CVPP Speakers

			John Beske is a co-founder and the director of Chicago VeganMania, one of the nation’s premier vegan festivals. He is also a co-founder of the Chicago Vegan Family Network and a past leader of EarthSave Chicago. By day, he runs John Beske Communications, an advertising and design studio that focuses of bringing vegan, organic and earth-friendly products to market. John and his wife Marla Rose have recently re-launched Vegan Street, a web portal and publishing group.

			Tobias Leenaert is the Founder and CEO of the Belgian non-profit organization, Ethical Vegetarian Alternative (EVA), which was founded in 2005. EVA is probably the first and only vegetarian organization in the world to receive structural support from its national government. Together with his team, Tobias developed campaigns for the adoption of a weekly Veggie Day, which was officially accepted and implemented in the city of Ghent and six other cities in Belgium since May 2009. EVA now successfully operates with a paid staff of 12 people. In 2009, Tobias was elected as a Fellow of Ashoka, an international organization supporting 2,500 high impact social entrepreneurs.

			Jon Camp is Director of Outreach for Vegan Outreach. Throughout the last nine years, Jon has traveled throughout North America, reaching out to college students with the plight of farm animals. In this time, he's handed out over 900,000 Vegan Outreach booklets at over 500 schools. Jon has spoken on advocacy at Harvard, Yale, UPenn, Brown, and dozens of other schools, as well as at the yearly Animal Rights Conference in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. His commentary has been featured in various books and documentaries on effective animal advocacy.

			Kay Stepkin, "The Veggie Cook" columnist at the Chicago Tribune, is a vegan chef, and a pioneer of the vegetarian and natural food movements in Chicago . In 1971, she founded the legendary Bread Shop on north Halsted Street , the city’s first vegetarian food store and 100% whole grain bakery as well as the restaurant, Bread Shop Kitchen. The Bread Shop served as a training ground for aspiring chefs and bakers who went on to open restaurants and bakeries of their own. Kay was also the host of the ‘Go Veggie!® with Kay’ TV series to advocate plant-based dining and the vegan lifestyle.

			Pamela Rice brought Veggie Pride Parade to North America, organizing the New York City event for the past 6 years. She is the author of "101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian," the popular 16-page pamphlet, now enjoying its 20-year anniversary with nine updated editions. This, "the mighty convincer," is also available in book form from Lantern Books. Ms. Rice founded and has managed the Veggie Center of NYC since 1999. She also published a vegetarian magazine, The VivaVine, for over 10 years.

The order of the presentations at the event is not necessary reflected by order on the page.