Terry Dowdy joined the Foundation in May 2025 as the Director of Information Technology. He has over 25 years of experience in information technology, with the majority of it in associations. 

A native of Forest, Virginia (home of Thomas Jefferson’s summer residence) Terry has been in the Washington DC Metro area since 1997, when he moved here to become the Manager of Systems Development at The Optical Society (now Optica). Since then, he has held IT leadership roles or consulting positions with a variety of non-profit and not-for-profit organizations, including the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the National Society of Professional Engineers, Sister Cities International, and Tax Executives Institute.

Terry is very proud of his service in the United States Army, where he served as an Infantry NCO from 1980 to 1988. While in the Army Terry earned a degree in Microcomputer Technology. He left the Army as an E-6/Staff Sargent to pursue a career in information technology. 

Terry loves history, and proposed to his fiancée (now wife) Deborah in a horse drawn carriage on the grounds of Colonial Williamsburg.