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Sarasota | Presenters

Featuring expert doctors, researchers, and activists to discuss timely topics such as health, diet, animal welfare, and the environment.

Presenter Schedule

11:00am - Mike and Denise Young | Non-Profit Update + Longevity Habits

Mike Young is the Founder of aPlantBasedDiet.org 501(c)(3) Non-Profit, TriangleGrapeVine.org and FloridaGrapeVine.org. aPlantBasedDiet.org has a website full of food and recipe resources, a YouTube Channel, local community groups, and live in person outdoor festival events up and down the US East Coast. He’s the type of person that’s continually in search of improvement and doing the best he can do with everything. Mike has always been a forward thinker, and this has propelled him into leading a whole foods plant based lifestyle. He believes there’s nothing more important to do today than spread the good news of this lifestyle since everyone and everything benefits! Mike can be found perpetually on social media. Mike is also a Lifestyle Nutritionist @ ForeverYoungNutritionCoaching.com with a passion for human health. Author of the vBook “Live to 150” available FREE here: http://LiveTo150.org

Denise began her non-profit leadership work as the President of her COA. She leads projects and analyses financial data as a Senior Systems Analyst at Freddie MAC. Denise began her Plant-based journey after Mike encouraged her to read The China Study in 2017. Denise lost her beloved Aunt and Grandmother to diabetes and watched several family members struggle with breast cancer. She’s committed to educating people about a healthy lifestyle that doesn’t exploit animals and is better for the environment. Since switching to a Whole Foods Plant Based diet, Denise has lost 20 pounds, has resumed running and recently won first place in her age group in a competitive 5K!

Providing a yearly update for the organization plus longevity tips from the newly completed free book LIVE to 150!

11:30am - Fab The Vegan | The Plant Based Health Influencer

I was raised in Queens, New York and grew up in a typical Latin household eating a lot of different types of meats, and toxic food. By my late 20’s I had become accustomed to eating the Standard American Diet, which led me to eventually weigh 300 lbs pounds if not maybe over. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2007 at the age of 44 and was more sick than I had ever been in my life. At 50 years old in 2013 I decided to make a change and work actively towards healing myself from the inside out. I went PlantBased and ultimately became fully vegan in 2014 and, along with starting a fitness routine, I reversed my diabetes and lots of more illnesses, lost all the extra weight, and regained my health, confidence, and zest for life! Now I weight 165 lbs at 58 years old and I feel amazing!

Noon - Ellen Jaffe Jones | Beat Inflation (+ More) on a Vegan Diet

Ellen Jaffe Jones is a former 2-time Emmy WinningTV investigative reporter from Miami and St. Louis. She’s the author of 6 popular vegan health and fitness cookbooks including “Eat Vegan on $4 A Day,” “Vegan Fitness for Mortals,” “Vegan Sex,” and “Vegan for One.” When Covid shut down her book tour, she used her experience in real estate to become a Florida realtor with her vegan long-time real estate broker boyfriend. She’s been a runner for 40 years, got a gold medal for sprinting in the National Senior Games and has placed currently in 235 5K or longer races for her age group since ’06 “just” on plants. She’ll cover the questions she gets asked most, like “How do you do all that?” 
 

12:30pm - Jacinda Shapiro | Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

Reversing Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes
Jacinda Shapiro is a certified diabetes care and education specialist and owner of EmpowerMe Diabetes Health. Jacinda is a plant-based diabetes educator helping those living with Type 1 or LADA to optimize management and reduce risk of complications and runs a diabetes prevention and reversal program for those who are living with pre-diabetes and Type 2.

1:00pm - Dr. Neal Barnard of PCRM | Your Body In Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health

Remote Presentation with Q & A live on video wall

His bio and headshot are attached. The presentation title will be: Your Body in Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health. Description: Nutrition researcher and New York Times bestselling author Neal Barnard, MD, demonstrates how foods affect our hormones—and our health—in his new book, Your Body in Balance. Dr. Barnard shares the science behind how common hormone-related conditions—like infertility, weight gain, menopausal symptoms, breast and prostate cancers, thyroid problems, and acne—can be affected by and improved by simple diet changes.

2:00pm - Dr. Scott Harrington of Vegan Primary Care | The Vegan Hero's Journey

Scott Harrington, D.O. is founder of www.VeganPrimaryCare.com, where you can see a Vegan doctor, as your Primary Care Doctor, from the comfort of your own home, from most US states. He treats common conditions for all age groups.
 
View your vegan lifestyle through the lens of the Hero’s Journey as described by Joseph Campbell and popularized by epic stories such as Star Wars or the Matrix. Review how James Prochaska’s Stages of Change Theory relates to your journey and helps you stay on the healthy path. See how your path to optimal health can inspire others and change the world.

2:45pm - 85 yrs Young Dr. Ron Knaus | Stabilizing Alzheimer’s Disease

Dr. Ronald Knaus is a psychiatrist in Saint Petersburg, Florida. He received his medical degree from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

3:30pm - EMCEES | Shannon Blair and VeganEvan | Vegan Activism + AAM

Shannon’s journey toward animal liberation really got going Thanksgiving Day, 1996, when she was just 9 years old. After she saw footage showing what happens to animals in order for them to end up on our plates, she never ate another animal again and immediately became an activist, stickering packages and holding demos outside of supermarkets. After about 2 decades of eating a vegetarian diet, Shannon was made aware of the atrocities occurring in the dairy industry — she had never heard this information before. She also watched Cowspiracy on Netflix and then made the decision to transition to a Vegan Lifestyle overnight. Shortly after, she found out how horrendous the egg industry is, another one she had been supporting during all that time as a vegetarian. Shannon now understood why those “crazy vegans” weren’t eating cheese or eggs — they weren’t so crazy after all. She got right back into activism — this time with more knowledge, more reasons, and an incredible amount of inspiration from her son, VeganEvan (who decided to go vegan the same day, even though she tried talking him out of it)! Shannon is fighting for the animals and for Evan’s future. She quit her job in 2017 to advocate, educate, and activate full-time. Shannon and Evan travel all over doing outreach & actions for the animals. They are in the process of starting up a new non-profit organization, the Animal Liberation Action Squad. Shannon is a Certified Vegan Lifestyle Coach & Educator.

VeganEvan is a passionate and talented young animal advocate committed to creating a healthy, compassionate, and regenerative world. He is President & Spokesperson for Animal Hero Kids and also a spokesperson for the Solutionary Species movement. VeganEvan has spoken in front of large audiences at several major events throughout the country including the What the Health-Cowspiracy Conference, Central Florida Earth Day, the Animal Liberation Conference, Tampa Bay VegFest, the National Animal Rights Conference, Asheville Vegan Fest, VegFest Oahu, and many more!!  He has been awarded the Russell Simmons Creative Animal Hero Kids Award, and in 2016, he earned PETA’s Cutest Vegan Kid award.  More recently he was awarded the Shining World Leadership Award for Compassion from the Supreme Master Ching Hai Association. VeganEvan is a voice for the animals everywhere he goes! He enjoys leafleting, protesting, doing marches, Open Rescue, disruptions, and making videos and rap songs! Evan also participates in Anonymous for the Voiceless Cubes of Truth and Vigils with the Save Movement wherever he travels. Most of all, he loves visiting all of his rescued friends at the sanctuaries where they are happy, safe and free from harm.