I'm a 37-year vegan, best-selling author, award-winning public health nutritionist, international speaker, and vegan trailblazer. The New York Times cited my work as a key factor driving the rise in veganism among African Americans, who are the fastest growing vegan demographic in the U.S. I was also featured in the Netflix docuseries "You Are What You Eat."
Through my By Any Greens Necessary benefit corporation, I provide plant-based and public health consulting to governments, nonprofits, businesses, and populations. I've spent nearly four decades helping people go vegan and change their lives. And I'd love to work with you, too!
I'm so glad you're here!
heyyy!
I truly believe that being vegan is all about practicing love, freedom, and joy -
not deprivation.
It was 1986 and I was a sophomore at Amherst College. Our Black Student Union brought Dick Gregory—the global human rights activist and Civil Rights Movement icon—to campus to talk about the state of black America. Instead, he decided to talk about the plate of black America, and the political, economic, and social reasons that most folks ate unhealthfully. I was one of them.
During his talk, Gregory traced the path of a hamburger from a cow on a factory farm, through the slaughterhouse, to a fast food restaurant, to a clogged artery, to a heart attack. His talk rocked my world. Before then, I was completely uninterested in healthy food and had gained 25 pounds during my first year in college.
After Gregory's lecture, I immediately went vegetarian—and that lasted for about a week. For the next few months, I read everything I could about vegetarianism (this was, of course, years before the Internet) and my mother and one of my sisters read them, too. We all went vegetarian together, then vegan about a year later.
It's been an incredible four decades since then. I've gone on to become an award-winning public health nutritionist, best-selling author, international speaker, and vegan trailblazer (check out some of my proudest accolades below) and I've spent nearly 40 years helping people go vegan and live healthier lives. And I'd love to work with you, too. Let's do this together!
I remember the day my life changed forever...
My Vegan Story
• Received Compassionate Vegan Living Award from Farm Sanctuary
• Received U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame Award
• Received Vegan Soul Superstar Award from Vegan Soulfest
• Received Distinguished Alumni Award from Sidwell Friends School
• By Any Greens Necessary cited by The New York Times as a key factor driving the rise in veganism among African Americans, who are the fastest growing vegan demographic in the U.S.
• Named a national food hero changing the way America eats for the better by Vegetarian Times
• Featured in PBS Women Thought Leaders Series
• Ageless Vegan received starred review by Library Journal, which stated the book "raises the standard of plant-based cuisine"
• Ageless Vegan was twice the number one best-seller in vegan cookbooks on Amazon in 2018 and 2020
• Featured in The Invisible Vegan documentary
• Featured on the cover of Barefoot Vegan and Natural Awakenings magazines
• Directed the first federally funded vegan nutrition program in the U.S., the VSDC Eat Smart Program
• Co-created one of the earliest vegan websites in 1997, which was also the first vegan website by and for African Americans, blackvegetarians.com
• Co-founded an animal rights organization in 2000 for people of color, Justice for All Species
• Co-founded the Black Vegetarian Society of New York
• While in college, co-founded We Feed Our People, a 32-year nonprofit that organizes the now largest Martin Luther King, Jr Holiday Day of Service event in Washington, DC, providing food and services to unhoused residents