We're proud to have featured leaders in their field

Boria Sax holds a doctorate in Intellectual History and German from SUNY  Buffalo.  He is the author of  15 books, which have been translated into eight languages. His books Animals in the Third Reich (2,000), The Mythical Zoo (2001), were both named by the Journal Choice as among the “outstanding academic titles” of the year. His book City of Ravens was named to the list of “notable books of 2012” by Audubon Magazine as well as to Barnes & Noble’s list of “Top Five Books on London” in 2012. His most recent books include Imaginary Animals (2013), a new edition of The Mythical Zoo (2013), a collection of poems and fiction entitled The Raven and the Sun and a memoir entitled Stealing Fire (2014).  

Margo DeMello received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from U.C. Davis in 1995, and currently teaches at Canisius College in the Anthrozoology Masters program. She is the outgoing Program Director for Human-Animal Studies at Animals & Society Institute, and the past President of House Rabbit Society. She also volunteers for Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary. Her numerous books and publications include Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature, Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection, Teaching the Animal: Human-Animal Studies Across the Disciplines, and Mourning Animals: Rituals and Practices Surrounding Animal Death.

Kevin Schneider is Executive Director of the Non-human Rights Project. He earned his law degree from Florida State University in 2013 with a specialization in environmental and land use law. He graduated with a B.A. in political science from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, in 2009. In addition to his interest in nonhuman rights and personhood, Kevin is an advocate for reforming the food system with a focus on plant-based foods.

Elisa Aaltola completed her PhD in philosophy in 2006, and her thesis focused on animal ethics. She has published 38 peer-reviewed articles, mostly on animal philosophy. Her books include "Animal Suffering: Philosophy and Culture" (2012) and "Varieties of Empathy: Moral Psychology and Animal Ethics" (2018). Aaltola works as a senior research fellow and adjunct professor in philosophy, in University of Turku, Finland.

Mark Devries is the Special Projects and Drone Investigations Manager with Mercy for Animals. Before joining MFA, he produced and directed the award-winning documentary Speciesism: The Movie, which screened at theaters worldwide, has been featured in Scientific American, The Huffington Post, CNN Headline News, Psychology Today, and The Sydney Morning Herald, among many others. He also filmed the world’s first aerial drone footage of factory farms, released as part of his Factory Farm Drone Project, which has been viewed by tens of millions worldwide and received global press coverage.

Dr. Kate Darling is a leading expert in Robot Ethics. She’s a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, where she investigates social robotics and conducts experimental studies on human-robot interaction. Kate explores the emotional connection between people and life-like machines, seeking to influence technology design and policy direction. Her work has been featured in Vogue, The New Yorker, The Guardian, BBC, NPR, PBS, The Boston Globe, Forbes, CBC, WIRED, Boston Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, Die Zeit, The Japan Times, and more. 

Karen Davis is the President and Founder of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl including a sanctuary for chickens in Virginia. Inducted into the National Animal Rights Hall of Fame for Outstanding Contributions to Animal Liberation, Karen is the author of numerous books, essays, articles and campaigns. Karen’s books include A Home for Henny; Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey: A Poultryless ‘Poultry’ Potpourri; Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry; More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality ; and The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities.

Jimmy Webb is an American songwriter, composer and singer known worldwide as a master of his trade. His timeless hits continue to be performed and recorded by the industry’s biggest names, and his new compositions span the musical spectrum from classical to pop. This past year saw his “Wichita Lineman” on the set list in three major artist tours – Guns N’  Roses, Little Big Town, and Toby Keith – and used prominently in an episode of the Netflix series Ozark.  Not many artists can say they premiered a classical nocturne and had a rap hit with Kanye West (“Do  What You Gotta Do” a central hook in “Famous”) in the same year, but  Jimmy’s career is full of surprises. In 1986 he released "The Animals' Christmas" with Art Garfunkel and Amy Grant. Other hits include “Up, Up and Away,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman, “Galveston,”  “Highwayman,” “All I Know” and “MacArthur Park.

Rachel Fobar is a National Geographic Society wildlife trade investigative reporter covering wildlife crime and exploitation for Wildlife Watch.  Previously, she covered criminal justice and potentially wrongful convictions for The Medill Justice Project. She has also written for Popular Science and Bustle. For her work, she has received several awards, including the Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Award. 

Amy Fitzgerald is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology, and is cross-appointed to the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. She is also a founding member of the University of Windsor’s Animal and Interpersonal Abuse Research Group. She is the author of Animals as Food: (Re)connecting Production, Processing, Consumption, and Impacts, and Animal Advocacy and Environmentalism: Understanding and Bridging the Divide. 

Nik Taylor is a sociologist who researches power and marginalization expressed in and through human relations with other species. Nik currently works at the University of Canterbury in Aotearoa New Zealand where she is a member of the New  Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies. Her latest books include Ethnography  after Humanism Power, Politics and Method in Multi-Species Research , with Lindsay Hamilton) and Companion  Animals and Domestic Violence: Rescuing Me, Rescuing You , with Heather Fraser). 

Heather Fraser is an Associate Professor in Social Work at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and critical scholar-advocate who started her career 35 years ago, working in refuges for women and young people try to escape violence. Heather has co-produced four books and dozens of other publications, many of which are about understanding violence. The current book she is working on is Queer Entanglements: Intersections of Gender, Sexuality and Animal Companionship (with DW Riggs, N Taylor & S Rosenberg). 

 Trevor Jones is Director and CEO of History Nebraska. He is an award-winning author of numerous books, including Major: A Soldier Dog, as well as articles about museums and American history and has worked as a museum curator, exhibition designer, and educator.  

Josh Balk is Vice President of Farm Animal Protection for the Humane Society of the United States. Most recently, he led successful ballot measures and legislative initiatives criminalizing factory farming practices, including California’s historic Proposition 12, which passed with 63% of the vote and became the world’s strongest law for farm animals. 

Brooke Haggerty is the executive director for Faunalytics, a nonprofit that provides research and resources to help advocates maximize their effectiveness to reduce animal suffering.

Jo Anderson is the Research Director of Faunalytics and a social psychologist with a decade of research experience.  

David Coman-Hidy is the Executive Director of The Humane League. Under his leadership, The Humane League has grown into a national presence with offices spanning from coast to coast—winning campaigns against some of the largest foodservice and retail corporations in the world and reaching millions of young people each year with a message of compassion for farmed animals.  

Paul Sieswerda, formerly Aquarium Curator at the New England and New York Aquariums, is President of Gotham Whale, a 501c3 not-for-profit conducting research, education, and advocacy programs in partnership with American Princess Cruises, a whale watching company out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.  

Dr Corey Lee Wrenn is a vegan feminist sociologist of social movements  who specializes in anti-speciesist protest and human-nonhuman relations in the United States, United Kingdom, and Republic of Ireland. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in  Abolitionist Theory and Piecemeal Protest:  Animal Rights in the Age of Nonprofits.

Sara Eifler is Program Director of JewishVeg, which seeks to inspire and assist Jews to embrace plant-based diets as an expression of Jewish values. She has extensive experience in events planning, writing and editing, and  nonprofit management and is a graduate of Brandeis University. 

Kathryn L. Smithies is a medieval historian, and research and teaching associate in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of the just released book, Introducing the Medieval Ass.

Colleen Plumb is an American photographer, video artist, and public video projection artist. Her work investigates contradictory relationships people have with animals.   Her work 30 Times a Minute features photos from videos of captive elephants in their small enclosures captured from over seventy zoos in the US and Europe, along with contributions from animal rights activists and scientists.

Captain Paul Watson is a Canadian/American marine conservation activist, who founded the direct-action group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 1977. He has been described as “the world’s most aggressive, most determined, most active and most effective defender of wildlife.”

Since 2006, Nicole Forsyth has served as President and CEO of RedRover, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that brings animals from crisis to care and strengthens the bond between people and animals. 

Sue Weaver lives in the Arkansas Ozarks with her husband and a fine array of animal friends. She has written hundreds of magazine articles and many books including The Goat: A Natural and Cultural History.  

Christie Lagally is the founder and CEO of Rebellyous Foods. She is a mechanical engineer with 15 years of engineering experience and the holder of five patents in manufacturing technology. Christie served as a Senior Scientist for the Good Food Institute uncovering the technical barriers in the development of plant-based meat and clean (i.e. cultured) meat. 

Richard Pallardy is a freelance science writer. He worked for Encyclopedia Britannica for seven years and now writes for such publications as Science on Tap and The Biologist. His most recent piece chronicles the rediscovery of the New Guinea highland wild dog, a primitive canine that prowls the slopes of the central mountain range that bisects the island of New Guinea. 

 Jean Shafiroff is a philanthropist, advocate, TV host, and author of the book "Successful Philanthropy: How to Make a Life By What You Give." She is a volunteer leader of several charitable causes and an Ambassador for  American Humane and is their National Spokesperson for the Feeding the Hungry Covid-19 program.   

John Sanbonmatsu is the editor of the book, Critical Theory and Animal Liberation and author of the book, The Postmodern Prince. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he teaches classes in ethics, social and political theory, and the philosophy of technology. John is the founder and main designer of www.CleanMeat-Hoax.com. 

F. Bailey Norwood has a Ph.D. in economics and is an associate professor at Oklahoma State University, where he researches farm animal welfare and teaches courses in researching consumer preferences, supply chain management, and a general course about agriculture. He’s the author or co-author of several books, including Compassion by the Pound: The Economics of Farm Animal Welfare, celebrating its 10th anniversary of publication..

 Emma Håkansson is the founder of non-for-profit Collective Fashion Justice, as well as Willow Creative Co, an ethical content production and consultation agency.  She is also a model, writer of both articles and books (coming soon), a creative director, and an ethics consultant.

Margrit Strohmaier is an animal lover who grew up in Austria. She was inspired to write her first picture book, What to Know Before You Get Your Dog, from her daughter’s relentless campaign to have her own dog. She has a degree in Fine Arts and is the recipient of the Ana Blanc Verna Award for Creative Thinking.  

Matt Zampa is the managing editor of Sentient Media. Before joining Sentient Media he wrote for Outside and helped launch Anxy, an award-winning magazine of personal narratives in mental health.

Alex Hershaft is the founder of the Farm Animal Rights Movement which hosts the nation's largest animal rights annual conference. A survivor of the Holocaust, Dr. Hershaft has lectured extensively about his journey from the Warsaw Ghetto to his struggle for animal rights in Israel, in Europe, and throughout the U.S.  He also hosts The Vegan Blog and Never Again websites.

Ariel Flint is a staff attorney with the ALDF who works to develop groundbreaking legal  strategies to improve the status and lives of animals through the legal  system. He previously served as an Animal Legal Defense Fund litigation  fellow, and as an associate attorney for an international law firm in  New York. He earned a BA in Government from IDC Herzliya and a J.D. from  the University of Michigan.

Chris Berry is a managing attorney with the ALDF who works on a broad range of animal issues including puppy mills, factory farms, and consumer rights. He helps formulate creative legal theories to help animals and challenges government agencies that  are not following the law as in  Legal Rights and Duties in Lost Pet Disputes. He earned his J.D.  from the University of Michigan.

Claire Hamlett is a freelance writer based in Oxford, UK, and regular contributor to Sentient Media, Surge Activism and Byline Times. She writes on animals, climate, and the environment.