MEET THE TEAM
CPBA was formed by the founder and team members of Social Compassion in Legislation
(SCIL), California’s leader in progressive animal protection legislation. CPBA’s founders
are already leading efforts in Sacramento to drive plant-based food availability with the
passage of SB 1138 in 2018, authored by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). The
mandated that plant-based meals are available in all state hospitals and prisons.
Subsequently, New York followed suit in 2020 with similar legislation.
judie mancuso
Founder, CEO President
Judie Mancuso is the founder, CEO and president of California Plant-Based Alliance. Her sister organization, Social Compassion in Legislation, was founded in 2007 and has spearheaded over 50 state bills—including 18 that have been signed into state law. She has also successfully led organized opposition against some of the world's largest special interest groups to stop harmful and exploitative legislation that would negatively impact animals. Named Orange County Register's Most Influential People, Judie has a reputation for making meaningful, positive change.
Nick SAckett
Director of Legislative Affairs
Nick Sackett is our Sacramento-based Director of Legislative Affairs. Nick is instrumental in CPBA's continued success in collaborating with lawmakers to pass groundbreaking legislation. As a graduate of Tulane Law School and after working in corporate law for over a decade, Nick joined the SCIL team in 2017. With background in international trade of endangered species of wild flora and fauna, Nick heads our advocacy ground game in the halls of the Capitol, interfacing with legislators, staff, committees, and supporters to help us save animals.
Asher Brown
Board Member
Asher is the founder of Pollution.tv, a mission-driven content agency in Los Angeles, and co-founder of the non-profit Switch4Good. He is one of the leading video producers in the plant-based space, with clients like Beyond Meat, Gardein, So Delicious, Follow Your Heart and Veggie Grill, an award-winning director, and an aspiring marathon runner.
Nic Adler
Board Member
After years as a band manager, promoter, and restauranteur, Nic took the helm at The Roxy in 1998. An entrepreneur and community builder, Nic was drawn to the cutting-edge concepts he found in the burgeoning field of social media. In 2007, he launched a blog that went on to win VH-1's Award for Best Music Venue Website. Always an early adaptor, Nic built The Roxy into the #1 Music Venue on Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, and Facebook. As his social media program grew, he began to see the importance of being a part of the larger community of the Sunset Strip and the City of West Hollywood.
Nic was a co-founder of the Sunset Strip Music Festival, which drew over 30K music fans to the city every August to celebrate the Strip's legacy as it highlighted some of music's newest talent. Vegan Beer and Food Festival is another event that Nic help create and continues to produce under the new name Eat Drink Vegan. In 2013, Nic joined Goldenvoice curating the Food and Beverage experience for their festivals, including Coachella Music and Arts Festival. Nic has been featured in Entrepreneur, ABC's 20/20, New York Times, TechCrunch, Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, and many more.
Currently, Nic is the Vice President of Regional Festivals for Goldenvoice, including festivals such as Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Stagecoach Festival and more. Nic’s latest ventures are co-founding Monty’s Good Burger, a 100% plant-based burger joint, that opened in Koreatown and Riverside in 2018 and a third location in Echo Park in 2019, and Nic’s on Beverly, a plant-based restaurant on Beverly Blvd. serving a little bit of everything you’d hope to find on an L.A. menu. Open for lunch, dinner, and brunch, Nic’s on Beverly is part of the plant-based food movement toward responsible eating and consciousness of the planet, a uniquely delicious dining space created for people to feel good the moment they walk through the door.
Christina Galioto
Board Member
Christina Galioto is a passionate vegan, a jet-setting impact investor, and fashion model. Growing up in the fashion industry in NYC and Paris is what began her advocacy for animals. She pridefully turned down countless jobs from brands such as Chloe, Mui Mui. and Roberto Cavalli, to name a few, because of her refusal to wear fur. From there she realized she could protect and save animals every single day by simply not eating them and has been living plant-based since the age of 19. Now that the vegan movement has such momentum there is no limit to what can be done, her company, Conscious Capital, invests in businesses dedicated to making a positive impact on the planet and all who inhabit it.
Shelly Bennecke
Board Member
Managing Partner, Laguna Ventures LLC
NILANG GOR
Board Member
Nilang Gor is an engineer in the gene therapy field and holds M.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Nilang also founded Cultivate Empathy for All, an organizaon which promotes empathy as a tool to address global challenges. As a systems thinker, he believes that we live in a highly interconnected ecosystem, where our well-being is interdependent on fellow humans, non-human animals, and the environment. Nilang thinks our ignorance of this interdependence has created unsustainable animal agriculture systems which are now impacng our environment, public health, as well as social and racial equity. He mobilizes community members to educate their city lawmakers on the negave impacts of animal-based food systems on various aspects of our society and environment, and promote local, sustainable policies and programs. Nilang firmly believes that what is good for our bodies is also good for the environment and animals in our highly interconnected world.