LOUISVILLE, Ky. - TelAve -- The Daphne Zepos Teaching Endowment (DZTE) announced the recipient of its annual $8175 Daphne Zepos Teaching Award (DZTA) scholarship to long time cheese veteran and immigration and labor law specialist Lynne Affleck at the American Cheese Society conference in Louisville, KY in July of 2026. She is the 13th recipient of the award since it was established in 2012. Lynne will spend the next year travelling internationally to learn how other countries have implemented immigration reform to the favor of the dairy industry in order to build sustainable grass-roots support for the US.

"I spent twenty years before working in cheese as an immigration and labor lawyer in Washington DC so I am very familiar with the work behind immigration and labor reform.  This has provided me a third-eye that I have turned toward a city I now call home in my new career as a cheesemonger that faces immigration and labor as a real pressing issue daily - Los Angeles" says Spencer.

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"Many may be uncomfortable to address this issue or unsure of how to have a constructive conversation about it without it leading into a deconstructive debate.  The DZTE is aware of this but in the true spirit of Daphne Zepos, our founder and leader, we do not shy away from these issues - we just find ways to address them through proper stewards and shepherds who can best articulate on these subjects," says DZTE Executive Director Rachel Juhl.

About Lynne Affleck

Lynne Affleck has been a humble and proactive member of the cheese community for more than a dozen years as the buyer for a Los Angeles cheese shop. Providing stability for a shop that isn't even her own, but treating it as if she is the owner, Lynne brings a sense of stability, professionalism and warmth to everything she does.  Refusing to stay tied down, she has also immersed herself in the American Cheese Society community where she has served as a steward for the annual competition, official conference cheesemonger, and on the Conferece Education Committee.

Lynne will present the findings from her research at the American Cheese Society conference in July of 2027. You may follow their journey on Instagram @dzte2022.

To read her vision, visit our website https://www.dzte.org/