Our Team
Elizabeth Novogratz, Founder and
President
Elizabeth Novogratz is the founder and president of Species Unite, a nonprofit media project to help people transition off of animal products. She was called at an early age to devote her life to elevating all animal life after witnessing inhumane animal agriculture and trade in the U.S. and abroad. After a decade of travel into places most of us could not, she founded Species Unite: a nonprofit that brings the brightest people and best non-animal products together on one curated media platform. She hosts the Species Unite podcast, which uncovers the latest in “future food” (cultivated meat), vegan fashion, and plant-forward meals.
Elizabeth is also the co-founder of Maloka, a virtual reality meditation game that's bringing mindfulness to the metaverse. In an earlier life, she spent over a decade creating and propagating content to help people make healthier lifestyle choices. She co-founded and served as editor in chief of the Well Daily, a website and daily email that brought wellness, meditation, and health to humans everywhere. She co-authored, Wall Street Journal book of the month, Just Sit, A Meditation Guidebook for Those Who Know They Should but Don’t. As a writer, producer, founder, and creative, Elizabeth is committed to changing the story for animals. She fiercely believes in the power of helping us see what we’re not paying attention to in order to open our hearts and do better.
Amy Jones
Features Writer
Amy Jones is a photojournalist and writer who focuses on telling animal stories in the mainstream media to help change people’s mindsets. Her work has appeared in the likes of The Guardian, The Independent, and Channel News Asia. She is the co-founder of the photography and journalism project Moving Animals.
Anna Callner
Music
Anna lives on the island of Oahu, Hawai’i where she performs with the Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra, and other local ensembles of many different genres. She is a dedicated teacher, guiding aspiring musicians of all ages. When Anna isn’t playing her cello you will find her and her husband, Ravi, adventuring outside on mountain and jungle trails and splashing in the ocean, dreaming up what vegan meal they will cook for dinner. Anna believes all creatures have the right to live in a world free from cruelty and harm.
Caitlin Pierce
Editorial Consultant
Caitlin Pierce is an award-winning audio producer with an interest in social justice, race, education, youth, incarceration, feminism and food. She left her career as a high school teacher to pursue her dream of audio storytelling, and her work has appeared on NPR, WNYC, the BBC, and Audible, among others.
Gary Knudson
Editor and Post Production
Gary Knudson has been a musician all his life. The piano is his primary performance instrument, but he works in many mediums and genres. His compositions have been performed both domestically and internationally, and much of his compositional work has been inspired and informed by his activism. When he is not creating, his professional work includes audio restoration, audio editing, audio post-production, and mastering. He has produced and edited podcasts created by entrepreneurs, teachers, activists, and indie film screenwriters. He has heard many stories through his work and loves that he can use his skills and talent to help tell the stories of those without a voice.
Paul Healey
Features Writer
Paul Healey is a journalist and writer who has featured in more than 150 news outlets around the world. After working for People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals UK (PETA UK), he co-founded the photography and journalism project Moving Animals in 2018.
Santina Polky
Campaigns and Development
Santina has recently moved back to the United States after living abroad for nearly a decade. Santina spent several years managing a volunteer placement NGO in Rio de Janeiro before completing a Master of Science in Public Policy from King’s College London. Santina received a distinction for her dissertation “An Analysis of the United Kingdom’s Animal Welfare Standards for Pig Farming: Comparing Perspectives on Current Regulation and the Future in Light of Brexit” and she believes that the United States should follow the European example to make major agricultural policy changes to protect the rights of nonhuman animals. Santina lives with her husband, dog and two cats in a renovated RV traveling around the United States and experiencing new vegan foods wherever her journey takes her.
Board of Directors
Kyra is currently founding chair of Govern for America, a two-year fellowship that matches recent graduates with full time state level jobs and supports them to become our nation’s future public service leaders. Kyra is a member of the Urban School Food Alliance advisory board working with local school food providers to address the needs of the nation’s largest school districts and the students they feed and a board member of Species Unite highlighting the plight of animals around the globe.
Kyra is Chair Emerita of the Columbia College Alumni Association (CCAA) and has held many leadership positions at Columbia including as the first alumna to head the CCAA and a former member of the Columbia College Board of Visitors. She is also the recipient of the College’s John Jay Award for Professional Achievement and Columbia University’s Alumni Medal.
Kyra received her BA in Urban Studies from Columbia University’s Columbia College in 1987 as a member of the first fully co-ed class and a founding member of the Varsity Soccer Team. She spent twelve years in public transportation policy and government relations at the US Congress, NYC Mayor’s Office, NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and NJ Department of Transportation. Kyra was Team Leader for the 2016 USA Women's Wrestling Olympic Team. She was USA Wrestling’s Woman of the Year in 2015. She has served on the board of independent schools, ran the Hoboken travel soccer club and led several major fundraising campaigns. Kyra and her husband David Barry live in New York City and have three children, Olivia, Jake and Charley.
Prior to Acumen, Amrita was CFO of Katzenbach Partners, a dynamic management consulting firm, consulted with clients across a range of industries focused on strategy and spearheaded the firm's internal environmental Green Guru initiative. Amrita cares deeply about animal and environmental issues, from helping create a puppet show in India as a teen to highlight tree conversation and the chipko movement to fostering and adopting a menagerie of animals while growing up in an apartment building. She lives in Harlem with her 2 beloved rescue dogs (and a bunch of humans).
Jacqueline is the author of the upcoming book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World, a book of twelve principles to renew the world. Her best-selling memoir The Blue Sweater chronicles her quest to understand poverty and bring dignity to the poor.
Jacqueline sits on the board of the Aspen Institute and 60 decibels; and is on a variety of advisory boards. In 2017, Forbes listed Jacqueline as one of the World’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds. Her belief that we will not flourish as a human species until we ground our economic and social systems in a moral framework that starts with our connection to all living things; and it is this belief that drives her involvement with Species Unite.
As a writer, producer, founder and creative, Elizabeth is committed to alleviating unnecessary suffering of animals and she fiercely believes in the power of helping us see what we’re not paying attention to in order to open our hearts and get us to collectively change.