Mary Petersen is currently the president of CAFE (Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education) and Editor-in-Chief of CAFE’s on-line magazine, The Gold Medal Classroom.  CAFE is an organization designed to partner foodservice educators with industry as well as to provide resources for the culinary/baking/pastry classroom.  For the past 20 years, she has been committed to providing an interactive web site, an on-line magazine as well as regional and national meetings focused on sharing best practices among foodservice instructors.
Organizations that have honored Mary with major awards for her work include:  the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education; the Honorable Order of the Golden Toque; the American Culinary Federation; the International Foodservice Editorial Council and the Cordon d’Or.
Mary has a B.S. degree from the University of NC at Greensboro and a M.S. degree from Rochester Institute of Technology.  In 2002 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Art Institute of Colorado.