Claire Gill has founded a new nonprofit, the National Menopause Foundation.  www.nationalmenopausefoundation.org  Its mission is to create a positive change in how people perceive, understand and experience menopause through education, peer-to-peer support, activism and research. The organization will be supported through individual and corporate giving. 
Claire at cgill@nationalmenopausefoundation.org welcomes input and volunteers to provide content and programs about managing menopausal symptoms and ideas to inspire women to thrive during midlife.

Ellen Kassoff and husband Chef Todd Gray were featured in an August 15 Eater.com article about their innovative solutions to reduce food waste at Equinox and their two restaurants at the Museum of the Bible.  Click here for the article. 

Julia Rutland authored two cookbooks that were published over the summer by Adventure Publications: Blueberries and On a Stick Cookbook: 50 Simple, Fun Recipes for the Campfire. Julia also completed coursework to become a Loudoun County Master Gardener.

Erinn Tucker, a co-founder of DMV Black Restaurant week, was included in a Washington City Paper feature about the Nov. 3-10 event.  Click here for the article.  In addition Erinn received a faculty immersion grant to Bangalore, India to study food and context for two weeks. With fourteen other hospitality faculty grantees, she cooked in the studio of Chef Shazia Khan, winner of Master Chef India Season 2, for two days. Khan also led the group on a food shopping trip through the historic Russell Market.
 
Janet Yu was featured in Alexandra Greeley's Local Cooks column in the final issue of Food Service  Monthly. Click here for the article. 

Ellen Kassoff Gray appeared on WAMU's The Kojo Nnamdi Show July 11 as part of a panel discussion about handling trash in DC and, specifically, to talk about how Equinox manages to compost its waste. Click here for more details.
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Chef/Owners Amy Brandwein, Centrolina, Ruth Gresser, Pizza Paradiso, and Danielle Harris were guests on WAMU's The Kojo Nnamdi Show June 6, for his program "Three Local Chefs On Owning Food Companies, Mentorship And Engaging With D.C." and Bettina Stern was a call in questioner.   https://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2019-06-06/three-local-chefs-on-owning-food-companies-mentorship-and-engaging-with-d-c 
 
Kristen Hartke's lovely story "To Commemorate a Loved One's Death, Some Turn to the Comfort and Memories of Food" appeared in the June 3 edition of The Washington Post 's Food section.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/to-commemorate-a-loved-ones-death-some-turn-to-the-comfort-and-memories-of-food/2019/05/31/c92989ec-7b2b-11e9-a5b3-34f3edf1351e_story.html?utm_term=.89f835226201
 

​CiCi Williamson did such an excellent job managing the Association of Food Journalists 2019 Awards Competition, she has been hired to manage the 2020 contest. This spring, CiCi handled a record 373 entries in 15 categories of food writing, videos, audios, and photos. Launched in 1986, AFJ's awards competition is the nation's longest-running contest for food journalists. 

Gladys Abi-Najm's family's restaurant, Lebanese Taverna, and Christina Ricchi's i Ricchi will receive the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington's 2019 Honorary Milestone RAMMY Awards at the organization's annual gala Sunday, June 30, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. This award commemorates local restaurants and RAMW members who have been in business for more than 25 years and is bestowed upon the Washington region's most celebrated dining institutions. 

Cecilia Glembocki created and presented the American Egg Board's commemorative egg to First Lady Melania Trump on April 22. Cecilia used quilling, a centuries-old art form whereby small, rolled strips of paper are shaped and glued together to make designs, to decorate the egg.  
 
Pati Jinich has won her second James Beard Foundation Award. "Pati's Mexican Table - Tijuana: Stories from the Border" received the top prize in the  Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location category.  The program airs locally on WETA-TV and is distributed nationally by American Public Television.

Amy Riolo received a Certificate of Recognition from the City of Baltimore for serving as chair of the Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria Sister City Committee.  Amy also was named the first honorary member of Baltimore Sisters Cities, Inc. for securing a $112,000 grant through the African Urban Poverty Alleviation Program to provide drinking water for a remote rural village in Egypt.

Linda Roth has assumed the role of CEO of LRA Associates where she will continue to supervise business and financial operations for her 37 year-old company that provides media relations, integrated marketing, digital content and special events. Long-time LRA vice president, Anthony Hesselius, has been named president. LRA is located in the burgeoning Adams Morgan neighborhood.

​Cathy Barrow's new book, Pie Squared: Irresistibly Easy Sweet & Savory Slab Pies (Grand Central Publishing), is a finalist for the Baking and Desserts category of the James Beard Foundations Book Awards. Cathy is clearly on a roll! Her first book, Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen was the IACP Award Winner for Best Single Subject Cookbook in 2015!
 
Najmieh Batmanglij was featured on PBS News Hour with Jeffrey Brown as she prepared her feast for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year holiday, and reminisced about her life in Iran, France and the U.S. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-culinary-tradition-for-the-persian-new-year
 
Amy Brandwein,  chef of Centrolina, her restaurant in DC's City Center, is a finalist for the Best Chef Mid-Atlantic from the James Beard Foundation. The JBF Gala awards ceremony will be held  Monday, May 6, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
 
Pati Jinich has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Culinary Host. https://emmyonline.tv/2019-daytime-emmy-awards/nominees-performer-non-drama-2019-daytime-emmy-awards/. Also, " Pati's Mexican Table" is a James Beard Foundation finalist for its Broadcast Media Award of best Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location. 2019 JBF Media Awards will take place on Friday, April 26, at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York City. 
 
Susan Soorenko is finally opening her Ellicott City Moorenko's Ice Cream at 8054 Main Street in April. The opening was delayed because of the flooding in Ellicott City last year. Susan will also have a shop within a shop (Serendipity and More on Prince Street) in Frederick later this Spring.      

Susan Barocas wrote an article, "Walking Distance to Everything,"  for the Washington Post Travel Section's March 17 edition.  The story described the walking accessibility of New Haven, Connecticut's rich food, culture and history scenes.  
 
Domenica Marchetti's story in the Washington Post Food Section on March 13, "It Takes Some Time but you too can Ragu," describes how to achieve the delicious complexity of the long-simmered Italian sauce.  
 
Tambra Raye Stevenson was accepted into American University's School of Communications PhD program in Fall 2019 with a merit award working with the AU Game Lab. Also Tambra's WANDA session proposal, "Gaming for Development: Using the Power of Games to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals" was accepted for the 2019 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in April.