Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) now operates as a collective model, you can learn more here.
Team Members
Jordan Halliday (he/they) is the web and database team member at F.E.P., focusing on web and app development, database systems, graphic design, and print production. After nearly a decade of contributing to F.E.P. part-time, Jordan joined the team full-time in 2024. A long-time vegan, activist, former political prisoner, and grand jury resister, Jordan brings nearly two decades of professional, award-winning experience in graphic design and web development. Their technical background includes computer science for web programming through Harvard University, complemented by a foundation in media design technology from Salt Lake Community College, along with numerous professional certifications and awards. Outside of F.E.P., Jordan enjoys prisoner support work, making art, perpetually learning new things, skateboarding, playing and listening to music, and video games. They share their life with their best friend and wife, Mariana, and their four kids (three cats and one human).
Madeleine (Maddie) Lee (she, her, hers) is F.E.P.’s vegan programs team member and is excited to bring her enthusiasm for vegan cooking and food justice to F.E.P.! She graduated from Bates College, where she majored in environmental studies with a specific interest in sustainable food systems and food justice. Maddie is passionate about sharing vegan cultural recipes from her Korean culture and from around the world. She wrote her senior thesis on the history of South Korea’s vegan foodways and the assumptions about East Asian cuisine that Euro-American media portrays. For more than eight years, she has managed a food Instagram page, where she shares vegan recipes and highlights vegan-friendly restaurants in the New England area and beyond. Maddie is currently based in Portland, Maine, and enjoys exploring all of the year-round arts and nature opportunities the state has to offer.
Kennedy Little (she, her, hers) is F.E.P.’s youth advocacy team member. She is from Lexington, Kentucky, and is an undergraduate student at Morehead State University, where she is pursuing pre-law and agribusiness with a minor in public administration. After going vegan in 2019, Kennedy began to use her background in agricultural organizations to help change the unethical norms many agricultural workers face. She has worked with youth-centered organizations to push inclusive, culturally diverse, and climate-friendly foods into public school cafeterias and has spoken with Congress members and the USDA on this successful initiative. She is also the founder and president of an environmental organization at her university that focuses on environmental and animal justice through an intersectional lens.
lauren Ornelas (she, her, hers) is F.E.P.’s founder and general programs team member. lauren has been active in the animal rights movement for more than 37 years. She is the former executive director of Viva!USA, a national nonprofit vegan advocacy organization that Viva!UK asked her to start in 1999. While lauren was the director of Viva!USA, she investigated factory farms and ran consumer campaigns. In cooperation with activists across the country, she persuaded Trader Joe’s to stop selling all duck meat and achieved corporate changes within Whole Foods Market, Pier 1 Imports, and others, and she helped halt the construction of an industrial dairy operation in California. lauren was also the spark that got the founder of Whole Foods Market to become a vegan. In addition, she served as campaign director with the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition for six years. Watch lauren’s TEDx talk, The Power of Our Food Choices.
Tyra Willis (she, her, hers) is the communications team member at F.E.P. and is from Sacramento, California. She studied political journalism at Sacramento State University. Her passion lies in advocating for total liberation and addressing food insecurity both statewide and globally. In her free time, she loves watching movies with her dog and whale watching at the beach.
Our Board Members
 | Elise Ferguson (she, her, hers) graduated with a bachelor’s degree in geography from California State University, Stanislaus, with a minor in environmental and resource studies and received a law degree from John F. Kennedy University. Elise is passionate about environmental justice and the fair treatment of animals. This passion can be seen by her involvement in public interest work and volunteering with organizations focused on these areas. In her free time, Elise enjoys cooking new veg-e-pes, wine tasting, jogging with her nonhuman companion, Jimi, and writing about issues she finds inspiring. |
 | Sharanya Krishna Prasad (she, her, hers) has worked in the nonprofit sector or in nonprofit-adjacent consulting roles for nearly two decades. She has led programs, marketing and communications, digital advocacy, and fundraising. Previously, Sharanya served as the executive director of Food Empowerment Project and on the board of Indians for Civic Action. She was also a podcast producer and host who was a lifelong vegetarian before she became vegan in 2007. |
 | María Muñoz Contreras (they, them / she, her) is a passionate advocate for vegan food justice and has been supporting Food Empowerment Project in various volunteer capacities since 2016. Hailing from Detroit and with familial roots in Guadalajara, María has over two decades of activism experience spanning animal liberation, LGBTQ rights, sexual assault, and other social justice issues. With more than 15 years of experience in both nonprofit and small business operations, they bring expertise in finance, human resources, information technology, and facilities management to the board. María holds a business degree from the University of Washington and spends their free time doting on their dog Suki and their cat Jane, and reading latinx or queer authors for one of their many book clubs. |
Our Advisory Board
Bina Ahmad (she/her) is a social justice attorney working in criminal defense, civil rights, international human rights and animal rights. She is an Associate Attorney with Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai, LLP, and General Counsel and co-chair of Muslims for Just Futures’ (MJF) legal network. She serves as American Muslim Bar Association’s (AMBA) Advocacy Chair, advisor to Parceo, and on Food Empowerment Project’s Advisory Board. She has worked with several Palestine advocacy organizations, including the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Al Haq, and Badil, and animal rights organizations.
Valerie Belt (she, her, hers) has a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, a multiple subject teaching credential with supplemental authorization in mathematics from California State University, Northridge, and was certified as a humane educator through the Institute for Humane Education. She has taught in middle schools in Los Angeles, Kuwait, Singapore, and Bolivia and has been actively involved in food justice issues since 2006. Valerie is currently an education technology specialist at a public charter elementary school.
Dr. Jeannine Cicco Barker (she, ella) is a licensed clinical psychologist based in Philadelphia and previously served on F.E.P.’s Board of Directors. Her psychological practice, Metztli by Dr. Jeannine Cicco Barker, centers the healing and wellness of those with marginalized identities and offers consulting and training services. She is also an award-winning educator, having taught at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice on systemic oppression and social justice movements. She has been a part of the movement for collective liberation in many ways and enters this from a decolonial foundation, honoring our interconnectedness with other animals, the Earth, and one another.
jaz boler (she, her, hers) graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in sustainable development, specializing in community organizing and human and non-human animal relations and ethics. Since going vegan in 2019, jaz has been committed to advancing both human and non-human animal justice as well as vegan food systems. This has reflected in her work designing the first vegan food systems class at her college; her former vegan programs role at F.E.P.; and the creation of Raw Living Kitchen, where she pairs veganically grown produce with offering healthy vegan food to her community. jaz is a dedicated yoga practitioner, avid veganic gardener, and lover of all outdoor activities with her favorite adventure partner, her companion animal, bodhi!
Karen S. Emmerman (she, her, hers) earned her PhD in philosophy in 2012 from the University of Washington, with a focus on ecofeminist animal ethics. She is part-time faculty in the UW and Seattle University philosophy departments as well as the Philosopher-in-Residence at John Muir Elementary School. Karen co-founded the University of Washington Critical Animal Studies Working Group and teaches and publishes in animal ethics with a focus on recognizing the inter-locking nature of human and animal oppression. Having begun her animal activism at 9 years old, Karen is passionate about veganism and all aspects of social justice.
Dr. A. Breeze Harper (she, her, hers) is an equity and inclusion consultant, with a focus on food justice, racial equity, and intersectional vegan frameworks. She is the creator and author of the book Sistah Vegan, and currently explores creating a future of sustainability and justice through Afrofuturism novel writing.
Aph Ko (she, her, hers) is the founder of Black Vegans Rock and author of two books on anti-racism and veganism. In 2015, Aph wrote the first article that listed 100 black vegans. She served as an associate producer for the documentary film Always in Season, which won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury award for Moral Urgency at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Huffington Post, VegNews magazine, and Black Youth Project.
Jennifer Knapp (she, her, hers) serves as F.E.P.’s pro bono outside counsel. She is a partner at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C., the premier legal advisor to technology and growth enterprises, where she practices corporate and securities law. She graduated with high honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a B.A. in sociology, and she received her law degree from U.C. Hastings, graduating magna cum laude.
Alejandra Tolley (she, her, hers) served as F.E.P.’s communications team member from 2022-2025. She is a published editorial writer who works to amplify women of color. After going vegan in 2017, she became a Veggie Mijas organizer in Los Angeles to advocate for food equity, and she also became their editorial content manager to encourage folks to go vegan through intentional storytelling. In 2020, she began a fully plant-based community fridge to provide easy and free access to fresh vegan foods for the South Central Los Angeles community. When she’s not writing the day away, she loves trying new vegan restaurants and taking pictures of doggies Luna and Dexter.
Dave Williams (he, him, his) is a Licensed General Contractor, a Certified Green Builder and in 2006 he earned his Permaculture Design Certification. This pioneering science integrates technology and biological systems to lessen the impact of human waste and resource consumption on the planet. David also participates in a local community garden where he grows an assortment of vegetables, and where all surplus foods are shared with both the members and the local Alameda Food Bank. Here he is allowed to practice the Permaculture Principles of Ethics: Care for the Earth, care for people, and set limits to consumption, reproduction, and share the surplus.