In December 2025, Augusta County Library announced the appointment of Natalie Hutchinson as its new Library Director, replacing Dr. Jennifer Brown who was recently named Executive Director of the Virginia Library Association.
Hutchinson comes to us from Prince William County Public Libraries in Northern Virginia, where she enhanced services, strengthened staff capacity, and deepened community engagement. Her professional background includes branch management, system-level program development, grant leadership, and cross-department collaboration – with a consistent emphasis on expanding access and equity for both staff and patrons.
“The Library Board is excited to welcome Natalie Hutchinson as our new director,” said Susan Thacker, Chair of the Augusta County Library Board. “Her experience, collaborative leadership style, and future-forward perspective position her well to guide the library’s continued growth and service to the community.”
“I am honored to join Augusta County Library and work alongside such a dedicated staff and engaged community,” said Hutchinson. “Libraries play a vital role in connecting people to information, opportunity, and one another, and I look forward to collaborating with staff and residents to continue building services that are welcoming and responsive to the community’s needs.”
Former director, Dr. Jennifer Brown has joined the board of the Friends of the Augusta County Library Foundation as its treasurer. She fills the seat held by Oakley Pearson who retired in December.
Oakley Pearson has a long and dedicated history with the Augusta County Library. In 1989 he was the director of the Talking Book Center, the free service distributing recorded books and magazines for those with visual and physical disabilities, forging a partnership between the TBC and the Friends in 1990. Pearson was instrumental in the 1990s in arranging speakers for fundraising and membership drives for the Friends, and eventually took over managing the Friends’ finances in 2014, keeping the books, producing quarterly reports, filing the required nonprofit federal and state reports, and making weekly visits to Fishersville to write the checks.
“I am a firm believer that libraries and access to reading materials in a variety of forms are basic to our democracy and that reading is crucial to the development of our children and youth,” Pearson said. "The creation, telling, and transmission of stories, in whatever medium, is what defines us as human. It has been my honor and pleasure for the last 35 years to be part of an organization that promotes, amplifies, and sustains our public libraries.”
We thank Oakley for his long commitment and dedicated service to the library community and wish him the best in retirement.
