Lasse Bruun
Executive Director, 50by40
Lasse is an advocacy specialist and a leader in climate and energy, sustainable agriculture and animal rights. He has twenty years experience in mobilization, communication, campaigning and movement building. Working across sectors and continents, Lasse´s work includes being a Global Project Leader at Greenpeace, an adviser in the Danish Parliament, Head of Energy Transition at Climate Action Network (CAN) and an independent advocacy specialist. He has led high-level international dialogues, campaigns and projects in Denmark, UK, France, Netherlands, USA, Japan, Greenland, Brazil, South Africa, India, Lebanon, Russia, Poland, Luxembourg, Romania and Iceland, as well as the EU Parliament and Commission, FAO, UNFCCC and International Whaling Commission. Lasse is a postgrad in Rhetoric and Linguistics from the University of Copenhagen. In his current role as Executive Director for 50by40, Lasse leads the secretariat and oversees strategy, development, governance, advocacy and communications. As a third sector curator and intergovernmental relations specialist, he runs 50by40 and its multi-stakeholder engagement based on the principles of collective impact and systems leadership.
Kim Campbell
Director of Recipe Development and Culinary Education, PlantPure Nation
Kim is the author of the “PlantPure Nation” and the “PlantPure Kitchen” cookbooks. She developed more than 250 delicious whole food plant-based recipes using no processed oils. Kim is also the Director of Culinary Education and Development at PlantPure, where she works with her husband, Nelson, building an organization that promotes a whole food, plant-based diet. Nelson directed and produced the groundbreaking movie, PlantPure Nation.
Kim graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Human Service Studies with a concentration in Nutrition and Child Development. Her passion has always been nutrition education for children, families, and adults. Kim has been a plant-based cook for more than 25 years cooking for her family and friends. Her love of culinary goes back to her early childhood growing up in a large traditional family. Kim is gifted at creating traditional American cuisine using 100% accessible plant-based ingredients. She builds flavors and textures that are familiar to most people, helping to make the transition to plant-based diet easier for people. She is also the daughter-in-law of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, considered by many as the science ‘father’ of the rapidly growing plant-based nutrition movement.
Nelson Campbell
Founder & Board Chair, PlantPure Communities
On the heels of his successful effort as Executive Producer, Director and Co-Writer of the 2015 documentary film PlantPure Nation, and with the vision of leading a grassroots movement to promote the health benefits of plant-based nutrition, Nelson Campbell founded PlantPure Communities (PPC) in early 2016. The PlantPure Nation film (now on YouTube) 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. As the Chair of the Board at PPC, Nelson continues to drive the direction of the organization with his vision – including the PPC Oasis Program through which he is pioneering unique partnerships to bring food-as-medicine to underserved neighborhoods. Nelson also founded the socially conscious business, PlantPure, Inc., to develop the resources and capability necessary to launch the Healing America campaign, a grassroots strategy to empower people in local communities to help share the message of plant-based nutrition. This strategy utilizes a social action platform to support local initiatives that target different sectors of the community. Prior to his involvement with PlantPure Nation, Nelson worked for 25 years as a socially conscious business entrepreneur. He graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, and a Master’s Degree in Economics.
T. Colin Campbell
PhD, Cornell University and T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies
Dr. T. Colin Campbell is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University and is best known for authoring the bestselling book The China Study with his son Thomas Campbell, M.D. He is the founder of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and the online, internationally recognized Plant Based Nutrition Certificate offered by the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies in partnership with eCornell.
Dr. Campbell’s expertise and scientific interests encompass relationships between diet and diseases, particularly the causation of cancer. Dr. Campbell has conducted original research both in laboratory experiments and in large-scale human studies and has authored over 300 research papers. 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. His legacy, the China Project, is the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. —bio courtesy of nutritionstudies.org.
Kari Hamerschlag
Deputy Director of the Food and Farming Program, Friends of the Earth
Kari leads the organization’s animal agriculture work, including a climate-friendly food service initiative that aims to shift K-12 school and state food purchasing dollars and menus towards healthier, plant-forward, sustainable food. Previously, Kari worked for five years as a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group where she focused on U.S. food and farm policy. Kari has extensively researched the links between food production and climate change—and authored the web-based Meateater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health and Shrinking the Carbon and Water Footprint of School Food. Prior to EWG, Kari worked as a sustainable food policy and fair trade consultant for many years. Kari has a Masters from UC Berkeley in Latin American Studies and City and Regional Planning.
Jody Kass
Executive Director, PlantPure Communities
Building on a life-long commitment to working for the public good, Jody was inspired to turn her attention to national nutrition policy after reading The China Study and meeting author/researcher, T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. In the spring 2015, Jody joined the Board of Directors of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies (CNS) where she served until early 2020. In 2016, Jody became the Executive Director of PlantPure Communities. She brings experience in advocacy, nonprofit management, lobbying, organizing, collective action, 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 policies that achieve systemic change.
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. Under Jody’s leadership, NPCR’s work re-shaped the brownfields and community development framework in New York and $81million was appropriated to revitalize low income neighborhoods and communities of color.
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. While at the Partnership, Jody served on Gov. Pataki’s Superfund Working Group and she also created and coordinated the Pocantico Roundtable for Consensus on Brownfields and co-led the Brownfields Coalition, an association of over 100 diverse organizations who came together in support of the legislative proposal that emerged from the Pocantico Roundtable and was ultimately instrumental in securing passage of the landmark 2003 NYS Brownfields Law.
Peter Lehner
Sustainable Food & Farming Program Director, Earthjustice
Peter directs Earthjustice’s Sustainable Food & Farming Program, developing strategies to promote a more environmentally sound agricultural system and to reduce health, environmental, and climate harms from production of our food. From 2007–2015, Lehner was the Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the NRDC Action Fund. While significantly growing NRDC’s programs and communications, Lehner shaped a clean food program with food waste, antibiotic-free meat, regional food, and climate mitigation projects.
From 1999–2006, Lehner served as chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office. He supervised all environmental litigation by and against the state, prosecuting a wide variety of polluters and developing multi-state strategies targeting global warming and air and water pollution and protecting endangered species. Lehner previously served at NRDC for five years directing the clean water program, and before that, he created and led the environmental prosecution unit for the New York City Law Department. He clerked for Chief Judge James Browning of the Ninth Circuit.
Lehner holds an A.B. in philosophy and mathematics from Harvard College and is an honors graduate of Columbia University Law School, where for many years he taught protection of natural resources. He now teaches a seminar on food systems and U.S. environmental law there and at Yale Law School. Lehner is on the boards of two large farms in Costa Rica, has authored two books (one forthcoming) and many articles and has been honored with numerous awards by EPA and environmental groups.
Dawn Moncrief
Founder and President, A Well-Fed World
Dawn Moncrief is the Founder and President of A Well-Fed World, a global hunger relief and food security organization based in Washington, DC. Since 2009, A Well-Fed World has provided more than $8 million in grants to 2,000+ recipients in 68 countries to feed people in need and advance the benefits of plant-based foods and farming. Dawn holds two master’s degrees from The George Washington University: one in International Relations, the other in Women’s Studies—both with a focus on economic development. She was an early graduate of the Woodhull Institute’s Ethical Leadership Program and was awarded the Graduate Prize for Feminist Scholarship for research culminating in her thesis: Rethinking Meat – Recentering World Hunger Paradigms: A Standpoint Critique of Food Choice, Food Policy, and Overconsumption.
Two decades later, her work continues to highlight the ways in which the consumption and production of animal-sourced foods increase disparities and exacerbate global hunger, especially for women and girls. She also draws attention to the negative consequences of animal agriculture on natural resource use and climate change. She has presented on this work throughout the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Africa. Her written work includes contributions in Food Justice: A Primer, The Reducetarian Solution, Striking at the Roots, and Circles of Compassion. She serves as an organizational partner to the International Fund for Africa and is the Board Chair for Beyond Carnism and ProVeg International.
Diego Ponieman, M.D
Chief Medical Officer, SOMOS Community Care
Dr. Ponieman is responsible for SOMOS Community Care clinical projects, which are focused on reducing avoidable hospitalizations through proactive, coordinated care and evidence-based interventions with Medicaid members who are at risk for or are experiencing chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma.
Dr. Ponieman was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he completed medical school at the University of Buenos Aires. He completed his Internship and Residency at Albert Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. He later completed an Academic Fellowship in General Internal medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine where he still remains as a faculty member. He also sees patients as a Primary Care Physician at his private practice Metropolis Medical in upper Manhattan. He continues to work on adding nutrition and lifestyle changes as a strong therapeutic intervention. He is working with SOMOS Community Care and underserved communities through local clinics in order to bring a food oasis with the hope to transform these food deserts into healthier neighborhoods.
Mathy Stanislaus
Interim Director of the Global Battery Alliance
The Global Battery Alliance (GBA), which is hosted at the World Economic Forum and consists of about 70 companies, NGOs, and governmental entities, is pursuing a vision that by 2030 the battery value chain is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable. This includes enabling the transport and power sectors to stay within the carbon emissions budget for the Paris Agreement, creating additional jobs and economic value, as well as safeguarding human rights while closing the energy access gap by 70%.
Mr. Stanislaus served as a senior political official for the Obama Administration, serving as the Assistant Administrator of the USEPA Office of Land and Emergency Management after his nomination by President Barack Obama and confirmation by the U.S. Senate. At USEPA, Mr. Stanislaus led programs that revitalize communities through the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated, hazardous and solid waste materials management, chemical plant safety, oil spill prevention, underground storage tank program, and emergency response. He represented the United States in G7 deliberations that led to the countries’ leaders establishing the first ever alliance among the G7 countries and businesses to advance resources efficiency. This was based on the recognition of the economic risks and environmental consequences (especially green house gas emissions) associated with unsustainable growth in raw materials use. He advanced President Obama’s Climate Action Plan by integrating a series of climate change strategies into his office’s programs.
Mr. Stanislaus is a Chemical Engineer and Environmental Lawyer with over 15 years of experience in the environmental field in the private, government and not-for-profit sectors. He has served as senior environmental counsel at a law firm, in the not-for-profit sector, co-founding, and co-directing New Partners for Community Revitalization, a NY not-for-profit organization whose mission is to advance the renewal of New York’s low and moderate income neighborhoods and communities of color through the redevelopment of Brownfields sites. He is also former counsel for EPA’s Region 2 Office. He has served on the board of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance for over ten years.
Scott Stoll, M.D.
Co-founder and Board Chairman, The Plantrician Project
Dr. Stoll is a visionary with a passion to transform healthcare through the power of a whole food, plant-based plate and Lifestyle Medicine. He is the co-founder and chairman of The Plantrician Project, The International Plant Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference, The International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, and the Regenerative Health Institute; a unique collaborative project with The Rodale Institute that integrates a regenerative vision for human health, agriculture, and the environment.
Every year Dr. Stoll hosts the very popular one-week health immersion in association with Whole Foods, Dr. Stoll’s Total Health Immersion in Naples Florida. This unique event helps attendees restore and optimize their health, suspend and reverse common lifestyle diseases, and develop a sustainable regenerative lifestyle. In addition to authoring several books including Your Next Bite, Alive!, and numerous scientific articles, Dr. Stoll has appeared on national shows including the Dr. Oz show, hosted a 2018 PBS special Food As Medicine and numerous documentaries including Eating You Alive, Wait till its Free, and The Game Changers. Dr. Stoll was a member of the 1994 Olympic Bobsled Team and continues to work with Olympic and professional athletes around the world.
Ron Weiss, M.D.
Founder, Ethos Primary Care
Dr. Weiss is dual board-certified in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine, and a primary care physician in New Jersey. He is the founder of Ethos Primary Care and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He offers an evidence-based, food-as-medicine approach to healing from chronic illness and optimizing wellness.
Dr. Weiss is the founder of Ethos Farm Project, a semifinalist in the Rockefeller Foundation 2050 Food System Vision Prize competition. He has been featured in top media, including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Today Show, New Jersey Monthly, and the feature-length documentary, “Eating You Alive.”
His primary care practice in New Jersey is located on a 342-acre farm which employs conscientious, chemical-free farming methods to restore the vitality of the land. The farm’s bounty is available to patients and the local community, through The Doctor’s Farm Market. Go to ethosprimarycare.com to learn more.
Allen Zerkin
Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Administration at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
Professor Zerkin teaches courses on negotiation, conflict resolution and mediation. He is a member of the New York State Bar and since the 1990s has specialized in designing and facilitating broad-based stakeholder processes to address public policy controversies. In 2019, he worked with Jody Kass/PlantPure Communities to plan and facilitate a gathering of people active in nutrition, public health and climate change to build a coalition dedicated to affecting people’s food choices, for the purposes of both improving people’s health and drastically reducing the climate impacts caused by food production and food waste.