Our People

Neysa Colizzi is a lifelong animal lover and longtime vegan. Neysa leverages her expertise in change management, strategy execution, and behavioral science to further the missions of animal-protection and food-innovation organizations. Professionally, Neysa helps large companies realize and sustain large-scale change and strategic transformations. Neysa holds master’s degrees in business and engineering. She has done nonprofit work around the world and served on a number of nonprofit boards in education, community development, and animal protection.

Michael Pellman Rowland is a partner and an impact expert at Baseline Wealth Management. He provides the full spectrum of sustainability- and impact-investment advice, emphasizing climate and food systems. Michael is a frequent public speaker and has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Financial Times, and Institutional Investor. He was selected for the InvestmentNews 40 Under 40 list of top wealth advisors and the Forbes inaugural list of America’s Top Next-Generation Wealth Advisors. He served as a founding member of the Forbes Impact Investing Community and wrote a column covering sustainable food companies for Forbes. He is also an advisor for The Good Food Institute and the EAT Foundation.

Ren Akinci is an executive vice president and a chief people officer in the advertising and events industry, where she leads people strategy to drive growth, innovation, and cultural transformation. With more than 15 years’ experience across public and private-equity-backed organizations, she partners with executives to align people strategy with business goals and build high-performing, inclusive workplaces that empower creativity and purpose.

Ren became vegan after learning about Mercy For Animals’ outreach and undercover investigations, which inspired her to connect her beloved dog with farmed animals. She is a passionate advocate for animal welfare and environmental sustainability, dedicated to helping create a more compassionate and conscious world.

Natalie Mindrum is an operations and strategy executive with more than two decades of experience driving impact at the intersection of mission and performance. She leads global supply chain strategy and execution for a top plant-based food company and held leadership roles in sustainability and operations at United Airlines. Earlier in her career, she worked with Teach For America in the Bronx and the International Rescue Committee in Afghanistan.

A 20-year vegan and the daughter of a Minnesota farmer, Natalie brings both lived experience and professional expertise to the fight for animal protection, climate resilience, and food-system transformation. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and lives with her family in Evanston, Illinois.

Leah Garcés is CEO of Mercy For Animals and author of Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming and Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry. With more than 20 years of leadership experience in the animal protection movement, she has partnered with corporations, communities, and governments on her mission to build a better food system.

Arash Yomtobian is the president of Mercy For Animals. He is also a global executive leader, entrepreneur, and longtime advocate for compassion, with more than two decades of experience building and leading high-impact organizations. Before joining Mercy For Animals, Arash held senior leadership roles at Google, Meta, and TikTok, where he oversaw multibillion-dollar global partnership portfolios, developed new industry categories, and built scalable operating systems that transformed business outcomes. He began his professional career in investment banking, focusing on mergers and acquisitions and private equity, and has maintained more than 15 years of active nonprofit governance throughout his career, including serving as interim CFO for Global Potential and guiding the successful merger of Positive Health Project into Housing Works. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Nomad Noé, a vegan luxury fragrance brand. An ethical vegan for nine years, Arash’s commitment to ending factory farming is deeply personal and rooted in a broader mission to build systems of care for human- and non-human animals, and the planet. He brings to Mercy For Animals a combination of operational rigor and heart-centered leadership, along with a vision for a compassionate food system.

Lucas Alvarenga is chief strategy officer of Mercy For Animals, a role that combines his marketing expertise and extensive knowledge of the animal protection movement. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Lucas played a pivotal role in launching Mercy For Animals in his home country in 2015. Since then, our support base in Brazil has rocketed to one of the largest in the farmed-animal protection movement. Lucas has led programmatic initiatives across multiple countries and proved instrumental in Mercy For Animals’ global strategy.

Jodi Medoff is chief legal officer and chief operating officer at Mercy For Animals, overseeing legal affairs, people operations and culture, technology, operations, risk management, and board governance across the international organization. She also serves as corporate secretary. Jodi previously served as Mercy For Animals’ general counsel, leveraging her legal expertise to drive operational excellence, mitigate risk, and ensure regulatory compliance.

With more than 20 years in legal and operational practice, including 14 years of in-house counsel work, Jodi brings a breadth and depth of corporate and transactional experience along with success in executing business and operational strategies. She also brings experience in law enforcement as a former federal special agent. Jodi is a strategic business partner, sustaining a culture of operational management and efficiency and mitigating risk while guiding legal strategy and compliance.

Jodi received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, her MBA from Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, and her bachelor’s in psychology from Brandeis University.

Amanda Rainey is chief philanthropy officer of Mercy For Animals, overseeing philanthropic relationships with individuals and organizations. Amanda leads the development of comprehensive, strategic fundraising plans and brings more than 20 years of dedicated leadership in the nonprofit sector, specializing in fundraising, marketing, and community outreach. She has expertise in capital campaigns, corporate partnerships, digital fundraising, and strategic partnerships and is known for tenacity and an unwavering commitment to driving long-term sustainability and impact. Amanda earned her master’s in education from Indiana University and her bachelor’s in education from Southeast Missouri State University. She has also earned the CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive) credential.

Nikunj Sharma is Mercy For Animals’ chief executive officer in India. Based in New Delhi, Nikunj provides strategic leadership and guidance for our initiatives in the country, including building and managing teams, maintaining collaborative relationships with external stakeholders, setting goals, and implementing short- and long-term plans and policies to meet them. Nikunj’s over 12 years of rich experience strategizing and leading policy and advocacy efforts for animal protection campaigns have contributed to landmark victories for animals in India. Nikunj has worked with parliamentarians, bureaucrats, think tanks, corporations, and civil society leaders to build strong formal networks. The BBC, The Newsmakers, NDTV India, Aaj Tak, Times Now, and many more top news outlets have spotlighted Nikunj’s achievements for animals.

Fernando Gallart is managing director of Mercy For Animals in Latin America. Based in Mexico and fueled by his experience building high-performing teams, he provides strategic guidance for our Latin American operations and oversees a growing team of passionate professional activists. Before joining Mercy For Animals, Fernando worked in international business expansion and marketing, helping companies increase their revenue in France, Spain, and Latin America.

Cristina Mendonça is managing director of Mercy For Animals in Brazil. She brings more than 20 years of experience in local and global sustainability. This includes mobilizing people and financial resources, as well as leading, facilitating, and engaging national and international stakeholders in change processes that amplify impact for NGOs, governments, and companies.

Deep Dhillon is the managing director of Mercy For Animals in the United States and Canada. In this role, Deep helps guide regional strategy and leads teams focused on advancing farmed animal welfare and creating foundational changes toward a more compassionate food system through corporate engagement, policy change, and public awareness campaigns.

Before joining Mercy For Animals, Deep held leadership roles in engineering, strategy, and consulting, including positions as a project leader at BCG and director at Bell. He holds a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Alberta and an MBA from Ivey Business School.

Paula Cardoso is Mercy For Animals’ general counsel for Latin America. She joined us in 2017 as a staff attorney and now oversees legal affairs and advises on all legal matters concerning the organization’s programs, operations, compliance, and corporate governance in Latin American countries. Paula has extensive experience in legal practice, having worked at law firms and as a pro bono attorney for activists from various social justice movements. She holds a law degree from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo and an LLM degree in animal law from Lewis & Clark Law School. Paula is also a business-contract specialist and earned a digital-law certification from Fundação Getúlio Vargas.

Sage Evans is Mercy For Animals’ vice president of development. She brings over 20 years of progressive experience in nonprofit and municipal fundraising leadership and strategy. With a degree in philanthropic studies from Grand View University, Sage has focused her career on improved donor relations and mission alignment through stewardship, annual giving, prospect research, and development operations. Sage resides in Minnesota with her husband, Jon, and their three rescue cats. She has a passion for travel and enjoys searching for hidden locations and treasures around the globe.

Kelcey Meadows-Lucas is a senior philanthropy officer with Mercy For Animals, helping our donors find their ideal roles in the mission to end industrial animal agriculture. She brings more than a decade of fundraising experience to her position. Adopting a feisty terrier 18 years ago opened Kelcey’s heart to all animals, and she has dedicated her life to protecting them ever since. Kelcey shares her home with her husband and son, rescued dog, and rescued fish.

As vice president of global corporate engagement at Mercy For Animals, Eduarda Nedeff provides strategic leadership to advance corporate policies that significantly reduce suffering for farmed animals. She oversees corporate-engagement efforts across multiple regions and works closely with strategic partners to drive global impact.

With extensive experience in corporate engagement, Eduarda has led successful campaigns securing major animal welfare commitments from some of the world’s largest food companies. She has worked with Sinergia Animal on multinational initiatives and with Animal Justice in Canada. She currently serves on the board of Sinergia Animal.

Eduarda holds a degree in business and marketing, a postgraduate certificate in sport and event marketing, and an MBA in marketing and digital strategies.

Patrick Sarsfield serves as deputy general counsel at Mercy For Animals, overseeing legal affairs and advising on all legal matters concerning the organization’s programs, operations, compliance, and corporate governance.

Patrick earned his undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Luiza Schneider serves as Mercy For Animals’ vice president of investigations. She works with our brave investigations team to pull back the curtain on factory-farm cruelty. Luiza joined us in 2017 as investigations manager. She had worked for years as an animal welfare expert and inspector in Brazil, reporting animal abuse at hundreds of slaughterhouses, factory farms, puppy mills, and vivisection labs.

Travis Sitzlar is vice president of technology with Mercy For Animals. He leads a team of developers dedicated to advancing Mercy For Animals’ mission through information technology. With over 20 years of experience creating and managing high-performing technology teams around the globe, Travis has supported organizations ranging from local, regional, and international nonprofits to emerging startups and multinational corporations. He is delighted to see technology play a role in transforming people’s perception of plant-based foods and looks forward to a world where plant-based eating is the norm. Travis and his wife, Stephanie, live in the Tampa Bay area in a home ruled by their rescue dog and rescue bird.