September 13, 2003 NR 12-03

Ann Parrish, who headed the Renaissance Project that resulted in the renovation of UAA’s Lucy Cuddy Center and the revitalization of the Center’s Hospitality and Culinary Arts curriculum, is this year’s recipient of the Edith R. Bullock Prize for Excellence in service to the university.

Parrish, a former chair of the UA Board of Regents, is active in UAA’s College of Fellows and serves as First Vice President of the UA Foundation Board of Trustees. She is a 1978 graduate of UAA.

Under Ann’s leadership, approximately $700,000 was raised from private and public sources to renovate the Cuddy Center which serves as the primary teaching facility for the culinary arts program. The renovation includes the addition of a restaurant that provides real world experience for the students and outstanding food for those lucky enough to secure reservations for the daily lunch offerings. As part of the fund-raising for the culinary program, Parrish founded the Celebrity Chef Invitational event which has been held every year since 1993. This year the gala fund-raiser will be held Sept. 17 when UA President Mark R. Hamilton will present her with the Bullock Award.

“The University of Alaska has long benefited from Ann Parrish’s dynamic vision and her extraordinary ability to get things done,” Hamilton said. “She is a leader who greatly deserves the honor of the Bullock Prize.”

The very first Celebrity Chef Invitational was deemed a huge success and netted approximately $40,000, which it has done each year since. Last year the program celebrated the 10th Annual Celebrity Chef Invitational with Celebrity Chef Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook! fame. Former Celebrity Chef participants include Jon Hill, the former White House chef during the Reagan administration, and» Emily Moore, a nationally-known chef from Washington state. This year’s Celebrity Chef is Wolfgang Von Weiser, executive chef at the Four Seasons Las Vegas in the Bellagio Hotel.

In addition to her volunteer activities for the university and for Junior Achievement of Alaska, Parrish is a Certified Public Accountant who was with the national firm of Arthur Young & Co. from 1976 through 1987. She is currently president, CEO, Board Chair and co-founder of Innovative Cooking Enterprises, Inc., an Anchorage-based publisher of the Electric Bread» (registered trademark) line of gourmet bread machine recipe books that have sold over a million copies.

Parrish and her company are nationally recognized as experts on bread machines and bread machine baking. She has appeared on numerous television and radio shows throughout the country, and has been interviewed by more than 100 consumer and trade publications as a resource for bread machine information.

The late Edith R. Bullock, a former regent and benefactor of the university, established the Bullock Prize for Excellence which is given annually by the University of Alaska Foundation Board of Trustees. The award is accompanied by $15,000, which makes it one of the largest of its kind among American universities.

For more information: Bob Miller, 907 474-6311