Paula Branson, Member of the Board of Directors
Paula Branson comes to PlantPure Communities as a passionate advocate for public education regarding the extraordinary health benefits of a whole plant based diet, organics, and environmental responsibility. Paula is a lawyer licensed in three states and practiced as Senior Counsel for two large hotel companies. She also served as Vice President/Legal Counsel for the banking services company that created the idea of putting banks into grocery stores and was an adjunct law professor.
In the height of Paula’s legal career, she became very ill. Although she consulted with many medical doctors and was prescribed handfuls of medications, her condition deteriorated to the point of rendering her disabled for many years. After many years of no success from mainstream medicine, Paula visited a holistic health center where she was put on a raw, organic plant based diet. Her condition drastically improved. Based upon this seemingly miraculous event, Paula immersed herself into studying the health problems caused by food and how those health challenges can be reversed by eliminating toxins in the diet. It is Paula’s goal to bring to public awareness the information that she discovered in her studies that can be so powerful in eliminating needless suffering caused by toxic food.
In addition to her Juris Doctorate, Paula has obtained numerous certifications in Plant Based Nutrition including the certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from The T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell. She is certified as a Science of Plant-Based Raw Food Instructor, Health Minister, Certified Holistic Health Coach, and Gourmet Raw Chef and Instructor. Paula is also the organizer of a 700+ member plant based meetup group in Atlanta, is a licensed facilitator of the Stanford Medical School Chronic Disease Self Management Program, has served on the Executive Committee of the Institute for Responsible Technology, and has been the guest speaker for various community groups and civic organizations on the topic of Food Politics and corruption in the American Food Supply. She has also organized many public education events regarding toxins in the American food supply and how to avoid them at venues including medical schools, fire departments, high schools, and educational festivals.
Kim Campbell, author of The PlantPure Nation Cookbook
Kim Campbell is the author of The PlantPure Nation Cookbook, which features over 150 of her whole-food, plant-based recipes. Kim has been a plant-based cook for 25 years and is gifted at creating plant-based dishes with flavors from traditional American cuisine, an effective approach for both new and veteran plant-based eaters. Kim has a bachelor’s degree in science in human service studies, with a concentration in nutrition and child development, from Cornell University. Kim has taught cooking classes in her local community and now through PlantPure Nation. She is currently the director of culinary education and head of recipe development at PlantPure Inc. Her educational videos are online at PlantPurePods.com. In addition, Kim is creating a second cookbook to be published this year.
Nelson Campbell, founder of PlantPure Communities, director of the PlantPure Nation film
With the vision of leading a grassroots movement to promote the health benefits of plant-based nutrition, Nelson Campbell founded PlantPure Communities, and was the founding Executive Director and a founding board member, until he stepped down from those positions in early September 2016 and joined the Board of Advisors.
Prior to founding the PlantPure organization, Nelson graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science, and a Masters Degree in Economics, and then worked for 25 years as a socially conscious business entrepreneur.
He also is the Executive Producer, Director and Co-Writer of the documentary film PlantPure Nation. This film examines the political and economic factors that suppress information about the benefits of plant-based nutrition, and makes connections to public policy, medical practice, food deserts, and farming.
T. Colin Campbell, PhD, PlantPure Communities Board of Advisors
For decades Dr. T. Colin Campbell has been at the forefront of nutrition education and research. Dr. Campbell’s expertise and scientific interests encompass relationships between diet and diseases, particularly the causation of cancer. His legacy, the China Project, is one of the most comprehensive studies of health and nutrition ever conducted. The New York Times has recognized the study as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology”.
Dr. Campbell is the coauthor of the bestselling book The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health, and author of the New York Times bestseller Whole, and The Low-Carb Fraud. He is the founder of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and the online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate in partnership with eCornell.
Dr. Campbell has conducted original research both in laboratory experiments and in large-scale human studies; received over 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding (mostly with NIH), served on grant review panels of multiple funding agencies, actively participated in the development of national and international nutrition policy, authored over 300 research papers and given hundreds of lectures around the world.
He was trained at Cornell University (M.S., Ph.D.) and MIT (Research Associate) in nutrition, biochemistry and toxicology. Dr. Campbell spent 10 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech’s Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition before returning to Cornell in 1975 where he presently holds his Endowed Chair as the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry in the Division of Nutritional Sciences.
Jim Courage, PlantPure Communities Board of Directors
Jim has 39 years professional work experience in sales, service management and consulting in IBM and Cisco Systems, including K-12 education project leadership in IBM and Educational Vistas. He earned several sales and community awards, recognition events, and media citations in the NY Times, Crain’s NY Business and Educational Leadership magazine.
Jim graduated with a business management degree from St. Francis College and earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from Bank Street College. He was on loan from IBM to the NYC Schools Chancellor for 3 years overseeing a $2.7M community programs project designed to improve student learning results in the poorest congressional district in NY State. He hired education experts to train over 2,100 teachers in performance based instructional methodology, engaged 59 community based organizations for a variety of student services, and implemented over $1M of IBM computers. Supporting 29,000 students across 35 schools, the South Bronx district rose from the lowest in NYC in both reading and math, to moving up 10 spots of the 32 NYC school districts in just 3 years.
Jim lives with his wife Laurie in Port Washington, New York. They have two adult children, Brian and Kristen. Laurie began eating whole foods, plant based the day after she read The China Study, and influenced Jim to do the same soon after.
Jim is grateful to have made the change, since both his Dad and grandfather died of heart attacks in their 40’s. Jim is determined to break the cycle, passionate about this healthy lifestyle and delighted to support Nelson Campbell and family in the PlantPure Communities mission.
Michael C. Hollie, MD, practicing physician in Chattanooga, TN, teaching faculty at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine
Michael C. Hollie, MD is a practicing physician board certified in Asthma, Allergy and Immunology. He received his undergraduate degree from the College of Idaho. Dr. Hollie attended Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, California, and received his medical degree in 1985. Subsequently, he trained in Pediatrics at Loma Linda University Medical Center and T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital, Chattanooga, TN where he was Chief Resident. He completed his asthma, allergy, and immunology training at National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver, Colorado. He served in the U.S. Air Force in Phoenix, AZ where he was Chief of Allergy and Immunology. He currently practices in the Chattanooga, TN area treating adult and pediatric patients. Dr. Hollie is a member of the teaching faculty at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga Unit. He is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
Dr. Hollie is the speaker for “Dinner with the Doctor” (DWTD) an instructional program developed to educate people about how to implement a whole food, plant based (WFPB) approach for treating, preventing and reversing disease. DWTD is a practical, hands-on application of the Fork Over Knives lifestyle. DWTD offers monthly programs consisting of a health presentation along with a tasty WFPB meal served to the attendees. On alternate months, oil free, WFPB food preparation demonstrations allow participants to see first-hand how they can cook healthy meals at home. The program is offered free to the community and has multiple locations throughout the Chattanooga, TN area and North Georgia region.
Dr. Hollie is the medical consultant for, and also appears in the upcoming documentary Eating You Alive scheduled to be released in 2016. Eating You Alive features leading medical experts and researchers taking a scientific look at the reasons we’re so sick, who’s responsible for feeding us the wrong information and how we can use simple, whole food, plant based nutrition to take control of our health.
Dr. Hollie and his wife Cindy Ford Hollie, MD have two adult sons and the entire family embraces the WFPB approach to eating and health.
Jody Kass, Executive Director of PlantPure Communities
Jody Kass has worked at PlantPure Communities since its inception in early 2016. As Executive Director, Jody manages the overall organization and day-to-day activities of PPC, including operations, fund raising, board development, and implementing a broad range of program initiatives. Jody brings to PPC considerable experience in advocacy, nonprofit management, lobbying and strategic planning from her 30-year career in community revitalization. Jody’s particular expertise is in the crafting of out-of-the-box solutions to thorny problems, and translating those solutions into legislative and regulatory action that achieve systemic change.
Jody serves on the Board of Directors of several nonprofit organizations, including the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies (CNS) and New Partners for Community Revitalization. Prior to national nutrition/food policy issues, Jody worked in the brownfields and community development arena. In 2001, Jody co-founded the nonprofit organization, New Partners for Community Revitalization, (NPCR) which she directed until 2014. Prior to NPCR, Jody was Vice President of the nonprofit NYC Housing Partnership, where she helped coordinate the construction of over 16,000 affordable housing units, representing over $1.5 billion in private investment in 50 NYC low-income communities.
Jenny Miller, Executive Director of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies