Our Mission

Building a community of BIPOC animal rights advocates by empowering their activism and providing them professional and personal development.

We aim to increase the number of BIPOC individuals who participate in animal activism by advocating for collective liberation through animal rights, particularly in marginalized areas and communities that are disproportionately affected by the animal industrial complex.

In order to effectively eradicate animal industries, we maintain that the grassroots animal advocacy movement must actively welcome and amplify BIPOC voices, build bridges with other movements and communities, and recognize the interconnectedness between various systems of oppression.

 

Our Founder

Christopher “Soul” Eubanks is a social justice advocate, international public speaker and nonprofit director raised in Atlanta, Ga that has dedicated himself to doing advocacy work that advocates for collective liberation. After learning the horrors of animal exploitation, Christopher became vegan, began doing community organizing and helped to co-organize Atlanta’s first ever animal rights march. He has spoken across the globe from South Africa to Harvard University. Christopher has been featured in Vox Media’s Future Perfect 50, this series highlights 50 individuals around the world composed of thinkers, activists, and scholars working on solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s biggest problems. Christopher is the founder of APEX Advocacy, a nonprofit animal rights organization that teaches grassroots activism and creates various campaigns to empower Black, Indigenous and People of color to advocate for animal rights.

Our Board of Directors

Kendrick Romonzo

(he/him)
Social Illz
Founder

Las Vegas Community Organizer

 

Meghana Rajanahally

(she/her/they/them)
Thrive Philanthropy
Finance and Operations Manager

Our Team

Yvette Baker

(she/her)
Director of Activism & Community Impact

  • Yvette Baker is a Los Angeles-based writer, social critic, and total liberation activist. Her work and activism have been devoted to exposing and critically analyzing the intersections of human and beyond-human oppression through an Afro-Indigenous lens, aiming to empower the vegan movement as a movement for total liberation.

    She has been a lifelong social justice advocate, with her efforts crossing into the animal rights movement at a young age. She has worked with various animal rights organizations as an educator and grassroots organizer, highlighting the need to understand systemic oppression and the principle of collective liberation as one of the most effective tools to build bridges between movements and work together toward common goals.

Madhusree Chatragadda

(she/her)
Director of Social Media Strategy

  • Madhusree Chatragadda is a Communications Manager with a Bachelors in English Literature from Delhi University and a Masters in Women’s Studies from Tata Institute Of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her dissertation broadly focused on the themes of Casteism in Hindi Cinema.

    She has primarily worked with Akshara Centre, a Mumbai based Women’s Rights NGO as a Social Media Manager, handling digital campaigns. She also has a flair for writing and has consulted and interned as an Assistant Editor at various Publishing houses in the country. She strongly believes in intersectionality between social justice movements across gender, sexuality, caste, race, religion and species, hoping to use her skills and privilege to amplify the voices and struggles of marginalized communities in the fight for justice, equality and total liberation.

    Currently, she works at Samayu NGO in India as a Communications Officer also working on program management and a research project on alternative plant proteins in India. To further encourage and guide youth globally towards a sustainable future, she also mentors many young animal rights activists around the world through the Animal Activism Mentorship Program.

    As a vegan activist, she wants to branch out to animal and climate change advocacy in the Indian context, facilitating policy level changes to combat the leading cause of climate change, habitat loss, water and land depletion, water pollution and species extinction - animal agriculture. She hopes to have her own sanctuary for rescued farm animals one day along with a kitchen that promotes healthy, plant-based food!

    She is also keen on learning languages, pursuing Korean at King Sejong Institute.

    She lives by: – “Educate! Agitate! Organise!” – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Akbar Ali

(he/him)
Director of Communications & Public Engagement

  • Akbar is an activist based in Chicago who has worked on issues related to animal liberation and human rights for most of his professional career. A vegan for the last nine years, he has worked for animal rights organizations such as Logistically Nonprofit Services, Legal Impact for Chickens, and Mercy For Animals, overseeing programs related to operations, international expansion and recruitment, and legal support. Many years ago, he dropped out of medical school and chose to pursue a more philosophical and artistic career. He graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in English & American Literature.

    A lifelong creative, he has also written, produced, and acted in numerous award-winning television and web series productions. He is fluent in numerous languages, including Spanish, Arabic, and Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu).

    His activism is based around the principle that the only true liberation is collective liberation, and that no one is free when anyone is oppressed. He centers his work for nonhuman animals and minoritized peoples around Toni Morrison's quote, "The function of freedom is to free someone else."

    He lives with two companion canines, Hobbes and Gusto, and (semi-jokingly) refers to himself as a "dog servant.”

MaryAnn Montalvo

(she/her)
Director of Operations

  • MaryAnn is a social justice advocate based in Arizona. A "forever student," her life changed trajectory after learning about the grim realities of industrialized animal agriculture. After listening to those in her community about how food choices and social justice issues are intertwined, she then geared her efforts towards collective liberation education.

    As a result, she has spent nearly decade educating others about the intersectional connections of their food choices in addition to helping those curious in adopting vegan lifestyles. She lives by the philosophy that there are many callings and roles that need to be involved to reach a de-colonial, collective liberation. As such, she has taken a more operational approach to her advocacy, since reaching liberation also requires someone making sure everything is running smoothly behind the scenes!

Elizabeth Leach

(she/her)
Director of Brand & Web Development

  • Elizabeth is a graphic designer and illustrator based in New Jersey. A life-long animal lover, it wasn’t until she made the choice to go vegan in 2019 that her actions finally aligned with her values, and it changed her life. Since then her career has taken a deliberate turn towards advocacy for animal liberation. She has a BFA in graphic design from The College of New Jersey.

    Elizabeth is currently a designer at APEX Advocacy, a self-employed freelance designer, and an equine caretaker at Goats of Anarchy, a sanctuary that specializes in rescuing disabled farmed animals.

Our Volunteers

Nikki Botha

(she/her)