Linda Leuzzi: Author/Journalist/Environmental Writer

Linda Leuzzi, the editor of the Long Island Advance, is an award-winning journalist whose articles have won several New York Press Association Awards including First Place In-Depth Reporting for her 2010 series on North Bellport crime and Second Place In-Depth Reporting for her 2009 Legacy Village articles. Other NYPA awards have included News and Spot News categories as well as First Place for Sports feature. She has also been honored with community awards from the South Country Community Conference, a civic group that addresses issues in the East Patchogue, North Bellport and Brookhaven areas as well as the Smith-Wever American Legion Post in Sayville for her stories promoting their causes.

Linda is also the author of 8 non-fiction books. To the Young Environmentalist was chosen as a Talking Book and Life Connections: Pioneers in Ecology and A Matter of Style: Women in the Fashion Industry, all Franklin Watts-Scholastic Books, received the New York Public Library's annual citation, Books for the Teen Age nod. While she enjoys interviewing local folks, some famous celebrities she's sat across for interviews include Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhhart, actor Lou Diamond Phillips, couture designer Carolina Herrera as well as Tracy Reese, composer and author Mary Rodgers, Noble Prize winner Dr. Sherry Rowland, MacArthur Fellow Patricia Wright, and Harlem restauranteur Sylvia Woods of Sylvia's restaurant. Notable science greats interviewed include oceanographer Sylvia Earle, astronaut Scott Carpenter and former NBC wildlife correspondent and ecologist, Jim Fowler.

Linda graduated from St. John's University with a B.S. in Journalism. Persistence and an investigative nature has compelled her to slosh through swamps, hop in outboards in skirts, hike through empty lots in high heels and read through reports no one else wants to tackle. European travel with her husband, walks through preserves, playing with her dogs Max and Sheba, trips to New York City museums and attending musical theatre balance her writing life. She is currently listed in Who's Who of American Women, is an Honorary Rotarian, and has hosted several Rotary exchange students. Her recent book My Year As the Italian Girl was serialized in the Long Island Advance.

Here's Linda (red dress) on assignment in front of the Patchogue Theatre with Patchogue Pedicab owners (left to right) Ed Shine, Stephanie Smith and driver David Space with chivalrous Monty Python's Spamalot knights, actors Kevin Metzger, Matt Nolan, BJ Olsen, Kevin Gutches and Brett Figel.