CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Leslie Greene Bowman, director of Winterthur Museum and Country Estate in Wilmington, Del., has been named the next president and chief executive of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

The foundation is the private, nonprofit corporation that owns and operates Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson.

Bowman, 51, will succeed Daniel P. Jordan, Monticello's chief executive since 1985, who announced last year that he would step down in November.

"Leslie is joining Monticello at an inflection point," said Alice W. Handy, chair of the Foundation's Board of Trustees. "The most important education initiative undertaken since the foundation acquired Monticello in 1923 is about to be launched. She's the perfect person to take our exciting plans forward."

Handy was referring to the $55 million Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center, which is scheduled to open in November.

Bowman has been director and CEO at Winterthur, a museum of American decorative arts, since 1999, and has been credited with many significant enhancements to the museum's programming.