On Monday, March 2, 2015, The American Society of Baking (ASB) announced Laurie Gorton as its 2015 Robert A. Fisher Award (RAF) recipient recognizing her long-time, distinguished service to the organization and the baking industry. Laurie, a member of the Society of Bakery Women (SBW), is a 40-year member of the American Society of Baking and is only the second female to ever receive this award. “The Society of Bakery Women congratulates Laurie on this outstanding career achievement. No one is more deserving of this prestigious award than Laurie Gorton,” said SBW President Lee Sanders. Laurie Gorton, executive editor, Baking & Snack Magazine, is an expert in the baking industry and has served in a wide variety of ASB roles including the large task of indexing the annual Baking Tech meeting proceedings, and she currently serves on the ASB Hall of Fame Evaluation Committee. During her distinguished career, Laurie estimates that she has visited over 500 bakery and snack production facilities. She wrote and edited the 4th edition of the Baking Science and Technology textbooks – valuable and required reading for Kansas State University and American Institute of Baking students, and she also provided insightful presentations at many ASB annual technical conferences. Laurie began her career at Sosland Publishing in 1983 as editor for Baking Equipment and Bakers Digest and as associate editor of Milling & Baking News. She rose in the ranks to supervise the launch of the new Sosland publication that is now a monthly magazine re-named to Bake for the retail and in-store channels. When the bi-monthly Baking Equipment publication became a new monthly magazine, Baking & Snack, Laurie was named editor. Ten years later, Laurie became its executive editor. She also writes for the weekly Formulations Update e-newsletter and contributes to www.bakingbusiness.com Laurie’s achievements also include the 2013 AACCI Myron D. “Mike” Baustian Memorial Award for service to the organization and the industry. She is listed in Who’s Who in America. She is also a member of the Institute of Food Technologists. Ms. Gorton, graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a BA degree in journalism. “Laurie’s passion for the baking industry is reflected in her life’s work and in the significant contributions she has made, and continues to make, for the wholesale baking and snack industries,” concluded Lee Sanders.
