William Peace University (http://www.peace.edu), a private four-year university located in the heart of downtown Raleigh, will welcome Alumna Fanny Slater ’10 to Kenan Hall as part of the Duke Energy Honors Leadership Speaker Series on February 26 at 3:30 p.m. Slater, who won last year's “Great American Cookbook Challenge” on the Rachael Ray Show, will speak to the WPU Community (Alumni, faculty, staff, students and the general public) and show clips from the show, as well as home video clips of her cooking as a child.

Slater owns the Wilmington-based Fanfare Catering, is a known-foodie, blogger and writer, and was most recently named by the Wilmington StarNews as one of "12 to Watch." She earned a B.A. in English from Peace in 2010 and launched Fanfare in her hometown in June 2013. By November, Slater and 1,000 other eager young cooks entered the Rachael Ray Show’s “Great American Cookbook Challenge,” which she later won in May 2014. Her cookbook is currently in the final writing stages and is set to launch by the middle of 2015 with Rachel Ray Books, an imprint of The Atria Publishing Group.

“Each year we look forward to the Duke Energy Honors Leadership Speaker Series and local North Carolina guest artists, lecturers, and writers,” said Debra M. Townsley, Ph.D., President of William Peace University. “This year is no different as we welcome Alumna Fanny Slater back home to share her personal experiences and achievements with students, faculty, staff and the greater Raleigh community, which is sure to bring excitement to campus. These presentations are generously brought to the community by Duke Energy, which we thank for its sponsorship of this semester’s events.”

“I’ve seen Fanny on television so it’s really exciting that she’s coming to campus,” said Sarah Urman ’17. “I remember when Alumna Emily Fortune Feimster came for a comedy show last year. It’s really cool that the University is bringing in celebrities to speak with us.”

Tickets for the event are available online at no cost. For more information on that, please visit: www.peace.edu/events/all.