The Compassion Project
Pramoda Chitrabhanu is the Director of Jain Meditation International Center in New York and on the Board of Directors of PETA India. She also works for the Vegetarian Society of Mumbai by promoting vegetarianism and veganism. Pramoda teaches meditation and lectures in different cities on Jain philosophy and reverence for life, exposing seekers to the pure vision, high ideals and loving vibrations of compassionate living. In this way she has turned her interests into a commitment to living both the introspective and compassionate life, personalizing the universal and universalizing the personal. She is the author of several books including Foods of Earth, Tastes of Heaven; Jain Symbols: The Book of Compassion; and Rainbow Food for the Vegan Palate.
Bruce Friedrich is executive director of The Good Food Institute (GFI). By assisting the most promising plant-based and cultured meat alternatives and companies, GFI is creating a healthy, humane, and sustainable food supply. Bruce previously served as director of policy and advocacy at Farm Sanctuary, as vice president for campaigns at PETA, as a public school teacher in inner city Baltimore through Teach for America (where he was Teacher of the Year for his school), and at a Catholic Worker homeless shelter and soup kitchen in inner city Washington, D.C. He has been a progressive activist for more than 25 years, and he is a practicing Roman Catholic.
Frank L. Hoffman, along with his wife Mary, founded their charitable organization, The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation, in 1997, and began their web site, all-creatures.org, in January 1998. As a full-time volunteer, Frank manages the Foundation and web site. Frank and Mary have been married for over 54 years and have been vegan animal rights activists for more than 30 years. Frank is a retired businessman, pilot, and Protestant pastor.
Bob Isaacson has practiced the Dharma in the Vipassana/Theravada tradition for twenty years. He was a civil rights/human rights attorney for twenty-five years, specializing in defending people against the death penalty. Bob currently teaches the Dharma, leads two Sanghas, and leads day-long and weekend retreats in the San Diego area, having been trained in Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Community Dharma Leader Program. Bob is a co-founder and president of Dharma Voices for Animals, a Buddhist animal rights organization .
Lisa Levinson is the director of In Defense of Animals’ Sustainable Activism Campaign, as well as a trained movement therapist, museum exhibit designer, and mosaic artist. She uses her therapeutic skills to promote self-care for animal activists. Lisa is the co-chair of IDA’s Council of Sustainable Activism and develops exhibits as a volunteer for the National Museum of Animals and Society. She organizes Vegan Spirituality Meetups and Retreats across the country to explore veganism as a spiritual practice. She co-founded “Public Eye: Artists for Animals” to teach compassion for animals through the arts and founded the Toad Detour to help migrating toads safely cross the road in Philadelphia.
Milton Mills, MD, practices urgent care medicine in the Washington DC area, and is a member of the National Advisory Board for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Dr. Mills earned his medical degree at Stanford University School of Medicine, and completed an Internal Medicine residency at Georgetown University Hospital. He has published several research journal articles dealing with racial bias in federal nutrition policy. In addition, Dr. Mills is a practicing member of the Seventh Day Adventist church, a Protestant denomination which recommends a plant-based diet to its members, and he is an authority on the Biblical basis for this.
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash, President and CEO of Uri L’Tzedek, and Founder of The Shamayim V'Aretz Institute. Twice chosen as one of America’s top rabbis by Newsweek, Rabbi Yanklowitz’s writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Huffington Post, among many others. He is a social justice activist, a sought-after educational and motivational speaker, and the author of seven books on Jewish spirituality and ethics. A graduate of Harvard and Columbia, his newest book is titled SPARKS! Bringing Light Back to the World.
Imam Sohaib Sultan is the first full-time Muslim chaplain at Princeton University’s Office of Religious Life. Sultan is the author of two books on the Qur'an: The Koran for Dummies (Wiley 2004) and The Qur'an and the Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad: Selections Annotated & Explained (Skylight Paths 2007). He is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and TIME Ideas online.
Linda G Fisher is an artist, author and animal intuitive. She is Ojibway and Cherokee and a tribal member of the Ojibway Nation. Her paintings can be found in galleries and private homes worldwide, and her greeting cards have been purchased by the Smithsonian Institute, Macy's, Natural Wonders, Fred Meyers, Whole Foods, and retailers across the nation.
Fisher is also an accredited animal behavior specialist and consultant, and uses positive reinforcement and the science of Applied Behavior Analysis, which is a force-free, compassionate form of behavior modification. The combination of her psychic skills and state-of-the-art animal behavior modification techniques enable her to help her clients and their caretakers on both levels. She is a vegan and shares her home with an adopted dog and six rescued parrots. You can see her art work and find out more at LindaGFisher.com.
Sailesh Rao is the Executive Director of Climate Healers. A systems specialist with a Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA, conferred in 1986, Sailesh worked on the internet communications infrastructure for twenty years after graduation. In 2006, he switched careers and became deeply immersed, full-time, in the spiritual and environmental crises affecting humanity. He is the author of the 2011 book, "Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of Butterflies" and the forthcoming sequel, "Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis."
Dr. Will Tuttle, an award-winning writer, educator, pianist and composer, has presented widely throughout America, Europe and Asia. Author of the international bestseller, The World Peace Diet, he has also taught college courses in mythology, philosophy, humanities, comparative religion, and creativity.
His Ph.D dissertation in education from the University of California, Berkeley, focused on educating intuition in adults. A Dharma Master in the Zen tradition, he has done intensive training in Korea, and has practiced meditation and vegan living for over 30 years. He is devoted to promoting world peace through educating compassion and spiritual awareness through writing, music, and presentations. He lives with his spouse Madeleine in a solar-powered rolling home.