I graduated from Vassar College in 1969 with a degree in psychology and minor in English. After a half dozen years developing show horses with my mother, including a two-time national champion amateur hunter and two national reserve champion hunters and jumpers, I got my first newspaper job, delivering weekly papers.
Quickly, I became weekend photographer. When the editor of the smallest of the four weeklies in Dutchess County, NY, quit on the Wednesday deadline day, I got that job, and stayed for six years. As the sole reporter, editor, photographer and delivery person, I loved every minute, and, thanks to terrific editors, learned so much and won quite a few state and national awards.
While at the University of Missouri Journalism School, I was fortunate to meet Steve Weinberg, then director of Investigative Reporters & Editors. After finishing my Master’s Degree, my luck continued as I joined the investigative team at Newsday, headed by the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Greene, who, in 1976, gathered reporters from 10 newspapers and broadcast stations to finish the reporting of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, mortally wounded by a bomb exploding when he went to interview a source about organized crime and land fraud.
At Newsday, I was one of four finalists for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, and won the Scipps Howard Public Service Award for database analysis of property tax records.
U.S. News & World Report recruited me in 1993 for my expertise in computer-assisted reporting, and I spent six years there on the investigative team. With other staff members, we were three times finalists for the National Magazine Award for public service.
In 1997, I went to southern West Virginia to write the first investigative story on mountaintop removal coal mining for a national publication. The article directly led to a landmark lawsuit and related cases that continue today. I left the magazine in 2000 to follow the case, with no idea how it would turn out. The result: a book, two documentaries and a feature film, both award winners.
Over the past decade and a half, I’ve had a small horse farm in northern Virginia, much like we did when I was growing up. Besides writing, I do some freelance horse and travel photography and work at a part-time job that immerses me in the many nationalities of my very diverse county.
POB 114 Lincoln, VA 20160 (703) 470-8382 cfdodge@msn.com
www.movingmountainsthemovie.com
https://www.facebook.com/movingmountainsthemovie
www.wvcoalfield.com
https://www.facebook.com/penny.loeb.3
EDUCATION
Vassar College: B.A. 1969
University of Missouri School of Journalism: M.A. 1988
WORK
1970-1976 Self-employed as horse trainer and amateur rider. Developed two national champions and three national reserve champions.
1977-1983 Editor and reporter for The Register Herald, a weekly newspaper in Dutchess County, N.Y.
1983-1984 Editor for Hudson Valley Green Times, an environmental journal in the
Hudson Valley of New York
1985-1986 Graduate School at University of Missouri School of Journalis
1987-1993 Reporter on investigative team at Newsday and New York Newsday
1993-1999 Senior editor on the investigative team at U.S. News & World Report
2000-present Freelance, book writing, screenplay writing, and horse farm manager. Southern Exposure, Blue Ridge, Home Power, Washington Post
2007 Book published: Moving Mountains: how one woman and her community won justice from big coal
2009 Book published: My Name is Angel: True Life Adventures of a Lady Donkey
2012 Film Moving Mountains
2013 Moving Mountains edited
2014 Finalist for Alicia Patterson Fellowship for project on flood remediation
2014-present Moving Mountains screens in theaters and film festivals.
JOURNALISM AWARDS
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for stories on corruption in public housing published in 1988
Finalist for the National Magazine Award three times: 1997 story on mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia, 1993 story on discrimination in special education, 1994 story on contamination of blood supply.
Scripps Howard Public Service: for 1991 stories on mishandling and inequities in property taxes in New York City.
SPJ Public Service two times: for 1993 story on discrimination in special education and 1994 story on contamination of blood supply.
Honorable Mention (Second Place) 1997 John B. Oakes Environmental Journalism Award for mountaintop removal story
Honorable Mention (Second Place) 1997 Kozik Environmental Reporting
Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, finalist 1993: discrimination in special ed.
UPI Missouri Feature Writing Story for 1986 magazine article on schizophrenic woman.
Bronze Award American Chiropractic National Health Care for 1986 series on Medicare.
First Place National Newspaper Association for 1982 Feature Writing.
Numerous state weekly newspaper awards 1981-1983.
Second Place Online Reporting Society of Environmental Journalists, Flooding, 2003
OTHER
Director of Investigative Reporters and Editors 1992-1998