Photo by Lake Anna Photography

Tammy Purcell is changing the way Louisa County residents engage with their local government—one meeting, one article, and one newsletter at a time. As the voice behind Engage Louisa, a nonpartisan newsletter with more than 3,500 subscribers, she’s providing consistent, reliable coverage in a place that, like so many rural areas, has been at risk of becoming a news desert.

Born and raised in the Town of Louisa, Tammy is the youngest of three daughters. Her father, Dicky Purcell, runs the family’s timber business, Purcell Lumber, which was passed down from Tammy’s grandfather. Her late mother, Brenda, passed from cancer over a year ago.

“I grew up going to little league baseball games. My dad always volunteered, and my mom was always there to support him in any way she could,” she says. “I learned a lot about the value of community growing up in the town of Louisa.”

It was running track and cross country growing up that Tammy’s love for sports writing first took hold. In high school, she began contributing to The Central Virginian—which was at that time a locally owned paper, before it was purchased by Lakeway Publishers out of Tennessee.

“I started writing articles about sports while I was at track and cross country meets,” she says. “I worked at the Central Virginian in the summer and did articles for them on the side—part-time. Cathy Collins, who was the editor at the time, was my mentor. She helped me cultivate my love of journalism and writing about Louisa.”

After graduating from Louisa County High School, Tammy went on to the University of Kentucky, where she double majored in English and Journalism.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a sports writer, but I wasn’t sure… so I just stayed in college longer,” she jokes.

She later worked in the book industry and continued writing freelance features for local publications like Fluvanna Review and Louisa Life.

In 2008, Tammy and her partner Vin—who she met while living in Kentucky—moved back to Louisa.
“My dad had a major heart surgery, and I decided I wanted to be back home where my family was. That was the most important thing for me,” she says.

While writing part-time, Tammy started attending local government meetings, driven by a personal interest in civic life and a concern about the diminishing coverage of local news.

“I noticed there was a lack of news coverage available,” she says. “…a lot of newspapers are struggling in rural towns across America. We really have an information gap.”

That gap sparked the beginning of Engage Louisa.

“I have friends who also write and do coverage and use Substack as a platform. For me, one of the barriers to starting was the platform because I’m not particularly tech savvy—and Substack offered that. It was just a platform that was easily accessible for me. They inspired me to get started with my newsletter.”

And then the pandemic hit.

“COVID came and shut a lot of things down, and people had time on their hands—me being one of them. I had a lot of time to sit around and think about what I wanted to do. In April 2021, I published my first issue, and I’ve been going ever since.”

Tammy attends nearly every Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission meeting—at minimum, three per month—and often more.

“I record on my phone. The meetings are also live streamed and archived on their website. I download the meetings, take notes, and then rewatch the recordings,” she explains. “I’ve been live tweeting the meetings—even before Engage Louisa. I also post Facebook updates.”

Though it’s a volunteer effort, she’s clear about the value of the work.

“What we do is a professional service, and people should understand the value of it. News has a value, and not everybody can do what I do. It’s an enormous amount of time,” Tammy says.

Still, Engage Louisa is—and always will be—free to the public.

“It means a lot to me when I go to a meeting and I know that I’ve helped. Seeing community engagement and feeling like I played a small role in that is one of my favorite things,” she says. “It’s really important to me that ordinary people have a voice in their government.”

Tammy’s coverage is deeply rooted in her love for the Louisa community. It’s not flashy—and it’s not meant to be. It’s practical, dependable, and accurate.

“We live in a time of an insane amount of information—not all of it accurate, unfortunately. People get overwhelmed,” she says. “I feel like Engage Louisa is a way I can make local government more accessible for people.”

She’s the first to acknowledge that she’s not the only one doing this work—and she’s grateful for others who are also trying to keep Louisa informed.

“There are times when I feared Louisa County was becoming a news desert. There are gaps, but there are good people working hard to tell stories here and get information out to people. I think that is a great thing, and I encourage folks to support all of our local media outlets in any way that they can—because without their support, it’s a difficult time for local news.”

Vin remains her biggest supporter. “He is very supportive of everything I do, and I couldn’t do it without him,” she says.

As for the future?

“I don’t know what the future holds,” Tammy says. But we can all guess that she is going to keep showing up.

Because for Louisa and Lake Anna, Tammy Purcell is a real hometown hero. To subscribe to her newsletter, go to https://tammypurcell.substack.com.

Jen Bailey

Hi! I’m Jennifer Bailey and I partner with entrepreneurs who have massive ideas that could change the world. Most marketing is meaningless. Filled with empty promises, its only job is to bring in new traffic, new leads, and new customers. But I’ve drawn a line in the sand, and I’ve learned that marketing can do so much more than reach business goals and build profit. My methods give businesses the fire and soul they need to reach the right people, set the groundwork for sustainable relationships, and offer true value to the people on both the giving and receiving ends of marketing.

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