Liz Ross is the founder of Coalition of Vegan Activists of Color (COVAC), which partners with individuals and community organizations to mobilize vegan and animal rights activists of color to provide motivation and exchange information by conducting workshops, conferences, social networking events and volunteer events.
COVAC is organizing its 2016 People of Color: Animal Rights, Advocacy and Food Justice Conference, which will take place in Los Angeles, California, on October 15, 2016. This conference is the first of its kind in Southern California. Attendees will share a space with activists and leaders of color who engage in vegan outreach, animal rights, vegan health and fitness, vegan food justice, urban farming, migrant worker rights in the U.S. food system, vegan hip hop projects, and much more. Click HERE for more information.
Liz is an active member of Black Skeptics Los Angeles (BSLA), which is committed to community building and promoting social justice work through a secular humanist perspective. Each year, BSLA spearheads its “First In The Family Scholarship Fund”, which provides financial resources to undocumented, foster care, homeless, system-involved, and LGBTQ youth of color to help them with their college expenses.
A former police officer, Liz raises awareness about the history and problem of mass-incarceration through presentations, and volunteering for organizations, including A New Way of Life: Reentry Project, that are working to counter its negative impact.
Liz has given presentations on “The Origins of the Criminalization of Blackness in the Post Emancipation Period and How it Helped Shape Policing Policies”, and “The Politics of the ‘War on Drugs’ and It’s Affects on Predominantly Black & Brown Communities”. Liz also facilitates discussion groups on Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Liz currently serves on the advisory board of Food Empowerment Project, a vegan food justice organization. In addition, Liz provides a space for vegans of color who live and visit California to connect, and organize social and volunteer events through her Facebook Group page, Cali Vegans of Color.
Liz is featured in the upcoming documentary film Vegan Noir: Black Vegans in Los Angeles, which she also helped produce and served as consultant. Vegan Noir profiles nine Black vegans in Los Angeles. It will premiere at the People of Color Animal Rights, Advocacy and Food Justice Conference on October 15, and at independent film events this fall. Produced and directed by Toni Bell, this film is in production at the University of Southern California Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology program.
Born and raised on the island of Trinidad, Liz moved to the U.S. in her early twenties. Liz has been an ethical vegan for over seven years, is passionate about learning agro-ecology, and enjoys running half-marathons.
Social Media
http://www.covac-us.org/
http://www.covac-us.org/2016-conference/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/covacvegansofcolor/
