The Pink Boots Society is an international professional association and USA 501(c)3 nonprofit. We inspire, encourage and empower women beer professionals to advance their careers through education. Our 1,000+ members are the female beer industry leaders of tomorrow, and they inspire women consumers to choose beer as their adult beverage of choice.

 

Teri Fahrendorf is well known as the mother of Pink Boots Society, and she has a professional history in beer spanning 26 years.  

 

Since 2009, Teri has been the Oregon-Washington Territory Manager for Country Malt Group, on the road visiting breweries and selling malt, hops, and other beer supplies to craft breweries.  

 

Prior to her stint as a beer clerk at Portland's premier beer & bottle shop, Belmont Station in 2008, and her epic 5-month Road Brewer trip in 2007 ( www.roadbrewer.com), Teri was a Brewmaster for 19 years, with 17 of those at Steelhead Brewing Company in Eugene, Oregon where she lead Steelhead's expansion to five locations and earned eight Great American Beer Festival medals. She also was Head Brewer at Triple Rock Brewing Company (1990) and Golden Gate Brewing Company (1989), and was an intern at Sieben's River North Brewpub (1988). Plus she was the Siebel Institute's first female class president in 1988.  

 

Currently Teri continues to write technical articles, speak at conferences, and teach at some of our PBS Scholarship Partner's courses. You can read her published work at www.terifahrendorf.com.

 

Teri says, "Creating Pink Boots Society out of thin air and growing it to 12 annual scholarships, 30 US and International Chapters, nearly 150  volunteers, and 1,300 members worldwide has been the most difficult and most rewarding thing I've ever done. I am immensely proud of our volunteers and Emily for the work they've done, and I am forever grateful to my husband Jon Graber for his understanding and patience. As my favorite African proverb says, 'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.' PBS wouldn't have come this far without the great team that we have!"  

 

You can connect with Teri on Facebook.

Longtime Bend, OR, dweller Tonya Cornett has been with Pink Boots since the beginning. She attended the first meeting (2008, San Diego), and has served as technical director and informal advisor to the group. The R & D Brewmaster at 10 Barrel Brewing who won the World Beer Cup's small brewpub brew master of the year award in 2008 says she appreciates the "easy exchange of ideas and information" that happens between Pink Boots members.

 

"I have experience in the 'brewing' part of the industry that may be helpful to another member.  In turn there are members that are experts in areas of the industry that I am not," she writes.

 

So what hopes does she have for the future of her fellow PBS members?

 

"It is amazing how our numbers have grown. I would like the conversation, 'What's it like to be a woman in a male dominated industry?' to end," she says.

You can connect with Tonya at tcornett@10barrel.com. 

 

Each PBS Scholarship has three separate dates, and our ace Scholarship Administrator, Kris McDowell is the organizational powerhouse behind keeping it all straight. The schedules run like this:

Month A: Scholarship Application Window runs about the 5th to last day. Generally the deadline is the last day of the month at 11:59pm PST/PDT. Please don't wait till the last minute! (See next section for more on this.)

Month B: Scholarship Selection Committee (Team A or Team B, depending on the month) reviews and discusses all applications and resumes, and submits the name of their chosen Recipient on the last day of the month.

Month C: PBS leadership secures verbal commitment from Recipient that she will Pay It Forward (PIF), and receives their Scholarship Deposit. Non-recipients are notified via email.

Month C, 15th Day: Announcement of the Recipient is normally made via this E-Newsletter.

We now have one scholarship opportunity occurring each month, and two Scholarship Selection Teams operating. You can just imagine the volume of work happening behind the scenes. So please be patient with us! Thank you, and thank you for your help in fundraising for these scholarships.
 

August 5-31, 2014: Portland State University Basic Business for Craft Beverages application window.
September 5-30, 2014: TBD
October 5-31, 2014: TBD
November 5-30, 2014: TBD
December 5-31, 2014: Oregon State University's Craft Brewery Start-up Workshop II application window.

Please note that Recipients are not announced until 75 days after an application window opens! See above for How Scholarships Work.