Debra G. Leopold is the President of FIRST CLASS, Inc.. , a 25-year old independent, non-profit lifelong learning center in the heart of Washington, D.C.. In this capacity, she oversees the production and distribution of over 600,000 catalogs annually. Her creative marketing efforts have put FIRST CLASS, Inc. on the pages of The New York Times, Omni Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian Magazine, Glamour Magazine, and The Washington Post. In 1989, she received a small business development grant from Dun & Bradstreet and in 1990, she received a Creative Marketing award from The Learning Resources Network. She was most recently featured on "Working Woman" as Marshall's "Working Woman of the Month" and was recently honored by Channel 7 as a female entrepreneur. She was also a founding member of CALL (Center for the Advancement of Lifelong Learning). In 2001, the First Class Inc. website was named as one of the top 3 lifelong learning websites in the United States.

FIRST CLASS, Inc. has served the greater Washington metropolitan area which includes Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. since September, 1984 and is the only remaining independent learning program in what was once a field of seven schools. FIRST CLASS, Inc. enrolls approximately 8,000-10,000 students per year..