LEE PERRON (71).  After a long and successful career in the cable television industry in California (ending with a stint as President of Adelphia's Southern California region), Lee and his wife Sandy retired to the Gulf Coast of Florida.  Determined to use his energies to better his community, Lee volunteers his time tutoring elementary school students, and utilizes his business expertise to manage the non-profit Englewood Farmers' Market (englewoodfarmersmarket.org) which he founded in November 2011.  Starting with just a handful of vendors and attendees, the Market has grown to a major weekly event having an eight-month season, drawing hundreds of vendors and hundreds of thousands of attendees each year.  A central purpose of the market is educational, offering nutrition and healthy eating information to the community.  The Market piloted a program - now spreading well beyond Englewood - to acquire grant dollars that double the buying power of low-income individuals using their SNAP cards to purchase healthy Florida-grown items at the Market.  The Market also has acquired infrastructure improvements from local governments and has spurred significant economic growth around its location in the "Old Englewood Village"section of Englewood, Florida. In early 2016, the University of Florida released a study that outlined the very significant positive economic impact the Market has had on the local economy.  

LYDIA INGLETT (77)..  Lydia is the publisher and CEO of Lydia Inglett, Ltd. With a  40-year career as a book publishing professional, Lydia is considered an expert and innovator in the book publishing industry. She began her publishing career at the age of 17 in Washington, DC at New Republic Magazine and Book Company.Lydia founded her own company in 1977 when she graduated from Surrattsville and has built it into a unique publishing house model, with more benefits going to its authors. Lydia often convinces first-time authors to publish by personally walking them through every step of the process. She skillfully handles the design and the publishing for authors, artists, museums and galleries.  A Southerner by birth, today her global book publishing company, Lydia Inglett Ltd, along with its distribution and book selling subsidiary, Starbooks, spread the joy of high-quality, fine books across the South and across the world.

Highly awarded, LIP and Starbooks publish beautiful, saleable books on subjects ranging from the Lowcountry of the South to Paris and beyond. As winners of multiple Independent Publisher IPPY Awards, IBPA's Ben Franklin Awards, and USA Book Awards Lydia's companies regularly compete with the industry's largest publishing houses. In 2015 alone, Lydia won seven national awards. Lydia also has structured corporate identities and brand start-ups. Lydia is a member of the Stanford University Publishing Alumni and lectures regularly on books and publishing in today's world. Lydia is known as an innovator for combining books, technology and people in unique and entertaining ways. She resides on Hilton Head Island, SC and in the UK with her English husband, Jolyon Griffiths.

More information about Lydia's very impressive and unique career can be found at LydiaInglett.com and www.starbooks.biz.

MARK MOTTERN (88).  Mark has had a very distinguished career in the field of broadcast journalism.  He is a multiple Emmy Award-winning television producer for the nationally syndicated, entertainment news program Extra and has been awarded the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in reporting.  A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mark began his broadcasting career in Raleigh, North Carolina.  As a reporter for the local Fox television affiliate, Mark covered a wide variety of major news stories, served as a media witness to a state execution, and was honored by the Radio-Television News Directors Association for his reporting on the brutal murder of a law enforcement officer.

Mark continued his career as an investigative reporter/news anchor at the NBC affiliate in Wichita, Kansas. He exposed a convicted sex offender working as a school bus driver, helped to unlock a 25 year-old murder case centering on the BTK Strangler, and exposed a heartbreaking puppy mill.  He also reported on national news stories including the destruction leveled by a devastating F-4 tornado and provided round-the-clock, live coverage of a massive grain elevator explosion that killed seven trapped workers.  Mark's work earned him two Kansas Association of Broadcasters Awards and the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in reporting.

In 1999, Mark moved to the nation's second largest broadcast market and became a reporter for KCBS, the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles. His breaking news coverage included covering everything from wildfires to mudslides to the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261.  After the intense coverage of the September 11th attacks, Mark decided it was time to trade in hard news for the lighter side of broadcasting life.  As a Supervising Producer for Extra, Mark is often on the red carpet, covering movie premieres and major award shows including the Oscars, Grammys and Emmys.  Mark also can be seen on the field and on the court, providing coverage of major sporting events including the Super Bowl, World Series and NBA Finals. The show has taken Mark around the world from the Toronto Film Festival in Canada to the Cannes Film Festival in France and to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.  Mark's years of experience in interviewing, reporting and being both in front of and behind the camera has made him a valuable and respected producer in the industry.