Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 05: GOVERNANCE – Board of Trustees
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Trustees
Elizabeth Culbreth, PMSS Teacher (1963), Trustee (1979-2018)
Elizabeth “Libby” Culbreth Vanderstar (b. 1942)

ELIZABETH CULBRETH Trustee

Student Teacher, Community School, 1963
PMSS Board Member, 1979 – 2018 

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TAGS: Elizabeth Culbreth Trustee, Berea College, Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees, Berea College Board of Trustees, Vanderbilt Law School, student teachers, elementary education, U.S. Supreme Court, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Federal Trade Commission, Howard Baker, Senate Select Committee, U.S. Senate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, U.S. Department of Labor, Community School, John Vanderstar

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Elizabeth “Libby” Culbreth has a remarkable record of achievement and commitment at local and national levels. During her years of national service, she kept close ties with her alma mater, Berea College, and also with Pine Mountain Settlement School (PMSS) where she served in 1963 as a student teacher and later as a PMSS Board member for many years.

ELIZABETH CULBRETH: Education and National Service

Following her graduation from Berea College in 1964, Libby attended Vanderbilt Law School where she received her LL.B. degree. She holds membership in both Tennessee and the District of Columbia bars, and is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court.

Her first appointment following her graduation from Vanderbilt was with the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) where she was employed as Staff Attorney from 1968 until 1975.

Libby then moved on to the position of Staff Attorney for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC. While there, she came to the attention of Tennessee Senator, Howard Baker, who asked her to serve on the Senate Select Committee on Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (Church Committee), a position she held from 1975-1976.

Following that appointment, she returned to work for the TVA until February 2, 1981, when she received another call to Washington, this time to an appointment as Deputy Legal Counsel for the U.S. Senate, a position she held throughout U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s administration. She remained in Washington following her work in the Reagan administration where she was employed by the Office of Administrative Appeals for the United States Department of Labor as the Director of the Office.

ELIZABETH CULBRETH: Berea College

A 1964 graduate of Berea College, Libby stayed in touch with the school throughout her years in government positions. She served as President of the Alumni Association and in 1978 as the alumni-elected member of the Berea Board of Trustees. Her time with the board turned into more than forty years, including six times as Chair of the Berea Board. Libby was the longest sitting board member in the history of the Berea College Board of Trustees.

Among her many awards, Libby received the 1984 Berea College Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2012 she received the Alumni Loyalty Award.

ELIZABETH CULBRETH: Pine Mountain

Libby’s interest in the small settlement school at Pine Mountain began when she came as a Berea College student teacher in 1963 and taught during Harlan County’s struggle to consolidate local schools. At PMSS, she taught in the grade school known as the Community School, which began when the Pine Mountain Settlement School boarding program closed in 1949 and the children of the community were without a nearby educational program. Burton Rogers, the first principal of the Community School, and his wife Mary became close friends of Libby in the years she taught at Pine Mountain.The Community School operated until the late 1960s when the Harlan County School at Green Hills was created.

In the late 1970s, while serving as a Trustee of Berea College, Culbreth also assumed responsibilities on the Board of Trustees of the Pine Mountain Settlement School. She served on the Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees from 1979 until Spring of 2018, making her the longest serving member of that Board, as well as that of Berea.

While serving on the Berea College Board and on the Pine Mountain Board, Libby worked with Francis Hutchins, Willis Weatherford, John Stephenson, and Larry Shinn, four Berea presidents who also served on the Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees. Further, she served as counsel to board committees, to directors and interim directors, to Burton Rogers, Alvin Boggs, Robin Lambert, Paul Hayes, Bill Caudill, Nancy Adams, Penne Lane, Mariam ‘Mim’ Pride, and most recently, Geoff Marietta, In particular, she provided assistance during the negotiation of the “Lands Unsuitable for Mining” petition.

In recognition of her dedicated service to Pine Mountain, Libby’s colleagues on the Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees, have established a memorial book collection in her name. The ELIZABETH CULBRETH Appalachian Book Collection, located in the Library (formerly “Boys House”) on the PMSS campus, is based on titles that Libby identified among her Appalachian favorites, or that were in her possession, or were newly purchased from funds generously donated by members of the Board of Trustees.

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Born in Waynesville, North Carolina, in 1942, Libby grew up in this small western North Carolina town where her father had a retail business. Many summers were spent as a camp counselor for the camp her father ran. It was to her hometown in Waynesville that Libby returned with her husband John Vanderstar, when they both retired in 2013, following her years in the Washington DC area.

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Title	Elizabeth Culbreth
Alt. Titles	Libby Culbreth ; Liz Culbreth ; Elizabeth Vanderstar ;
Identifier	ELIZABETH CULBRETH Trustee
Creator	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Alt. Creator	Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;
Subject Keyword	Elizabeth Culbreth ; Pine Mountain Settlement School ; Berea College; Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees ; Berea College Board of Trustees ; elementary education ; lawyers ; Howard Baker ; Tennessee Valley Authority ; TVA ; Waynesville, NC ; Deputy Legal Counsel US Senate ; John Vanderstar ; United States Department of Labor ;
Subject LCSH	Culbreth, Elizabeth, — b. 1942. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Education — Kentucky — Harlan County. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern. Law and legislation — United States. Draft — Law and legislation. United States. — Department of Justice — Rules and practice. Confidential communications — Lawyers — United States. Right to counsel — United States. Corporation law — United States — Criminal provisions. United States. — Department of Justice. Right to counsel. United States.
Date	2015-03-24 hw ; 2019-11-18 hhw ;
Publisher	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY
Contributor	n/a
Type	Collections ; text ; image ;
Format	Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet
Source	Series 05: GOVERNANCE ; Series 09: BIOGRAPHY.
Language	English
Relation	Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 05: GOVERNANCE ; Series 09: BIOGRAPHY.
Coverage Temporal	1942 – 2019
Coverage Spatial	Pine Mountain, KY ; Berea, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; Waynesville, NC ; Washington, DC ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor	n/a
Description	Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of Ellizabeth Culbreth ; clippings, photographs, books by or about Ellizabeth Culbreth ;
Acquisition	n/d ; book collections 8/2019
Citation	Elizabeth Culbreth Trustee. Series 05: GOVERNANCE ; Series 09: BIOGRAPHY. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Processed By	Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;
Last Updated	2015-03-24 hhw ; 2015-09-12 aae ; 2018-10-14 aae ; 2019-03-19 hhw ; 2019-08-28 aae ; 2019-11-18 hhw ; 2020-01-03 hhw ; 2022-04-13 aae ; 2023-02-08 aae ;
	Sources Alumna Elizabeth Culbreth to Speak at Berea College Mid-Year Graduation. Barnes v. Kline International CCR Docket 1984-1985  January 1, 1984.

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See Also:
ELIZABETH CULBRETH Appalachian Book Collection

“Elizabeth Culbreth, ’64; Alumni Loyalty Award.” Berea College Magazine, Summer/Fall 2012, page 36. Accessed 2022-04-13. Internet resource.

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