The VegFund Team

Board of Directors

Darina Smith
Darina Smith

President

Darina brings to VegFund valuable strategic and leadership experience. Based in Chicago, she works in a senior management role at a Fortune 500 company. Alongside her career, she volunteers her time to vegan/animal advocacy. She was named Mercy For Animals' Grassroots Activist of the Year in 2009. She is also among the top leafleters in Vegan Outreach's college outreach program. Presently, she is a Vice President of Justice For Animals, a young Northern Illinois non-profit focused on grassroots outreach as well as a global social media campaign targeting Chinese and Hindi speaking users. Darina has been a VegFund Board member since 2009. She is from Slovakia, and speaks multiple languages. She holds an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Matthew Goodwin
Matthew Goodwin

Vice President

Matthew, a recent vegan, is working to create more vegan food options in the Boston area and is a co- founder of Peace o’ Pie, an all vegan gourmet pizzeria. He toured North America as a member of the documentary film crew for "I’m Vegan". He partnered with Mercy for Animals to launch a successful campaign on Boston’s public transit system. Matthew is the founder and CEO of Ver- Tex CSI, a Boston-based construction company. A proud father of a 24-year old vegan daughter, Matthew is a regular volunteer at a school in a poverty stricken area of Rio de Janeiro.

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Zia Terhune
Zia Terhune

Treasurer and Co-Founder

Zia retired at an early age to become a full-time advocate for animals. Although warned that it couldn't be done, Zia has helped over 50 local rescue orgs, sanctuaries, and animal rights groups form an umbrella coalition. She is the founder of Veg4Life Potlucks Gainesville, FL. Under Zia's guidance, she and dedicated volunteers at Veg4Life have been distributing free food at events since 2007.

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Barbara Bingnear
Barbara Bingnear

Secretary

Barbara has a degree in business administration and has been vegan for almost 25 years. She has managed a deli, given vegan cooking classes, and co-founded the first animal rights organization in Brevard County. Barbara was also president of the Board of Directors of a local community health food store. She resides in Melbourne, FL and is currently Dining Out Coordinator for Healthy Planet of Brevard, organizing vegan dinners with local restaurants throughout the county.

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Director

Kim's Photo
Kimberly Dreher

Kimberly has a M.S. in psychology, but three years ago she went vegan and decided to devote her life to animal advocacy. She volunteers with a number of animal rights organizations including ARME, Vegan Outreach, and Mercy for Animals; has organized multiple feed-ins and vegan outreach events; runs two successful online video outreach campaigns; and is working on a campaign to ban the sale of fur in West Hollywood. Kimberly currently resides in Southern California and is the proud guardian of Pixie, Juniper, Sophie, and Zoey (formerly homeless kitties), as well as Freedom and Libby, beagles who were recently rescued from an animal testing facility.

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Video Outreach Director

Adam Orand
Adam Orand

A life-long entrepreneur, Adam was co-founder of a successful web development firm in the midwest for 8 years prior to settling in the Bay Area to work on behalf of animals. Taking advantage of his business experience and MBA, Adam mentors vegan start-ups, helping them with various operational and marketing goals. In addition to working with numerous non-profits, he has personally rescued dozens of injured animals. His other interests include creating new vegan recipes, travel and outdoor adventures.

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Advisors

Lisa Shapiro
Lisa Shapiro

For over 25 years, Lisa Shapiro has been a passionate vegan and animal rights activist. She has been intimately involved with the Natural Products Industry for over two decades. From various positions, she's played an integral role in helping small and start-up companies expand into multimillion dollar enterprises. She's recently launched all things vegan to advise vegan businesses on retail and financial issues, including purchasing and manufacturing, marketing and branding, and operations management. Lisa works within profit and non-profits arenas.

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Pat Ritz
Pat Ritz

Pat Ritz is retired from careers in Social Services and Journalism. She has been involved in rescuing cats throughout the years, and is currently guardian to five "unadoptables." Along with her partner Joan, a retired United Church of Christ minister, she strives to bring the vegan message to the religious community. Pat also is an avid cook and provides vegan meals to an elderly activist. Besides VegFund, she volunteers with Vegan Earth, a new organization in Cincinnati, and has tabled for Mercy for Animals.

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Holly Sternberg
Holly Sternberg

Holly has a B.A. in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University, where meeting a friendly baby goat inspired her to go vegan in 1980. She has organized many events promoting kindness and respect for all animals and is co-founder of the Northern-Virginia-based nonprofit group Compassion for Animals. Holly is a supervisor at the National Captioning Institute, providing closed-captioned TV shows for hearing-impaired viewers.

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Honorary Advisors

Rae Sikora
Rae Sikora

VegFund Co-Founder

Rae Sikora has been a spokesperson for animals, the environment and human rights for over 30 years. Her programs have been changing people's vision of what is possible to create in our lives and in the world. As co-founder of the Institute for Humane Education, Rae created interactive critical thinking tools that are now being used by people 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 positive change globally. She is co-founder/co-director of Plant Peace Daily.

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Jim Corcoran
Jim Corcoran

VegFund Co-Founder

Jim is co-founder and co-director of Plant Peace Daily and co-founded and was president of VegMichigan for many years. He is a retired fire captain/paramedic/training officer, has a BS in Emergency Medicine, is a certified fitness instructor and certified in the Living Foods Lifestyle. Jim leads life-altering programs on health and the environment (see Plant Peace Daily). His critically acclaimed talks empower people to make informed and lasting changes in their lives. Bean ( our rescued dog), share's her travel trailer with Jim and Rae.

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Howard Lyman
Howard Lyman

Howard Lyman is the executive director, Voice for a Viable Future; nationally renowned speaker; author Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth From the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat and No More Bull! The Mad Cowboy Targets America's Worst Enemy: Our Diets; he is the subject of the feature documentary Mad Cowboy, an expose' of modern agriculture.

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Jo Stepaniak
Jo Stepaniak

Jo Stepaniak, MSEd has been involved with vegetarian and vegan-related issues for over four decades; author and co-author of sixteen books on compassionate living and vegan cuisine; contributing author to many other books, pamphlets, national publications, and magazines; senior book editor, Book Publishing Co.; international business dispute resolution specialist; award-winning column, Ask Jo! appears on her web site Grassroots Veganism.

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Milton Mills, M.D.
Milton Mills, M.D.

Milton Mills, M.D. practices outpatient and critical care medicine in Northern Virginia, devoting special attention to general adult medicine, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS. Lectures extensively on nutrition and health, HIV treatment, and the relationship between nutrition and immunity. Co-authored a paper on the racial bias of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines (Journal of the National Medical Association, 1999)

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