Our Journalism Team

Tim Carrington

Tim Carrington

Tim Carrington has worked in journalism and economic development, writing for The Wall Street Journal for fifteen years from New York, London and Washington. He later joined the World Bank, where he  launched a training program in economics journalism for reporters and editors in Africa and the former Soviet Union. He also served as senior communications officer for the World Bank’s Africa Region.

He is author of The Year They Sold Wall Street, published by Houghton Mifflin, and worked at McGraw Hill Publications before joining the Wall Street Journal.  His writing on development issues has appeared in  The Globalist, World Paper, Enterprise Africa, the 2003 book,  The Right To Tell: The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development.

He is a regular writer for Foothills Forum, with his stories appearing in the Rappahannock News in other outlets in surrounding communities. His profiles and stories on the county’s political economy have earned numerous awards from the Virginia Press Association.

Carrington is also a painter, whose work is regularly shown at the Middle Street Gallery in the Town of Washington, Rappahannock’s county seat. He grew up in Richmond, Va., and graduated from the University of Virginia. In 2006, he and his wife became part-time residents in Rappahannock County, which is currently their legal residence.

Reach Tim at [email protected]

Luke Christopher

Luke Christopher

Luke Christopher is a “Best of D.C.” photographer and two-time “Best in Show” winner of the Virginia Press Association’s photo essay award. He started his career as a writer at the University of Maryland’s Diamondback student newspaper. With a passion for telling visual stories via photo and video, he interned at National Geographic Television and worked as a video editor at Discovery Channel.

Luke’s photography clients have included The National Gallery of Art, The Washington Post, Washington Times, Washingtonian magazine and The Embassy of India. In his travels, he produced a documentary for the Cyprus Tourist Board. Since 2016, he has worked as a photographer, videographer and reporter for the Rappahannock News and Foothills Forum.

Covering local government meetings and events has connected him with the farmers, first-responders, local businesses, charities, schools, artists and all the other wonderful people who make Rappahannock County so special.

Reach Luke at [email protected]

Ireland Hayes

Ireland Hayes

Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner.

Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on so-called “news deserts”, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.

Reach Ireland at [email protected]

Bob Hurley

Bob Hurley

Bob Hurley has been a member of the Foothills reporting team for many years. In addition to writing in-depth news articles, Bob regularly contributes “Doer’s Profiles” which feature stories about people who make important contributions to the Rappahannock community.

After graduating from college, Bob worked for several years at the ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C., and then as a communications director for the National Wildlife Federation. Later, he spent over a decade in the United States Senate as a senior staff member working on major environmental laws including the Clean Water Act.  Subsequently, he ran a government relations firm specializing in environment, energy and sustainability issues.

Bob and his wife, Heather Wicke, have had a home in Rappahannock since 2016. He enjoys being involved in a wide range of community activities including the Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection, RAAC Theatre, Headwaters Starfish Mentoring Program, the Lions Club and Rapp at Home. He enjoys fishing, gardening, hiking, and biking.

Reach Bob at [email protected] 

Mary Ann Kuhn

Mary Ann Kuhn

Veteran journalist Mary Ann Kuhn, a former editor of the Rappahannock News, joined Foothills in 2023 part-time as an editor and reporter. She fills two critical needs:

– A frontline “go-to” editor when Foothills journalists file their stories. Previously, Foothills had relied on a small corps of volunteer editors operating ad hoc. Since joining the Foothills team, Mary Ann has served as the primary editor. All stories have continued to receive a “second read” by a Foothills volunteer editor before being released to the Rapp News or other outlets.

– In addition to editing, Mary Ann is an accomplished reporter/writer who has helped by tackling some of the many stories that Foothills has been unable to pursue because we simply don’t have enough journalists.

Over her career, Mary Ann has worked in both print and broadcast for some of the nation’s leading news organizations (The Washington Star, The Washington Post and CBS News, among them). She was editor of the Rappahannock News from 2003-2005 and, for many years, owned and operated the historic Middleton Inn in the Town of Washington, Rappahannock’s county seat. She has a deep knowledge of the community. 

Separate from her position with Foothills Forum, Mary Ann has been hired by the Rappahannock News as an editor. Her responsibilities include editing stories, coordinating graphics and photography, reporting and playing a key role in putting the entire paper together.

Reach Mary Ann at [email protected]

Paul McGeough

Paul McGeough

Born in Ireland and raised in Australia, Paul McGeough is a former managing editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. As the Herald’s Chief Foreign Correspondent, he spent decades reporting from and writing books on the Middle East and Central Asia – Iraq and Afghanistan in particular. During his career he won eight Walkley Awards, Australia’s Pulitzer Prize equivalent; was twice named Australian Journalist of the year; and his book “Kill Khalid,” the story of Hamas, was named Book of the Year in Australia. Happily retired in Rappahannock County, McGeough builds and gardens – when he’s not engaged in Foothill Forum’s journalistic pursuits.

Reach Paul at [email protected]

Randy Rieland

Randy Rieland

Randy Rieland was a newspaper reporter and magazine editor for more than 20 years, starting with stints at the Pittsburgh Press and Baltimore Sun, and moving on to become editor of Pittsburgh Magazine and a senior editor at Washingtonian magazine.

He made the switch to digital media in 1995 as part of the team that launched Discovery.com, the website for the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and other Discovery Communications Networks. He ultimately was promoted to senior vice president of Discovery Channel Digital Media.

After his return to print journalism, Randy has written for Smithsonian and Johns Hopkins Magazine. He is a longtime, regular contributor to Foothills Forum. His stories, appearing in the Rappahannock News, have won numerous Virginia Press Association awards for excellence. 

When he’s not reporting, Randy is a volunteer with the National Park Service at Arlington House, above Arlington National Cemetery. He and his wife, Carol Ryder, have owned a house off Tiger Valley Road since 2005.

Reach Randy at [email protected]

Laura Stanton

Laura Stanton

Laura Stanton is an award-winning artist who specializes in infographics, having spent more than two decades on the staffs of The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and the Dallas Morning News. 

She taught information graphics at the University of Missouri Journalism School for a decade. She has run LaVidaCo Communications since 2012, creating illustrations, presentations and animations for a wide range of clients, including the Rappahannock News and Foothills Forum.

She loves working with other journalists to bring a visual storytelling component to their high-quality, deeply reported stories.

Our Partners

The work of Foothills Forum journalists is published, free of charge, in print and online by legacy newspaper The Rappahannock News. Some of our more in-depth, enterprise work that is of interest to surrounding counties also appears for free, with our permission, in neighboring news publications.
Dennis Brack

Dennis Brack

Rappahannock News Publisher

Dennis Brack is publisher of the Rappahannock News and co-managing partner of Rappahannock Media, which also publishes community newspapers/sites in Prince William, Culpeper and Fauquier counties, as well as local magazines, specialty publications and InsideNoVa.com, Northern Virginia’s largest news digital site. Brack became publisher of the Rappahannock News in 2013 after leaving The Washington Post Company, where he worked in a variety of positions in the Post’s newsroom, including leading the design and graphics teams, and as creative director of Foreign Policy magazine.

Earlier in his career, Dennis worked for news publisher Knight Ridder, and as an independent consultant he helped lead newspaper redesign projects in Spain and Bolivia. Dennis grew up in Fairfax and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Reach Dennis at [email protected]

Julia Shanahan

Julia Shanahan

Rappahannock News Editor & Reporter

Julia Shanahan began working at the Rappahannock News and Foothills Forum in 2021 as a corps member with Report for America, assigned to cover the growing needs of public services in the county. She worked as a corps member for three years, winning two individual awards for feature and breaking news stories and served as a member of the advisory committee.

Julia has been working as editor of the Rappahannock News since spring 2023 covering a wide span of issues, including rural broadband access, zoning and other happenings in local government. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 2021 with bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science, and she served as politics editor of The Daily Iowan, the independent student newspaper. She also interned with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association, where she covered state government in Harrisonburg, Pa.

Reach Julia at [email protected]

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From Our Archives

From bears to better service: Rappahannock’s trash overhaul yields big savings

Managing trash in a rural setting like Rappahannock County can be a challenge. Locals who use the Flatwood Refuse and Recycling Center — better known as “the dump” — may remember an open pit of rubbish surrounded by barbed wire and covered with an often-malfunctioning...

Rappahannock Food Pantry shares Thanksgiving spirit

2024-11-23-Food-Pantry-packing-1.jpgVolunteers Sharon Ennis and Erin Knuckles with Rappahannock Food Pantry Vice President of Operations Pete Stenner tally up the over 250 boxes of dry goods and produce for Thanksgiving. Rush River Commons taking shape...

Doer’s Profile: David Huff

Background: Owner, Country Cafe Pit Stop, Sperryville. Rappahannock native whose family goes back several generations in the county. Former 30-year board member of Belvoir Assembly of God church in Marshall, Va. Supports county community service programs through...

Trade school vs. college: Uptick in area students choosing trades over college

Rappahannock students opt for ‘hands on’ careers It wasn’t that long ago, remembers Dani Pond, when conventional wisdom had it that if you wanted a good career, you better have a degree from a four-year college. “It didn’t matter what degree,” said Pond, supervisor of...

Barbara Heile’s paintings: Where she lives, what she loves

Heile-a-21-web.jpgEvening Kitchen, Reflections Barbara Heile’s show at the Gay Street Gallery explores where she lives and what she loves. Often the two intersect, which makes multiple visits to the gallery in the Town of Washington worthwhile. The longtime...

Fletcher pleads not guilty to speeding, DWI

Arrested again for traffic violations James “Bill” Fletcher III pleaded not guilty last Tuesday to speeding and DWI charges stemming from a June arrest, but his trial was postponed until February after a key witness was unable to appear. On Nov. 7, Fletcher was also...

Tremendous turnout in Rappahannock: Nation, county elect Trump

Nearly 80% of Rapp voters cast ballots Political divisiveness seen on the national level did not seem to make its way to Rappahannock County on Election Day as voters across the county turned out in large numbers to cast their ballots. “We might not agree politically,...

Rappahannock native Jane Pollard reflects on life in the ’50s, ’60s

Retired teacher Jane Pollard, now 78, grew up in the Slate Mills area of Rappahannock County in a close-knit Black community that thrived on unity and self-reliance despite the harsh realities of segregation and the arrival of integration in the 1950s and ‘60s. She...

Letter: Support the real news!

Commentaries reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: [email protected]. According to a preelection poll by Ipsos, a global market research firm, there was a direct correlation between voting...

Washington Town Council tables Foster Harris rezoning

Awaiting legislation in Richmond that could impact local rules The Washington Town Council voted unanimously Monday to table an application on rezoning the Foster Harris House, deciding to wait on possible legislation coming out of the General Assembly's upcoming...