Bio: Maribeth Abrams is a certified holistic health practitioner, media spokesperson for the North American Vegetarian Society, author of two vegan cookbooks, and mother of two children in their mid-20s who have been vegan since birth. Known for her lively and approachable demeanor, her presentations offer a blend of motivation and education. She has been vegan for nearly 30 years. MaribethAbrams.com

Sample Talks: Eat Better, Feel Better, Live Better: Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet; Eating for Cancer Survival; Eating for Bone Vitality and Osteoporosis Prevention; Raising Vegan Children; Eating in Alignment with Our Values; screenings and discussions on documentaries.

Bio: Star Alfriend, M.ed. works in the financial services sector. She has been vegan since 2013; her husband became vegan with her, and he lost 65 pounds. Star is also a proud mom of two girls. Becoming vegan saved her life as she was diagnosed pre-diabetic. After one year of eating vegan, her health turned around. Star’s goal is to help people obtain wealth and live a healthier lifestyle to enjoy life when older. Star has a YouTube channel called Vegan Groupie where she shows you how to cook vegan meals. She is also working on her first cookbook.

Sample Talks: Transitioning to Being Vegan and Staying Vegan; Wise Financial Decisions for People with a Healthy Lifestyle (by a financial professional who is passionate about eating plants)

Bio: Rebecca Aslam, MS, RD, LDN is a registered dietitian working to educate both patients and employees at a teaching hospital in MA. She is a nutrition advisor to the American Vegan Society, a lifelong vegan, and fourth-generation vegetarian. She loves experimenting with vegan cooking and enjoys working with individuals or speaking to groups of all sizes.

Sample Talks: Plant-Based Nutrition Basics; Plant-Based Diets for the Treatment of Chronic Diseases Such as Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular, etc.; Transitioning to a Vegan Diet; Be Healthy and Happy on a Vegan Diet

Bio: Nava is the author of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, including Plant-Powered Protein, 5-Ingredient Vegan, Wild About Greens, Vegan Holiday Kitchen, Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, and many others. Her first book, Vegetariana (1984), is considered a classic in its field and was republished in an updated, all-vegan 4th edition in 2021. Nava also creates trade and limited edition visual books on women’s issues, notably, The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life. Visit Nava’s 2 websites: theveganatlas.com and literaryladiesguide.com.

Sample Talks:  Nearly-Instant Plant-Based Meals for Super-Busy People; Wild About Greens: Delicious Ways to Get More Leafy Greens into Your Life; Creating Vegan Holiday Meals (especially Jewish holidays)

Bio: Jonathan Balcombe, PhD, is a biologist with expertise in animal behavior. He has written several books on the inner lives of animals, including the New York Times bestseller What a Fish Knows. Jonathan also performs professional editing and consultations with established and aspiring authors. He teaches an online course in Animal Sentience for the Viridis Graduate Institute. Balcombe lectures widely, having appeared on six continents (the penguins eagerly await him in Antarctica). In his spare time he enjoys biking, baking, birding, Bach, and trying to understand the neighborhood squirrels. www.jonathan-balcombe.com

Sample Talks: What a Fish Knows; The Inner Lives of Animals; The Inner Lives of Birds; Bats: Myth and Reality

Bio: Dilip Barman is a certified PCRM Food for Life instructor and has led Triangle Vegetarian Society for over twenty years, including hosting the country’s largest vegan Thanksgiving. He is the North American representative for International Vegetarian Union and is executive producer of code blue documentary. He enjoys blogging about his daily dining creations (dilipdinner.blogspot.com) and is proud to have never repeated a dinner for his wife in all the time he’s known her since 2004. He also teaches vegan cooking classes in addition to Food for Life, and classes in photography and math through area schools and colleges. Dilip is the director of nutrition education at Central Park School for Children, an affiliate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and is on the advisory committee of the Plant-Based Network.

Sample Talks: An Introduction to Animal Rights; Veganic Gardening; Whole-Food Plant-Based Eating

Bio: Ted Barnett, MD is board certified in diagnostic imaging as well as vascular and interventional radiology and has practiced in the Rochester area since 1986. Dr. Barnett teaches a six-week plant-based nutrition course which is accredited for twelve professional CME. He is the founder, CEO, and medical director of Rochester Lifestyle Medicine, PLLC, a medical group created to teach plant-based nutrition to thousands of people in the Rochester area and to turn back the tide of obesity and chronic disease. He, his wife, and three children have thrived on an exclusively plant-based diet since 1991. He has been the co-coordinator of Rochester Area Vegan Society since 1995. RochesterVeg.org

Sample Talks: The History of Dietary Recommendations and Multiple Diseases Including Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Cancer, etc.

Bio: Lauren Bernick became an inadvertent health advocate when she was diagnosed with coronary artery disease in 2015. She was able to reverse her heart disease (evidenced by extensive testing including the Cleveland Heart Lab panel) lower her blood pressure, and lose 20 pounds by following a whole-food, plant-based diet. Wanting to understand more about why eating this way reversed disease, she became a Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate Professional from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. She honed her writing and stage skills as a stand-up comic and was a semi-finalist in Roseanne Barr’s Funniest Mom in America on Nickelodeon in 2007 and winner of the Funniest Mom in Austin, Texas. Now she hosts a popular podcast called Age Like a Badass Mother and helps others adopt a plant-based lifestyle through her website wellelephant.com, speaking engagements, and online classes.

Sample Talks: Reverse Disease Through Nutrition; Age Like a Badass Mother; Eating for Longevity; Eat Plants Lose Weight; Eat Plants Reverse Disease

Bio: Steve Blake, SCD specializes in nutritional biochemistry. He is director of nutritional neuroscience at the Maui Memory Clinic; a clinical research scientist, MH, RH, (AHG); lead advisor and author for the Macmillan Reference, 2019 Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine; and research director of the Neuroscience Nutrition Foundation. He is author of the McGraw-Hill college textbook Vitamins and Minerals Demystified. drsteveblake.com, neurosciencenutrition.org

Sample Talks: A Nutritional Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease; Arthritis, a Natural Approach; How to Overcome Diabetes; Defensive Medicine; Comparing the Nutrition in Popular Diets; Healthy Hearts: How Not to Get a Heart Attack

Bio: Hope Bohanec has been active in animal protection and environmental activism for 30 years and has published the book The Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat? She is Executive Director of Compassionate Living and host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast. Hope co-founded the Humane Hoax Project, the Ahimsa Living Project, and has organized hundreds of online and in-person events including the Humane Hoax Online Conference, the Humane Hoax Chicken Webinar, and the Sonoma County VegFest. Over the last three decades, Hope has worked for the national nonprofits United Poultry Concerns and In Defense of Animals and contributed chapters to two anthologies.

Sample Talks: The Humane Hoax: Cage-Free, Free-Range, Humane…What Do the Labels Really Mean?; Greenwashing Our Food: Sustainable Labels Won’t Save the Planet; Sentience in the Sea: Fish Emotion, Cognition, Personalities, and Play; Chickens: Exploitation of the Innocent; Ahimsa, Animal Advocacy, and Veganism / Veganism and the Dharma Religions; Effective Online Advocacy: Online Etiquette for Activists; When Life Hands You a Pandemic, Learn to Podcast!

Bio: Harold Brown is in the documentary Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home and spent half of his life in agriculture. Growing up on a beef farm in Michigan and later working in the dairy industry, Harold has been involved in the behind-the-scenes operations of food production that uses animals. Today Harold is an activist advocating for sustainable food production, social and environmental justice, animal liberation, and peace through nonviolence.

Sample Talks: Exposing the Humane Myth; Living a Morally Consistent Life; Activism: Communicating Effectively for the Planet, the Animals, and Us; Food Justice?; All You Need Is Love; Trusting Our Hearts and Living with Joy

Bio: Genesis Butler went vegan at six years old after learning her meals were a product of animal exploitation. She founded her nonprofit organization, Genesis for Animals, which raises funds for sanctuaries around the world. Genesis has won several awards including the 2018 Lisa Shapiro Youth Animal Activist of the Year. She became the youngest TEDx speaker for her speech “A 10-Year-Old’s Vision for Healing the Planet.” She’s also been featured in several documentaries including The Invisible Vegan, Vegan: Everyday Stories, and Corky, and in Cesar Chavez Respect for All where she learns about the activism of her great uncle, Cesar Chavez.

Sample Talks: Compassion Begins on Our Plates; Living a Compassionate Lifestyle at Any Age; You are Never Too Young or Too Old to Be an Animal Rights Activist; Healing the Planet One Meal at a Time.

Bio: Chef AJ is host of the television series Healthy Living with Chef AJ airing on Foody TV. A chef and culinary instructor, she is author of The Secrets to Ultimate Weight Loss and Own Your Health. Chef AJ is the creator of the Ultimate Weight Loss Program. She is a former executive pastry chef that was famous for her sugar-, oil-, salt-, and gluten-free desserts. She also does cooking demos, iron chefs, and hosting. In 2018 she was inducted into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame. https://www.ChefAJ.com/contact   foodytv.com/chef/chef-aj/

Sample Talks: Eat Up, Slim Down, and Get Healthy; Overcoming Your Weight Obstacles; Seven C’s to Success; How to Eat Healthfully Anywhere; How to Deal with Cravings and Food Addictions.

Bio: Chef Chew has been a vegan food inventor/restaurateur for over 15 years. His mission is to change lives one chew at a time and to bring holistic solutions to urban communities. He developed and manufactures his own line of plant protein, Better Chew. Chef Chew  founded The Veg Hub restaurant in Oakland CA, a social enterprise that provides affordable vegan food and free cooking classes to the San Francisco Bay Area. He has a TV Show, Chew’s Challenge.

Sample Talks: Something Better to Chew On; Democratizing Health for All People; Decolorization of Veganism; Vegan Soulful Cooking

Bio: Fran Costigan is a culinary instructor, cookbook author, consultant, and director of vegan pastry at Rouxbe Culinary School. Fran is internationally recognized as the innovative pioneering pastry chef who marries healthy eating with sumptuous tastes. Professionally trained, Fran was a chef in both traditional and vegan pastry kitchens before moving into teaching over 25 years ago. Fran’s vegan desserts are appropriate for everyone who loves dessert, whether or not dietary restrictions are an issue. She developed and leads the ACFEF recognized Rouxbe Online Culinary School’s 90-Day Essential Vegan Desserts Course, mentoring students of all skill levels from beginner to professional. Fran’s cookbooks are Vegan Chocolate: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts, Great Good Desserts Naturally, and More Great Good Dairy-Free Desserts Naturally. francostigan.com

Sample Talks: Creating Successful Vegan Cooking Classes; Yes You Can Eat Healthfully and Eat Dessert Too; Setting up Your Vegan Pantry; The Basics and Beyond of Modern Vegan Desserts

Bio: Saurabh Dalal is an engineering consultant and physicist who is passionate in promoting a vegan lifestyle and ahimsa (nonviolence) as compelling solutions to many global issues. Saurabh is a lifelong vegetarian and vegan since 1991 for ethical reasons. He volunteers for many groups, has been a board member/board advisor for numerous like-minded organizations, has been active in the Jain community internationally, and is an avid ethical investor for decades. He explores ways of integrating sound science into related areas of his activism.

Sample Talks: Investing with Vegan Values; The Vegan Imperative to Reverse Our Ecological Crises; Ahimsa & the Spirit of Jainism