Mitzi Perdue is the founder of Healthy U of Delmarva, a 6000-member organization dedicated to helping encourage healthy lifestyles on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It's aim is through encouraging exercise, healthy diets and smoking cessation to help individuals reduce their risk factors for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, lung disease and the other life-style related diseases.

Ms. Perdue writes a weekly column on philanthropy for the Daily Times. For 22 years she wrote a nationally syndicated column on the environment, first for the Capitol News Service and later for The Scripps Howard News Service. She has produced and hosted more than 400 half hour television shows for her weekly series, Country Magazine, broadcast on Sacramento's CBS affiliate, KXTV. Her syndicated television series, "Country Comments" aired twice weekly for two years on 76 stations.

Ms. Perdue is the Past President of the 35,000-member American Agri-Women, and she has served on the Board of Visitors, University of California at Davis Medical School, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, and was a U.S. Delegate for the United Nations Conference on Women. Since 1992 she has been a member of the Madison Council of the Library of Congress.

She has written 12 books, 6 monographs, and more than 1300 newspaper and magazine articles. Her hobby is making decorated eggs. Although she does sell them commercially, the most frequent use of them is as for fund raisers for charities.

Ms. Perdue received the Woman of the Year award from the Maryland Federation of Business and Professional Women, the Governor's Citation for Outstanding Service, and twice received the Volunteer of the Year Award from United Way's Lower Shore Chapter.

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Government from Harvard University and a Master's degree in Public Administration from George Washington University.