Dr. Will Tuttle, visionary author of the acclaimed best-seller The World Peace Diet, published in 16 languages, is a recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award and the Empty Cages Prize. He’s also the author of Your Inner Islands, on developing intuition, and is editor of Circles of Compassion, on the interconnection of social justice issues. A vegan since 1980, he is a frequent radio, television, and online presenter, and has created several wellness and advocacy training programs. Featured in Cowspiracy and other documentary films, he is the co-founder of the Worldwide Prayer Circle for Animals. A former Zen monk with a Ph.D. from U. C., Berkeley, Dr. Tuttle is also a noted composer and pianist, and lectures and concertizes extensively throughout the world promoting peace and cultural healing. See www.worldpeacediet.com for more details.

Dr. Sailesh Rao has over 32 years of professional experience and is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers, a non-profit dedicated towards healing the Earth’s climate. A systems specialist with a Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA, conferred in 1986, Dr. Rao worked on the Internet communications infrastructure for twenty years after graduation. In 2006, he switched careers and became deeply immersed, full time, in the environmental crises affecting humanity and has been studying how to reverse them and achieve global sustainability from a systems perspective.

Dr. Rao is the author of the 2011 book, Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of Butterflies and the 2016 book, Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis. He is an Executive Producer of the trilogy of documentaries "THEY Don't Want You To See", The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014) and What The Health (2017), which explore the systemic causes of human and environmental ill health. He is also an Executive Producer of the forthcoming documentary, "A Prayer for Compassion". Dr. Rao has over 50 standards contributions to the ATM Forum and the IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD Working Group, 22 peer-reviewed technical publications, 10 U.S . Patents and 3 Canadian Patents and has received numerous awards throughout his career.

Dr. Bandana N. Chawla is a board certified physician in Internal Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. In fall of 2012, she was exposed to plant based diet by her patients and by February of 2013, she became vegan. In 2018, Dr. Chawla became a diplomate of American College of Lifestyle Medicine. She is passionate about evidence based Lifestyle Medicine and promotes holistic health with plant based nutrition, exercise, and mindfulness to her patients, colleagues and local/online community.

Stephanie Hoban is the owner of Houston’s newest, soon-to-be open, vegan restaurant, Verdine. After receiving her training as a Dietitian and Natural Foods Chef, she started Ripe Cuisine in 2013, as a food blog and farmer’s market stand offering healthy plant-based meals based on her online recipes. Customer response to Stephanie’s healthy creations was overwhelmingly positive from both vegans and non-vegans alike and encouraged by the success, the Ripe Cuisine food truck served its first customers in September 2014. The food truck was named Best Vegan Restaurant by the Houston Press in 2016 and Best Food Truck by Edible Houston in May 2018. Now almost 5 years after starting her first vegan food business, Stephanie is preparing to open Houston’s premier plant-based restaurant located in the heart of the Heights at the Historic Water Works Development on 19^th St. Stephanie is passionate about promoting the benefits of a plant-based diet and making it more accessible to everyone.