Jonathan Balcombe Ph.D., M.S. - Animal Behavior Expert and Best-Selling Author
Animal behavior expert Jonathan Balcombe is a passionate advocate for animals and their living spaces. His best-selling books Pleasurable Kingdom and Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals present animals in a new light and fortell a revolution in the human-animal relationship. A PhD scientist and vegan, Balcombe’s dynamic message resonates with timely issues that affect everyone, including climate change, biodiversity, and personal health. He studied biology at Canada’s York University and Carleton University before earning a PhD in ethology (animal behavior) from the University of Tennessee. He has given invited presentations on six continents and written over 40 scientific papers and book chapters as well as lay articles on animal behavior and animal protection. Formerly Senior Research Scientist with Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Jonathan is now an independent consultant based in Maryland.
His newest book, The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure was released in May 2011. Jonathan's books will be available for purchase at the DC VegFest.
Great things get better with time, an old saying Brennan Gerald learned at Maret High School in Washington DC. As a DC native, it was only right that he returned to his home town once he'd earned his collegiate bachelors degree in marketing/management from the University of Delaware. Inspired to improve his health and overall energy, Brennan became vegetarian in 2008, soon followed by a transition to a vegan diet. His interest in healthy eating helped foster a new passion for making food that imparts wellness upon those who partake. As part of his goal to combat the plethora of unhealthy DC carry outs, he founded Dffrnt Wrld Deli, a menu development and catering service that shows restaurants how to "green" up their menu with healthier vegan cuisine. His dream is to have more restaurants in DC offer vegan raw food options, this way people have healthy food options on a much larger consumable scale.
Michael Greger, M.D. - The Humane Society of the United States
Dr. Michael Greger currently serves as the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States. A founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and a graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine, he is a physician, author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues. He has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, the International Bird Flu Summit, the National Institutes of Health, testified before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in the defense of Oprah Winfrey in the infamous "meat defamation" trial.
Dr. Greger's presentation "The Latest in Human Nutrition" is an engaging interactive quiz show format that lets you test your nutrition knowledge with some surprising outcomes. He scours the world's scholarly literature on clinical nutrition, focusing on the most recent studies published in peer-reviewed scientific nutrition journals, to offer practical advice on how best to feed ourselves to prevent, treat, and even reverse chronic disease. Learn more on his recently-launched and incredibly resourceful website, NutritionFacts.org.
Delegate Aruna Miller - District 15, Maryland
Delegate Aruna Miller represents District 15, Maryland's largest district, which includes Gaithersburg, Rockville, and much of Montgomery County. She chairs Serving Our Communities (SOC), an initiative to strengthen communities with volunteers to promote core Democratic values such as healthcare, education, and environmental preservation and sustainability. As a long-time vegetarian, Del. Miller participated in Compassion Over Killing's 2011 Maryland VegWeek celebration by encouraging her friends, family, and neighbors in District 15 to protect their health, the planet and animals by choosing vegetarian foods.
Del. Miller was born in India and moved to the U.S. in 1972. She lives in Montgomery County with her husband and three daughters, all of whom are also vegetarian.
Dawn Moncrieffe – Founder and Executive Director of A Well-Fed World
A Well-Fed World is a DC-based food justice and animal protection organization that distributes food to those in need, strengthens coalitions with other social justice groups, and provides global grants to feed families and save animals. Dawn Moncrieffe holds two Master’s degrees from The George Washington Univ: International Relations & Women's Studies, both with a focus on economic development. Her thesis, Rethinking Meat – Recentering Global Hunger Paradigms, kick-started her 10-year career demonstrating the connections between the (over)consumption of meat, the expansion of factory farming (which includes intensive confinement of animals and abusive practices), and the high prices of food and energy that thwart meaningful hunger solutions.
Dawn will provide a sneak peak at her current work, “The Meat Crisis and Gas Prices,” which outlines how meat-centric food choices and policies inflate gas prices and how Americans are especially well-positioned to create positive change.
Isa Chandra Moskowitz - Vegan Chef & Best-Selling Cookbook Author
Isa Chandra Moskowitz is a Brooklyn native who began her vegan cooking journey over twenty years ago at the age of sixteen. She's inspired by New York City's cuisine from all over the world, as well as her own Jewish heritage, and she loves to fuse the two. She is the creator of the Post Punk Kitchen and the author of several award-winning and best-selling vegan cookbooks, including Appetite for Reduction, Veganomicon, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and the upcoming Vegan Pie In The Sky. She’s been featured in major media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, and NPR’s Weekend Edition. She also writes the Bust food column titled "Nickel & Dined."
Isa will be hosting a cooking demonstration at this event as well as selling and signing some of her cookbooks.
Jim Motavalli - Environmental Writer/Speaker & former editor of E Magazine
Jim Motavalli writes on environmental topics for The New York Times, CBS MoneyWatch, NPR’s Car Talk, Mother Nature Network and PluginCars.com. His published articles include "Meat: The Slavery of Our Time" and "The Meat of the Matter." He is author or editor of six books, including Forward Drive: The Race to Build Clean Cars for the Future and Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Climate Change. His next book, High Voltage (about electric cars), will be published by Rodale in November. He is also a senior writer for E/The Environmental Magazine, a contributor to the Environmental Defense Fund publications and to Knowledge@Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania.
Motavalli is a two-time winner of the Global Media Award from the Population Institute, and hosts a radio program on WPKN-FM in Connecticut. He lectures widely on climate, transportation and population issues. As a long-time vegetarian, Jim will discuss the environmental impact of our dietary choices and why, if we care about the environment, we should leave animals off our plates.
Wayne Pacelle - President & CEO of The Humane Society of the United States
During his 17 years with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), including seven as president and CEO, Wayne Pacelle has played a leading role in transforming the nation’s largest animal protection charity, into a dynamic public force and voice for all animals. He has been the leading strategist for several successful ballot initiative campaigns that have outlawed cruel factory farming practices as well as cockfighting, negligent puppy mill operations and a host of other inhumane practices. Pacelle been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, and he's also appeared on major network television programs including 60 Minutes and News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Wayne will share insights about his new best-selling book, “The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them," which will also be available for purchase at the event.
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau - Vegan Chef & Award-Winning Author
Award-winning author and educator Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has guided people to living healthfully and compassionately through sold-out cooking classes, bestselling books, inspiring lectures, engaging videos, and her immensely popular audio podcast, “Food for Thought.” Using her unique blend of passion, humor, and common sense, she empowers and inspires people to live according to their own values of compassion and wellness. The author of five books, including The Joy of Vegan Baking, The Vegan Table, Color Me Vegan, and Vegan’s Daily Companion, she also contributes to National Public Radio and The Christian Science Monitor, and has appeared on The Food Network and PBS.
Colleen's much-anticipated fifth book, The 30-Day Vegan Challenge, published by Random House, was published in August 2011. It will also be available for sale at the DC VegFest.
Wendy Rieger - News Anchor, NBC4-Washington, DC
Wendy Rieger is a lifelong animal lover who became a vegetarian three years ago this August thanks to the influence of Erica Meier of Compassion Over Killing and DJ Kim of Java Green. Wendy has been covering news in Washington for almost 30 years. She spent the last 22 years at NBC-4 where she is now anchoring the 5 o'clock news. Four years ago she created the Going Green segment that shows how easy it is to make simple changes in your life to help combat global warming and the everyday mess humans are making on the planet. Because animal agriculture is a major cause of global warming she has been weaving vegetarian stories into her Going Green reports.
She lives with her two cats, Buddy and Rudy, rescued from the streets of Baltimore. She also has a vegan West Africa Peanut soup recipe that will make you weep.
With a background in media, arts, events, marketing & P.R., her focus shifted years ago to share greater awareness about conscious topics. Besides writing FabuNOLA, she speaks publically, creates events & produces video segments with the same focus: putting a positive spotlight on people, communities, organizations & businesses who are making greater changes for the better … globally.
She’s co-hosted an eco-talk radio show, written a featured column for regional eco-magazine & hosted tv segments, as well as written for VegNews Magazine. First appearing as a guest for Fairfax, VA-based TV show "Healthy Food Happy You," she now collaborates as guest host/co-producer. She is currently working on creating her own tv show(s) for a national/global market to expand the reach of living a fabulous and happy life … consciously.