In 1967, Fields had hired George Lucas to help edit Journey to the Pacific (1968), which was a documentary film that she'd directed for the USIA.
Verna Fields and Marcia Lucas were nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing in 1974 for their work on American Graffiti; while the film won no Academy Awards, both of the Lucases, Murch, and Fields all won Academy Awards for later work.