Staff

Margaret Brown

Visitor Services Assistant

Margaret Brown is a Visitor Services Assistant. She moved to Virginia in 2002 with her husband and children and brings a love of history and Loudoun County to her role at Oatlands. Her nonprofit and volunteer experience includes service on the boards of Loudoun Literacy Council, All Ages Read Together and the Ryan Bartel Foundation. Brown also has volunteered for the Loudoun Literacy Council as a trained ESOL teacher, the Friends of Thomas Balch Library Black History Committee and many other Loudoun nonprofit organizations.

Patricia Mogannam

Visitor Services Assistant

Patricia Mogannam is a Visitor Services Assistant. She has a master’s degree from American University in Washington, D.C., and a 15-year career in TV news, as well as experience working with special events in the hospitality industry. Mogannam channels her historic preservation interests through organizing private events at Oatlands. For 10 years she has called the Leesburg, Va., area her home with her rescue animals.

Ally Scholle

Museum Interpreter

Ally Scholle is a seasonal Museum Interpreter at Oatlands, where she helps guests connect with the past through research and context. She double majored in Classical Studies and Linguistics at the College of William and Mary. Scholle also works at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, which informs her perspective on the psychological violence of slavery and how she interprets enslaved people’s choices. She is also passionate about language and names, and how people use names to preserve identity.

Hope Conrad

Museum Interpreter

Hope Conrad is a seasonal Museum Interpreter at Oatlands. She is a recent graduate of William & Mary, where she earned degrees in Anthropology and Africana Studies. In collaboration with the University of the West Indies, she has studied Caribbean linguistics in Barbados. Additionally, Conrad researched Native American artifacts from the Chesapeake, concentrating on cookware and foodways. At Oatlands, she connects historical research with public education, making the stories of people and communities accessible to diverse audiences.

Karen Cowan

Visitor Services Assistant

As a Visitor Services Assistant at Oatlands, Karen Cowan enjoys welcoming guests and helping them connect with stories that bring history to life. Before joining Oatlands, she provided compassionate care to families and their pets for over five years as a professional pet sitter and worked in an optical laboratory crafting precision contact lenses. A proud mother of three adult children, Cowan has long volunteered in community service roles and believes in creating a warm, inclusive and informative visitor experience. Her enthusiasm for history and hospitality shine in her work at Oatlands.

Bridget Santos

Gardener

Bridget Santos brings artistry to her work as a gardener at Oatlands, blending horticultural expertise with creative design vision. A former aircraft mechanic in the U.S. Air Force, she approaches landscape care with discipline and dedication. Currently pursuing a B.F.A. in Graphic Design and Fine Arts at George Mason University, Santos integrates aesthetic principles from her studies into her garden work. Her capstone project—branding for a restaurant and creating a hand-bound recipe book—reflects her multidisciplinary talent for design, storytelling and craftsmanship.

Larisa Epatko

Communications Specialist

In the role of Communications Specialist, Larisa Epatko leads storytelling and communications across the site, from media relations to digital content, helping to bring Oatlands’ history, landscape, and programs to life for growing and returning audiences. Larisa brings a background in journalism and strategic communications, with experience at the PBS News Hour and the United States Institute of Peace.

Hannah Schetselaar

Education Assistant

Hannah Schetselaar is an Education Assistant at Oatlands, where she brings to life the stories of people and place through research-driven programs and interpretation. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from Roanoke College and her M.A. in History and Public History Certificate from Virginia Tech. Schetselaar’s experience includes archival research for the Genealogy of Slavery project, documenting Black resistance in the 1600s and community-based history projects with the Christiansburg Institute. At Oatlands, she combines scholarship and storytelling to make history inclusive and relevant for modern audiences.