Oscar winning Director of "Harlan County, USA"

Barbara Kopple is one of the nation's most productive film directors/producers.  In 1977 she produced and directed Harlan County USA, winner of the 1977 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.  In 1991, Harlan County USA was named to the National Film Registry by Congress and designated an American Film Classic.  In that same year, Ms. Kopple received her second Academy Award for her non-fiction film, American Dream, on the economic decline of America's industrial heartland.  American Dream won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and Best Feature Documentary by the Director's Guild of America. 

Journalist

Linda Carpenter-Leavitt’s writing skills and her creativity were evident early. In 1954, when Carpenter-Leavitt was in third grade, the Greenacres Star, a small, local newspaper, ran a writing contest. She won first prize for her story about “Isabell the Alley Cat.” Four years later she captured the grand prize in Scarsdale’s window painting contest.