Farm Forward’s board has added four new members, and we couldn’t be more excited!
Our new Board of Directors includes authors, scientists, religious leaders, scholars of ethics, and a climate change leader. Together, they have professional expertise and experience helping people and animals in Canada, China, India, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
One of our recruitment priorities was candidates’ commitment to promoting the values of diversity, equity and inclusion in our organization, and in the work we do to fight factory farming. Our new board composition also better reflects the gender and racial diversity of the communities we work in and with.
We are grateful for the outstanding service of our outgoing board members, Ian Duncan, John Mackey, and Steven Gross.
Our new board includes the following directors, all leaders in their respective fields:
Assistant Professor of Theology at the University of San Diego
New board member Rev. Dr. Carter’s work explores how religion and the institution of factory farming affect food choices within the African American community. He is a United Methodist pastor, holds a seat on the steering committee for the prestigious Animals and Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion, and has been a Farm Forward Faith in Food Fellow since 2016. He is about to release a new book called The Spirit of Soul Food.
Rabbi and Ethicist
Founding board member Dr. Crane is a Scholar of Bioethics and Jewish Thought at Emory University in Atlanta and is the author of the book Eating Ethically: Religion and Science for a Better Diet. He holds rabbinic ordination from the Hebrew Union College and a Ph.D. in religion from the University of Toronto. Crane has served Jewish communities in North America, India, and China. He sits on the national board of the Society for Jewish Ethics.
Author
Founding board member Foer’s internationally bestselling first book, Everything Is Illuminated, was named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and won numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Prize and the National Jewish Book Award. His second book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, also a bestseller, was hailed by Salman Rushdie as “ambitious, pyrotechnic, riddling, and above all … extremely moving.” His third book, Eating Animals, offers a critique of factory farming and was written in close collaboration with Farm Forward. It was the inspiration for the documentary of the same name with Executive Producer Natalie Portman. Foer’s novels have received widespread acclaim and awards and two have been made into major motion pictures. Foer has taught writing at Yale and is on the faculty of New York University’s Creative Writing Program.
Professor of Environmental Science & Sustainability at Allegheny College
New board member Dr. Gross-Camp is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist with over seventeen years experience working in East African tropical forests. She has held teaching positions in the UK and the US. Her overarching interests are integrating social and ecological needs to achieve long-term equitable conservation. In her career, Dr. Gross-Camp has received over twenty prestigious research and leadership awards.
University-distinguished Professor, Professor of: Philosophy, Animal Sciences, Biomedical Security, and University Bioethicist at the University of Colorado
Founding board member Dr. Rollin is one of the world’s leading scholars in animal ethics and actively lectures all over the globe. He introduced the first university course on veterinary ethics, helped pass the federal Animal Welfare Act, has published seven books on animal protection and consciousness, and served on the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.
Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
New board member Dr. Srinivasan’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of environmental social science, post-development politics, and animal studies. Her current research revolves around intersectional approaches to social, ecological and animal justice in the context of contemporary development. She is Farm Forward’s South Asia Adviser and is working to establish the first human-animal studies program in India at the Tata Institute in Mumbai.
Ready For 100 Campaign Director, Sierra Club
New Board Member Van Horn spent 15 years in the environmental movement working on campaigns to combat climate change, and is currently leading a nationwide clean energy advocacy campaign at the Sierra Club. She believes that ending factory farming can be a crucial part of the climate action agenda.
Associate Professor of Theology & Religious Studies at the University of San Diego
Farm Forward’s founder and CEO, Dr. Gross has played a leadership role in a wide variety of national and international farmed animal welfare campaigns in the Americas, India, and the Middle East since the mid-1990s. While collaborating with novelist Jonathan Safran Foer on Foer’s internationally best-selling critique of industrial farming, Eating Animals, Aaron saw the need for an organization devoted entirely to ending factory farming and founded Farm Forward in 2007. Aaron has served as CEO from the beginning and grown the organization into a leading national nonprofit with eleven full-time staff. Alongside Foer and director Christopher Quinn, Gross is a co-writer for the new Eating Animals documentary film narrated by Natalie Portman. In addition to his advocacy work, Aaron is an internationally respected expert on religion and animals who teaches courses on animals and religion, food and religion, and modern Jewish thought. He has authored two scholarly books and numerous articles dealing with animal and food ethics from both religious and secular perspectives, including his critically acclaimed The Question of the Animal and Religion: Theoretical Stakes, Practical Implications (Columbia University Press, 2015). Gross currently serves as President of the Society for Jewish Ethics and on the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States.
Welcome new board members! We look forward to our work together promoting conscientious food choices, reducing farmed animal suffering, and advancing sustainable agriculture.