ADVISORY BOARD
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 activist, writer and retired lawyer. He is the author of the book Meatonomics (Conari Press, 2013), which looks at how food producers manipulate Americans to consume animal foods in extraordinary quantities. Dave is co-organizer of the Consortium-affiliated group Vegan Meditation and a level three Reiki master. 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 past 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 shopping malls 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 previously was the Executive Director of 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. He is now a professional vegan advocate who works to encourage plant-based lifestyles through support, education, and celebration. He currently is a Senior Philanthropic Specialist at the PETA Foundation.
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 served as the Treasurer of Creation Spirituality Communities from 2021-2024. He currently works as a first-year dean for OneSpirit Seminary. Nathan offers ministerial services to anyone needing them in the Chicagoland area. He lives in the western suburbs of Chicago with his husband, Rob and their wonderful rescue beagles Charlie and Piper.
Beth Ertz is a pianist, film composer and music director who has worked with many artists and major figures in the music world, including Elmer Bernstein, Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, Placido Domingo, Stevie Wonder, David Foster, Bette Midler, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Melissa Manchester, Karen Ziemba, and Chita Rivera. Beth has produced musical events at Lincoln Center, Town Hall, Symphony Space and the York, including tributes honoring the late Sheldon Harnick, Marvin Hamlisch, Chita Rivera, Alan Menken, Joel Grey and many others. Her recording studio, Pilotone Music, has been used for many albums and film scores. Beth loves her musical life and colleagues, but her heart of hearts is with projects and stories about animals, animal equality and welfare, environmental issues and vegan life, and she is honored to join the Compassion Consortium Advisory Board.
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.
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.
Rev. Carol Saunders is an ordained Unity and Interfaith Minister (One Spirit Interfaith Seminary); founder/host of The Spiritual Forum, a podcast ministry in Chicago; author of Wolf and the Lamb, an online ministry to awaken the world to the truth that we are all One; and author/compiler of the booklet, The Forgotten Teachings of Charles Fillmore: How Our Relationship with Animals Connects to Universal Love, Ethical Living, Spiritual Development and World Peace. She also is the co-organizer of the upcoming Vegan Spirituality Forum and Retreat at Unity Village, 2021 Vision: A World That Works for All. Her ministry is dedicated to the next moral frontier: widening our circle of compassion to include all sentient beings and to being a voice for the voiceless.
Pria Acharya is a vegan mindfulness teacher, author, abuse recovery coach and filmmaker. She is currently in post-production for the documentary short film, Do Not Harm and a related coffee table book. The film is an outcome and call to action after discovering rampant paradoxes with the primary precept to not harm within her global non-vegan cohort of 2,500 in her mindfulness meditation teacher certification program. She was compelled to explore her vegetarian Indian ancestral relationship with dairy, going back home to India after 15 years to face the truths and realities, sharing her journey. Her hope is the short film will serve as an introduction to a feature-length film, Holy Cow, with a related, detailed book. Watch the Do No Harm trailer.