USU Alum Jess Perrie of Beehive Cheese awarded Inaugural Teaching Award

Utah State University alum Jess Perrie was recently honored as the first winner of the Daphne Zepos Teaching Award. Perrie is employed at Beehive Cheese in Uintah, Utah. Perrie’s award was announced at the 2013 American Cheese Society Conference in Madison, Wis.

As the award-winner, Perrie  receives $5,000 to travel to Spain to learn about Basque cheesemaking. She will travel to Spain in April 2014 and then present her findings at the 2014 American Cheese Society Conference in Sacramento, Calif.

The Daphne Zepos Teaching Award (DZTA) is a new annual scholarship given to a food industry professional to further his or her learning about cheese with the goal of teaching others and making a lasting educational impact in the cheese world. The award is named in honor of Daphne Zepos, one of America’s most inspiring cheese teachers who passed away in 2012.

The DZTA committee selected Perrie from a national pool of cheese professionals.

Perrie earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and a master’s degree in food science from Utah State University in Logan. She has been a cheesemaker at Silver Moon Creamery in Maine and is now the wholesale director at Beehive Cheese Company, LLC in Uintah, Utah.

Related links:

• USU’s Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences
• USU College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
• Daphne Zepos Teaching Award
• American Cheese Society
• Beehive Cheese

Contact: Katie Johnson, Beehive Cheese Company, LLC, (559) 213-1955, katie@beehivecheese.com