Speakers & Demos |
Speakers
For 11 years, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has guided people to becoming and staying vegan through sold-out cooking classes, award-winning cookbooks, inspiring lectures, and her immensely popular video and audio podcasts. Using her unique blend of passion, humor, and common sense, she empowers and inspires people to live as healthfully and compassionately as possible. Colleen is an exhilarating speaker, a powerful writer, a talented chef, and a persuasive advocate whose success can be measured by the thousands of people whose lives have been changed by her compassionate message. With a master's degree in English literature and a command of traditional and new media, Patrick-Goudreau fosters change whether she is writing books, speaking to live audiences, hosting her podcast, or producing videos. Addressing the spiritual, social, and practical aspects of a vegan lifestyle, Colleen is the author of three cookbooks (The Joy of Vegan Baking, The Vegan Table, and Color Me Vegan) and two vegan/compassionate living books (Vegan's Daily Companion, and The 30-Day Vegan Challenge). She has appeared on the Food Network and PBS and is a contributor to National Public Radio and The Christian Science Monitor. 
Ginny Messina, MPH, RD is a dietitian specializing in vegan nutrition. She is the author of seven books including the recent Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-based Diet. A long-time vegan herself, Ginny aims to make healthy and compassionate eating as easy and foolproof as possible through her books, her blog www.TheVeganRD.com and as the National Vegan Examiner at www.examiner.com. She has taught nutrition to dietetic students, and is a former co-author of the American Dietetic Association’s Position on Vegetarian Diets as well as the first textbook on vegetarian diets written for medical professionals. She also serves as an expert reviewer of vegetarian materials for dietitians and is on advisory boards to PCRM and the Vegetarian Resource Group. In addition to her work as a vegan dietitian, Ginny volunteers at her local animal shelter, serves as a board member of a local spay/neuter organization and spends her leisure time reading, gardening, learning piano, and knitting with plant fibers. 
James E. McWilliams is Associate Professor of history at Texas State University, San Marcos. He specializes in American history, of the colonial and early national period, and in the environmental history of the United States. He is the author of Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly and has published a number of op-eds on food in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. 
Bonzai! My name is Sayward Rebhal (sey-wurd reb-uhl), and I am a scientist, writer, and urban farmer extraordinaire. In 2007, after graduating with a degree in biology from the College of Creative Studies at UCSB, I relocated from sunny Southern California to the progressive playground of Portland, Oregon. I now enjoy all four seasons in the Pacific Northwest and spend my days in a tall skinny townhouse called HQ. Sharing HQ are my husband Damian, our two mutts Harley the Happy Dragon and Crash Bang Boom, and our two hens Petunia Blue and Princess Sweetpea. I like to keep my fingers (and toes!) in many pots, but these days my general interests revolve around the fusion of a cutting-edge urban lifestyle and a mindful, positive existence. Also, I seem to have an unnatural adoration of chickens. And Tom Waits. 
Chef Kabui is an organic urban farmer and chef, currently living near Raleigh,
North Carolina. He immigrated from Nairobi, Kenya and holds a bachelor's degree in political science and
philosophy and a master's in medical anthropology and urban studies. His family in Africa are coffee
farmers and his father is a businessman. His work includes promoting health education and local enterprise. 
Jarrod Feight is a native Wisconsinite, and currently a student at UW studying computer science and physics. Growing up he spent a great deal of time in the kitchen with his father learning to cook, and upon becoming vegan in 2008 was able to apply his culinary knowledge to his new diet. While living in Texas in 2010, he competed in and won the first vegan annual fried food competition at the Texas State Veggie Fair (Read these articles about Jarrod's success: Pegasus News, Side Dish Magazine.) 
Vegan Pastry Chef, Cara Moseley, was classically trained in pastry, yet her culinary creativity has lead her to a more radical approach to sweets with her vegan, raw vegan, and gluten free specialties. She currently works for the Green Owl Cafe where her delicious confections have attracted the communities attention, making a full range of vegan desserts from pies and tarts, and imaginative cheesecake flavors to ice-creams and cakes. She loves making unique flavor combinations, and prefers local and organic ingredients. Her background pastry work includes The South Shore Brewery's restaurant in Ashland, WI, The Deep Water Grille. There she created brewery favorites such as Beer-a-misu and Chocolate Stout Cream pies. Cara is available for custom orders of all kinds and teaches classes throughout the Madison area. |