Honorees

Each year, the Loudoun Laurels’ Advisory Committee awards the Loudoun Laurels Medal to the honorees they have selected to become Loudoun Laureates. The medal is worn suspended from a scarlet ribbon, an ancient symbol of courage, passion, strength and self-sacrifice.

Medal Front

The laurel wreath on the front of the medal embraces the program’s motto, Ductus Exemplo, Leadership by Example.

Medal Back

The reverse displays the coat of arms and family motto of John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, after whom our county is named.

Newest Honorees

Gertrude Evans

Gertrude Ashton Evans, a native of Leesburg, played an important role in forging the inclusive community we have come to take for granted in Loudoun County today. Through activism and a dedication to using art and storytelling to convey her own human experience, Gertrude helped the county overcome the segregation policy that prevailed during the time of Virginia’s “Massive Resistance” to the 1954 Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court desegregation ruling. In one instance in 1963, as a 14-year-old, Gertrude and her brother, Gene Ashton, demonstrated outside the Tally Ho Theater to desegregate it. The Tally Ho would desegregate, but a similar action aimed at the Leesburg volunteer firemen’s swimming pool proved less successful. It remained segregated, was eventually sold, and was ultimately filled in with rocks and cement so Black people could never use it—events that speak to a fraught past that Gertrude and her peers faced bravely through peaceful protest.

Gertrude Evans’ professional career spans 25 years of service in Loudoun County administration. Her volunteer activity includes work on committees related to the Historic Douglass High School, where she was a graduate, and extensive involvement with public school students at all grade levels on local history, including Black History Month programs. Gertrude’s nominator for this year’s Laureate honor aptly concluded a statement of support by saying, “Her remarkable legacy of service and leadership has significantly shaped Loudoun County and she represents the very best of our community.”

Doug Fabbioli

Recently named “2024 Grower of the Year” by the Virginia Vineyards Association, Doug Fabbioli has focused his career as much on educating the next generation of growers and entrepreneurs as on becoming recognized for the award-winning vintages produced at his own Fabbioli Cellars. To that end, he launched the New Ag School in 2008 to provide a venue for local agribusiness professionals to mentor students on farming practices, value-added processes, and hospitality—all in the interest of vitalizing Loudoun County’s agricultural economy and ensuring its continued robust growth.

Candid about the challenges facing his industry, Doug acknowledges that young people today aren’t often exposed to gardening, farming, raising animals, and other traditions of an agriculture-based economy. In an increasingly urbanized world, where the lure of less physically demanding, higher paying careers in business and technology may divert many job-seekers who might otherwise consider working the land, it’s not always easy to make the case for farming. Yet the direct contact with Loudoun County’s most passionate and committed agribusiness professionals afforded by the New Ag School—and the hands-on experience it offers—have introduced a new generation to a uniquely fulfilling career in our region. Doug’s investment in providing a means to pass on this valuable knowledge has greatly benefited Loudoun County.