LEAH CONNOR

Leah Connor has over 25 years of experience in creative services and digital marketing for both small businesses and non-profit organizations including 22 years at Learning Without Tears and 13 years with the Charlottesville Track Club.

Her academic background is in liberal arts with an MA in Women's Studies from The George Washington University and MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University where she developed a love for James Joyce. She even got married on Bloomsday, June 16, the day depicted in Joyce's novel Ulysses and named her son Laoghaire Ignatius, after the Irish town Dún Laoghaire where you’ll find the James Joyce Tower & Museum and her daughter Annalivia Plurabelle, a character in Finnegans Wake, who’s a personification of the River Liffey, which flows through Dublin.

An avid long-distance runner and RRCA certified race director and running coach, Leah has completed 38 marathons (including Boston 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 with her identical twin sister), but her proudest achievement is the creation of the Rivanna Greenbelt Marathon in 2014 which she continued to direct even during the pandemic.

Leah's mantra and trivia team name is Shakespeare's "Our doubts are traitors" because her husband is an 17th century English Literature professor at Wichita State University, not because she's read "Measure for Measure".

On the weekends you'll find Leah playing PokemonGo, Wordle, Geeks Who Drink trivia; promoting TWINS RUN with her identical twin sister; and, on special occasions, cheering at a race in an inflatable costume.