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The following persons have graciously agreed to serve as members of The Compassion Consortium Advisory Board and to provide their guidance and advise in our efforts to fulfill our mission:

  • Dave Simon, (Chair) is a vegan lawyer, writer and activist. He is the author of the book Meatonomics (Conari Press, 2013), which looksat how to fix the broken market for animal foods in the U.S. Dave is also a level three Reiki master and the founder and co-organizer of the group Meditation and Mindfulness for Vegans. In addition to his support of Compassion Consortium, Dave is on the boards of directors of the Animal Protection and Rescue League and the APRL Fund. His legal work on behalf of animals and animal advocates has included lawsuits against rodeos, a horse racetrack, a marine park, the U.S. Coast Guard, foie gras producers and retailers, retailers who sell animals from puppy mills, and malls throughout California that stifle animal activism.

  • Patti Breitman is an advocate for health and animals, a writer and an expert public speaker who left a very successful career in the publishing industry to devote herself fulltime to vegan altruism and activism. Patti identifies as both a Jew and a Buddhist, and is a co-founder of Dharma Voices for Animals, the organization encouraging Buddhists to discover and adopt the principles of compassion for all beings that are central to the Buddha's teachings. During her dazzling career as an agent, she represented many of the authors who put veganism on the map, including John Robbins, Dr. Neal Barnard, Ingrid Newkirk, Howard Lyman, and Victoria Moran. Patti is also a writer herself, and co-author of: How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty (with Connie Hatch),  How to Eat Like a Vegetarian, Even If You Never Want to Be One (with Carol J. Adams), Never Too Late to Go Vegan; The Over 50 Guide to Adopting and Thriving on a Plant Based Diet (with Carol J. Adams and Virginia Messina, RD, MPh) and Even Vegans Die: A Practical Guide to Caregiving, Acceptance, and Protecting Your Legacy of Compassion (with Carol J. Adams and Virginia Messina, RD, MPh).

  • Jeffrey Spitz Cohan is the Executive Director of Jewish Veg. Jeffrey came to Jewish Veg after successful careers in journalism and Jewish communal service. A vegetarian since 2007 and a vegan since 2010, Jeffrey has a Master's in Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Jewish Veg is a charitable organization that, as an expression of Jewish values, builds community to encourage plant-based lifestyles through support, education, and celebration.

  • Rev. Nathan DeMay is an ordained Interfaith Interspiritual minister and graduate of OneSpirit Seminary in New York City. He is also a certified Church Executive and has a certificate from the University of Vermont Companion Animal End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate program. He is multilingual and holds a BS in International Business from Illinois State University. Having been enchanted by the natural world his entire life, he loves animals and the environment. He is the current Treasurer of Creation Spirituality Communities. Nathan offers ministerial services to anyone needing them in the metro-Atlanta area. He lives in Atlanta with his husband, Rob and their wonderful rescue beagle Charlie.

  • Sara Eifler (she/her) is the Director of Programming of Jewish Veg, a national nonprofit that, as an expression of Jewish values, builds community to encourage plant-based lifestyles through support, education, and celebration. She holds a BA from Brandeis University and is a current rabbinic student at ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. Sara believes in a Jewish ethic of responsibility and care toward animals and the earth and is passionate about global food justice. 

  • Carissa Kranz -- a vegan from birth -- is the CEO and founder of a global company, an internationally known lawyer who runs a multi-state law firm, a national television legal expert, an author, a philanthropist, a yogi and a former prima ballerina. Carissa has been seen her on television networks and shows like: Fox, CNN/HLN, CBS, NBC, Nancy Grace, Dr. Drew, and The Doctors. When Carissa met Jane Velez-Mitchell, award-winning television host and vegan, she decided to focus her energy onto the Laws That Matter, a television series on Jane Unchained News Network for the Voiceless (JNN), Roku, and on the Laws That Matter YouTube channel. Carissa founded BeVeg International, the world's first and only accredited vegan standard by ISO 17065 and 17067.  Before BeVeg, Carissa's law firm filed a legal petition for rule-making to shut down live animal markets, pro bono, during the Covid crisis, and continuously strives to give a voice to those in need. Carissa has authored the first vegan law book in the United States entitled Vegan Law: Know Your Rights, and the Laws That Matter, a spiritual law book that acts as a guide to teach you how to win life's trials by practicing Universal Law within the framework of legal procedure and law. 

  • Lisa Levinson directs In Defense of Animals’ Sustainable Activism Campaign, offering emotional and spiritual resources for animal activists, and co-directs the Wild Animals Campaign, advocating for wild animals. She founded Vegan Spirituality to explore veganism as a spiritual practice and co-founded the Interfaith Vegan Coalition, which provides resources for faith-based vegan advocacy. She also co-founded Public Eye: Artists for Animals to teach compassion for animals through the arts and started the Toad Detour to help migrating toads safely cross the road in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  • Duke McLeod is a practicing Sufi Muslim and emerging Islamic scholar. Duke is a PhD researcher in Social Anthropology at the University of Otago in Aotearoa, New Zealand. His research interest is the relationship of religiosity and lifestyle, in particular Muslims’ attitudes towards different aspects of veganism. After studying Middle Eastern Archaeology at the Freie Universität in Berlin, Duke switched to Social Anthropology for his postgraduate studies at Otago. In his dissertation “A path of Justice and Compassion – About Vegan Muslims and Islamic Veganism” he explored the intersection of Islam and veganism, with a focus on online advocacy. This laid the groundwork for his current PhD project, in which Duke investigates the roles of different aspects of Muslims’ religiosity (beliefs, practices, affiliation, etc.) and social environments (families, support, social pressure) in their decisions to adopt and practice a vegan lifestyle. His research is motivated by the aim to learn more about potential factors that may lead Muslims to adopt a vegan lifestyle and thus creating information that can be utilized in vegan advocacy work in Muslim contexts.

  • Gopal D. Patel has been a faith-based environmental activist, campaigner and consultant for over 10 years, working in India, East Africa, Europe and North America. A recognized global leader in the religious environmental movement, he works regularly with religious and spiritual communities in addressing our current environmental crises. Gopal has been honored for his work by Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace, spoken at the White House, and is regularly invited to speak at the UN. He is Co-Founder and Director of Bhumi Global, a non-profit organization that works to educate and mobilize Hindu communities globally for environmental action, and currently serves as an Advisor on Religion and Sustainable Development to the United Nations. Born and raised in the England, he currently lives with his wife in the New York City Metro Area. 

  • Martin Rowe is the executive director of the Culture & Animals Foundation, and the co-founder of Lantern Books and Lantern Publishing & Media. The author of a number of books, including Nicaea: A Book of Correspondences and The Animals Are Leaving Us (with photos by Jo-Anne McArthur), he holds a master's degree in Religious Studies from New York University. 

  • Gayatri Sehgal (they/she) is a queer and nonbinary first generation Indian American. Gayatri was raised Hindu and has always held a deep curiosity towards all spiritual modalities, especially in how these understandings impact our ethics towards oppressed groups and the interconnectedness of our suffering. Her current practice is heavily influenced by Yoga, Buddhist mindfulness, as well as Sufi and bhakti mysticism. She currently is pursuing a graduate program in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University. Gayatri’s focus today is primarily upon illuminating the overlaps in intersectional feminist, environmental justice, and animal rights principles. Gayatri utilizes the wisdom of yogic disciplines to inform her process upon the path of activism and service. She also creates content on these topics as well as her journey on social media platforms under the alias of @goddessgaya.

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