Peace Begins in the Kitchen......Go Vegan!!

 

PRESENTERS SO FAR:

Emceeing VegOut
Joe Connelly: Founder and editor of VegNews Magazine

Kari Bagnall; Jungle Friend
Kari Bagnall is founder and director of Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, a non-profit organization offering a safe haven for monkeys in need of permanent sanctuary care. Jungle Friends is home to over 100 new-world monkeys. Most were cast off from the exotic pet trade, others were retired from laboratory research and some were confiscated by the authorities. Kari was introduced to a vegetarian lifestyle nearly 40 years ago. Today, vegetarian communal living is a part of the Jungle Friends experience for interns and volunteers from around the world. As part of the sanctuary culture, people are encouraged to adopt a vegan lifestyle, to have compassion for all of the Earth's remarkable inhabitants.

Don Barnes; Texas Vegan Chili Cook-off Champ
Don Barnes is the founder and owner of Affordable Cat Fence www.catfence.com in San Antonio, Texas. He has spent over 25 years in many areas of AR activism at both the national and grassroots levels. He was the Wash. D C  representative for the National Anti-Vivisection Society for 10 years and the Southern Field Rep. for the Animal Protection Institute. Don has been seen and heard on hundreds of tv and radio programs and he has written numerous articles for animal liberation. He was a consultant on the film "Project X".  Don was an animal researcher in the 70's but he is now a proud vegan for over 25 years. Don's team has won the First Place People's Choice Award in the last three Annual Texas Vegan Chili Cook-offs.

Gene Baur; Farm Sanctuary
Gene Baur campaigns to raise awareness about the negative consequences of industrialized factory farming and our cheap food system. He lives in rural New York state and is the co founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, America's leading farm animal protection organization, which runs the largest rescue and refuge network for farm animals in North America. Gene holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from California State University Northridge and a master's degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University.

Chas Chiodo; Vegan Activist/Chef/Organizer
Chas Chiodo is the founder/director of VegEvents, an educational/activist organization with a vegan perspective. Chas has organized the annual Compassion for Animals Action Symposium. VegEvents promotes the vegan lifestyle through conferences, workshops, seminars, cooking demonstrations, catering and concession booths at festivals. Chas has been an vegan activist since 1975 when he read the book "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer. He's been involved with the AR movement since early 1980. Chas volunteered and later worked for PETA when they were formed in the early 80's and was their first vegan outreach coordinator. VegEvents was founded in 1987 and has been involved in many events too numerous to list here.

Joe Connelly; Publisher/Editor VegNews Magazine
Joe Connelly had no idea when he started the Syracuse Area Vegetarian Education Society in 1996 to where it would lead. After running a local organization for four years, he realized the country needed a national publication to unify the vegetarian movement and, together with Colleen Holland, launched the magazine in 2000. Joe came to vegetarianism from a passion for environmental issues and compassion for animals. Since beginning publication in 2000, VegNews has become the most talked about vegetarian magazine. The premier magazine to focus on a vegetarian lifestyle, VegNews offers its readers up-to-date information on living a compassionate and healthy lifestyle.

JC Corcoran; "Joyfully Veganizing Your Community"
JC Corcoran co-founded and was president of VegMichigan, the state’s largest vegetarian organization, for many years.  He has a BS in Emergency Medicine and is a certified fitness instructor. JC has been leading life altering programs on health and the environment for over a decade now. His critically acclaimed talks empower people to make informed and lasting changes in their lives. Recently he co-counded VegFund.Org which helps vegan activist spread the word through food.

Karen Davis; United Poultry Concerns
Karen Davis is the founder and President of United Poultry Concerns, Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl and includes a sanctuary. She has a PhD in English from the University of Maryland-College Park where she taught for 12 years in the English Department and pioneered a course on the role of animals in the Western philosophic and literary tradition in the University Honors Program. She has also authored numerous essays, articles, and books. Karen is the author of A Home for Henny; Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey: A Poultryless ‘Poultry’ Potpourri; Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry; More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality and The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities (Lantern Books 2005). United Poutry Concerns website is www.upc-online.org

George Eisman; RD
George Eisman, RD is considered one of the nation's foremost educators on vegetarian nutrition. He has served as a faculty member in Dietetics and Nutrition at several universities and colleges and created the first accredited program in Vegetarian Studies. He has spoken at numerous events and conferences and is the author of two books, The Most Noble Diet (1994) and A Basic Course in Vegetarian and Vegan Nutrition (2003).

Sophia Erlsten, M.Ed. in Humane Education
After reading a “Why Vegan” pamphlet in high school, Sophia adopted a vegan lifestyle and became a dedicated advocate for the rights of human and non-human animals as well as for the protection of the environment. Sophia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. She recently earned her Master of Education degree in Humane Education from the Institute for Humane Education and Cambridge College. Sophia develops and runs both children’s and humane education areas at community festivals in Central Florida and has compiled a guide to help people develop their own humane education centers. At these centers, children, adults and teachers receive information on issues affecting humans, animals and the environment, whilst engaging in stimulating activities and workshops that inspire compassion and positive action. As the assistant organizer of Animal Activist of Central Florida and Vegetarians of Central Florida, Sophia helps develop several events, including Central Florida Veg Fest and Central Florida Earth Day.

Susan Hargreaves; humaneeducatorsreachingout.com
Susan Hargreaves is a 28 year veteran of the Humane and Environmental movement. Susan is the former director of Humane Education at the Wildlife Care Center in Fort Lauderdale. She has served as Chairperson for EarthSave International's Miami Chapter. Susan was President of ARK-II, the Canadian Animal Rights network, she hosted and piloted the first radio series in Toronto dedicated to animal protection, as well as hosting radio programs in South Florida on the subject. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Educator Award presented by Share the World, an international humane education organization and the founder of http://www.humaneeducatorsreachingout.com/

Dave Hoch; Animal Law Activist
David Hoch taught courses in law and ethics at the University of Florida, as well as an animal rights seminar in the law school. He has a bunch of boring sounding law degrees, and has been known to offer the occasional political opinion. Dave has been involved with the AR movement for many years. He is a child of the 60's. You may think that makes him old but as Bob Dylan sang he "was so much older than, he's younger than that now."

Heart Phoenix; Raising Vegan Children
Heart Phoenix has raised five vegan children. A vegan for 32 years and a voice for nonviolence, Heart Phoenix has been active in the environmental, animal rights and peace and justice movements. She is a Facilitator of Gender Healing Workshops, Inspirational Breath Trainer and Spiritual Counselor. She has served as President of the Board of Directors of The Peace Alliance for the past six years and is currently serving on that Board as Secretary. Heart lives in the country in northern Florida with her husband Jeffrey, a Mediator, as well as her children and grandchildren who share her passion for a healthy and healed world.

Sherry Schlueter; Raw Foodist/Wild Life Care Center
Sherry Schlueter is the director of the Wildlife Care Center in Ft. Lauderdale Florida a HSUS project. Sherry was Detective Lieutenant with the Broward County Sheriff’s Department and Supervisor of the Abuse and Neglect Investigation Unit. Sherry speaks world wide on the relationship of animal abuse to human violence and has authored successful legislation at local and state levels on behalf of animals. Sherry has been a raw food vegan for many years.

Paul Shapiro; HSUS
Paul Shapiro is the director of the Factory Farming Campaign of the Humane Society of the U.S. Prior to working at the Humane Society of the United States, in 1995 Shapiro founded the animal advocacy organization Compassion Over Killing and served as its campaigns director until 2005. The organization became well-known for its investigative work exposing conditions for farm animals on factory farms, at livestock auctions, and at slaughter plants. Shapiro helped spearhead the campaign to end the use of the "Animal Care Certified" logo on egg cartons in the United States. In that case, the g industry was labeling eggs from hens confined in battery cages as "Animal Care Certified." After Better Business Bureau rulings, federal petitions, investigations at "Animal Care Certified" egg facilities leading to media expos?s, and other efforts, in September 2005, the Federal Trade Commission announced that the logo would be removed from egg cartons nationwide.

Rae Sikora; Plant Peace Daily
Rae Sikora has been a spokesperson for animals, the environment, and human rights for over 25 years.  Her innovative programs have been changing people’s vision of what is possible to create in our lives and in the world.  Rae has worked internationally with participants ranging from teachers, students, businesses and activists to prisoners.   As co-founder of the International Institute for Humane Education, Rae created interactive critical thinking tools that are now being used by teachers around the globe.  She holds degrees in cultural anthropology and environmental education from The University of Wisconsin.  Rae draws from years of experience to help individuals and groups discover how implementing changes personally/locally can bring about change globally. Recently Rae has co-founded VegFund.Org.

Zia Terhune; VegFund
Full-time animal advocate; founder of Veg4Life Potlucks in Gainesville FL, a vegan group that has been thriving since 2005; under her guidance, she and dedicated volunteers at Veg4Life have been distributing free food at events since 2007; has helped over 50 local rescue organizations, sanctuaries and AR groups form an umbrella coalition.

Organizers of Vegetarians of Central Florida, Central Florida Veg Fest, and Central Florida Earth Day (Larry Rumbough, Steve Erlsten, Sophia Erlsten, and Jessi VanPelt)

....more will be added as the weeks go by

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