While I have always felt a deep kinship with other species, I was fifteen before I began to connect my daily choices to their suffering and start my journey towards cruelty-free living and vegetarianism. Years later during a memorable trip to an animal sanctuary, I learned the horrific reality of cow’s milk and instantly became vegan. My animal advocacy began in college, has continued throughout my adult life, and has ranged from picketing, vegan outreach, and humane education to extensive animal rescue, running a small rabbit sanctuary, etc. While I am passionate about ending all forms of animal enslavement, oppression, and exploitation, I have chosen to primarily devote my time towards vegan advocacy.

I co-founded RIVA (Rhode Island Vegan Awareness), an all-volunteer run organization that engaged in various forms of outreach including films screenings, workshops, events, food sampling outreach, and much more. As the president for ten years, I gained extensive experience in organizational and program development, effective outreach strategies, event planning, advertising, and working with volunteers. I am so grateful to the support VegFund provided to RIVA that helped us expand our outreach with delicious vegan food sampling!

With a professional background in social work, teaching, program development, and volunteer coordination, I sought a full-time career in the animal advocacy field. Through my studies with the Institute for Humane Education, I began teaching humane education programs to youth about living compassionately towards all beings and the earth. Then two years ago, I relocated to New York to work as the Programs Coordinator at an animal sanctuary.

I am excited to be interning at VegFund as I have been impressed by the organization’s mission and approach from the beginning. They are catapulting vegan advocacy forward and supporting grassroots activism in a truly unique way. My work incorporates various writing, marketing, and outreach projects that are all intended to support the work of activists around the world. The small staff has been very welcoming and receptive to ideas. I am grateful that I am able to contribute to such a fantastic mission and moved by all the vegan revolutionaries supported by VegFund who are advocating on behalf of the most critical issue of our time.

(From left to right: Lalena, Jessica, Steven, Nick)

We’re pleased to recognize a dedicated group of vegan activists who produced the first ever instructional videos for our Food Sampling and Pay Per View grant programs! These short and engaging how-to videos cover important tips on running successful outreach events from start to finish.

Lalena Gieser wrote and edited the educational video scripts. Her professional interests include screenwriting, communications, and web design. For the past 8 years, Lalena has enjoyed living a vegan lifestyle and generously donates her time to animal rights causes.

Jessica Resnik is featured as an actor in the educational videos and assisted the director. She enjoys acting, writing, and dancing and is pursuing a career in marketing. Jessica has been vegan for nearly 3 years and maintains a vegan food blog.

Steven Todd Smith played a starring role in the educational videos. He’s been vegan for 3 years and stays busy with a number of outreach projects. In addition to acting, writing, and blogging, he is also the Community Manager for Forks Over Knives and the Owner/CEO of Ahimsa Life Coaching.

Nick Somers directed, filmed, and edited the educational videos. Nick is a professional actor and filmmaker and often volunteers his time to help with worthy projects. He’s followed a 95% vegan diet since 2002, and three years ago he went fully vegan.

It was a pleasure working with this team of talented activists, and we’re grateful for the time and effort they put into producing the videos. Be sure to check out the videos on the Food Sampling and Pay Per View introductory pages!

Stefani became a vegetarian 5 years ago when her father gave her an article on factory farming. At the time, Stefani thought following a vegan diet would be too difficult. Then, two years later after reading a few books on veganism, she made the switch. It wasn’t long before Stefani decided that she wanted to do more. She began volunteering forCompassion Over Killing, helping out with administrative duties, feed-ins, event tabling, and a bake sale. Stefani would also like to focus her career on helping animals and is working on a bachelor’s degree in English to further the cause through writing.

Recently, VegFund had the pleasure of working with Stefani when she volunteered to assist with several projects. We were impressed by her work ethic, positive attitude, and enthusiasm, and she did a fantastic job with all of the volunteer duties. We’re honored to recognize Stefani as our featured volunteer and are excited to see what she’ll accomplish in the future.

~Kathryn Asher~

I became a vegetarian early in my life after a transformative moment at the dinner table at age 12, which kicked off what would become a strong commitment to social change. A number of years on I adopted a vegan lifestyle, which has continued to be the best decision I’ve made for each of the past 12 years.

I’ve been involved with animal activism in various aspects, from grassroots advocacy and volunteer work, to serving as a contributor for a vegan magazine and studying animal activism at the academic level. I have a Masters in Environmental Studies focused on the effectiveness of the animal advocacy movement and wrote my thesis on the reform/abolition divide (www.animalactivism.ca).

My work with VegFund centers around designing an assessment tool to measure viewer response to graphic animal footage (both in terms of changes in thinking and diet); a largely unstudied area to date. I put a lot of weight on the value of video outreach—indeed that is why I adopted a plant-based diet—and see great benefit in evaluating its impact. The internship has proven to be such a comfortable fit thus far, as it aligns so perfectly with my enthusiasm for exploring the strategic side of the animal advocacy movement. It doesn’t hurt either to be doing all this in partnership with a very smart, nimble, and results-oriented organization that was game to bring a Canadian on board!

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~Amanda Riley~

I went vegetarian at 15, about 6 years ago, immediately after learning about animal rights and vegetarianism from a few vegan musicians I admired at the time. It took two years and a really good vegan cookie to get me to go vegan, but by then I was ready to be an activist.

I try to get involved in every way I can. I’ve attended meetings or volunteered for most of the vegan and animal rights groups active in NJ and NYC. I’ve leafleted, tabled, staffed events, started a student group, and I have helped with anything else that was needed. I eventually hope to do vegan activism for a living.

I started my internship with VegFund two months ago, and it’s great. The communication goes very smoothly even though it is all through phone and email. I have had the opportunity to help improve activist resources through several web research projects. However, I have become most passionate about VegVids, VegFund’s vegan video aggregate that we’re just starting to promote actively. I am currently the voice behind the Twitter and Facebook posts and have been helping to improve the video collection. I will likely be continuing with some of these projects after my internship.

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We’re extremely grateful to Kathryn and Amanda for all of their hard work! Their passion, creativity, and dedication are tremendous assets to VegFund, and it’s a pleasure working with them.  We look forward to staying in contact even after their internships end, and we’re confident they’ll be successful in all of their future endeavors.

To learn more about the internship program, including details on how to apply, click here (PDF).

Pilar always loved animals. However, it wasn’t until four years ago, when she saw footage from undercover investigations, that she made the switch to a vegetarian diet and started using products that aren’t tested on animals. She’s still in the process of exploring cruelty-free alternatives to the products she used to enjoy.

Pilar primarily discovers activism opportunities and meets like-minded friends through Facebook, which is where she originally learned about the animal rights movement. She helps organizations by donating her time and work as a graphic designer. She has a knack for expressing causes effectively, often getting asked by activists if they can use her designs in campaigns or simply share them with others.  She’s worked with many organizations, including Earthrace Conservation, The Humane Party, Beagle Freedom Project, and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

She helped VegFund with several graphic design projects, including business cards and stationary, as well as the required Food Sampling sign and Video Outreach sign.  We’re grateful for Pilar’s dedication to the AR movement, and it is with great pleasure that we recognize her as our featured volunteer.

Neel became an animal rights activist after seeing PETA’sMeet Your Meat video. Shortly thereafter, he founded theUniversity Vegetarians, a student organization at the University of Texas at Austin (UT).

As a film student at UT, Neel produced, wrote, shot, and edited the short documentary, Free Range, which clearly shows there is no such thing as humane slaughter. The film also features an interview with Brooke Chavez, founder and director of Sunny Day Farms Animal Sanctuary, the largest farm animal sanctuary in Texas.

After college, Neel volunteered for a number of organizations, including PETA, Mercy for Animals, Action for Animals, and Farm Sanctuary, and serves on the board of directors for Sunny Day Farms Animal Sanctuary.

Neel currently works full-time for PETA as an Audio Visual Editor, combining his passion for animal rights and video production. As an editor, he shoots/edits some of PETA’scelebrity PSAs, interviews, photo shoots, peta2 videos, and many others. Below are a few examples:

• Jillian Michael Protests Ringling Brothers
• Twilight’s BooBoo Stewart for PETA
• Baking with Chef Chloe Coscarelli

Neel has also used his talents to help VegFund with editing videos for mobile devices, text messaging campaigns, foreign language subtitles, social media clips, and screening shorts for inclusion on VegVids.com. Neel’s passion and dedication to the animal rights movement is inspirational, and it is our great honor to recognize him as the volunteer of the month.

Ron advocates for animals and a more sustainable, healthy, harmonious, sane, and compassionate world.  After living as a vegetarian for almost two decades, he recently transitioned to veganism.  His continuing goal is to help people connect the dots of our myriad societal problems while simultaneously endeavoring to put both individuals and groups in touch with each other.  To that end, Ron has volunteered with a number of organizations.

Ron serves as an advisor for the Jewish Vegetarians of North America newsletter and helped promote the video, A Sacred Duty. He also helped spread the word aboutVegucated and is assisting Dr. Melanie Joy with the establishment of an organization that provides support to current and aspiring vegans.  Additionally, he is serving as an intern with Dr. Michael Greger, helping categorize and organize material for the new website, as well as assisting with promotion and publicity.

Recently, despite his busy schedule, Ron committed over 200 hours to compile a comprehensive list of animal-rights related college groups.  This list enabled VegFund to reach out to students across the country and inform them of our programs.  It’s been an honor to work with Ron, and it is with great pleasure that we recognize him as our volunteer of the month.