Who are we?
At Project Animal Freedom, we strive to build a fully vegan Midwest by 2056 through a strategic, chapter-based system that emphasizes our three core competencies: marketing, fundraising, and leadership recruitment.
Our Vision
Thriving animal rights communities across the Midwest that build a just world where all animals, both human and more-than-human, can live safe, happy, and free from the genuine tyranny of factory farms, slaughterhouses, and other animal-abusing facilities.
Our Mission
We exist, first and foremost, for the animals with a relentless focus on their rights, lives, and well-being. We embrace nonviolent community organizing as a guiding principle, and organize social, educational, and outreach events at an increasingly ferocious pace. We strive to save as many lives, reduce as much suffering, and do as much good as possible by addressing the leading cause of easily preventable more-than-human animal suffering, vast swathes of human animal suffering, and immense oceans of environmental devastation: modern animal agriculture. Guided by these core values, we are unstoppable.
Our Top Seven Strategic Goals
Increase the number of vegans across the Midwest
Create, mobilize, and help activists network across the Midwest
Build thriving animal rights communities in every major metropolitan area across the Midwest
Champion intersectionality within the animal rights movement and beyond
Address the rapidly worsening climate and ecological emergency facing all life on Earth
Inspire large-scale generosity to combat the trillion-dollar animal abuse industry
Transform institutions through successful pressure campaigns
Our Core Values
We are compassionate: We behave compassionately not only toward more-than-human animals, but also toward human animal victims of other injustices, from sexism and racism to homophobia and ableism. Justice, love, respect, and compassion for all mandates we treat each respectfully, fairly, and compassionately. We will compassionately bear witness to the suffering of others, sharing their stories with the same heartfelt compassion.
We are animal-focused: We prioritize the rights, lives, and well-being of all animals. Their suffering, pain, and oppression takes center stage in our organization, and we will always pursue whichever course of action helps the greatest number of animals to the greatest extent possible. This way, we will achieve animal liberation by 2056!
We are innovative: We constantly seek opportunities to improve and create forward-thinking solutions. We are not complacent, we do not accept the status quo, and we are future-focused. When we change, we do not just follow what others are doing; we try to do better. Continuous self-improvement is our motto and creed.
“Without [Project Animal Freedom], I would find this the greatest ethical crusade in the history of the world—building a fully just, equitable, sustainable world as quickly as possible—a lonely journey indeed.”
— Kyle Luzynski, Executive Director of Project Animal Freedom
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Every shirt you purchase is a pledge for compassion, a commitment to change, and a step towards animal liberation. At Project Animal Freedom, we channel every ounce of your support into action—action that reverberates across communities and ignites a revolution in animal rights.
Global Board
Kyle Luzynski is the founder, Executive Director, and Chairperson of Project Animal Freedom. Kyle earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy from St. Louis University in May 2020 with plans to complete a Master’s Degree in nonprofit management. His major areas of focus include environmental, business, and animal ethics, and he spends most of his spare time fighting to abolish factory farms, slaughterhouses, and other animal-abusing institutions. In 2016, he had the honor of being named the highest-scoring member of the All-Missouri Academic Team from a potential pool of 100,000 applicants. He was also one of just 40 incoming students at SLU to be named an MLK Scholar.
BOARD PRESIDENT: Hi, I’m Jessica Booher! I’ve been vegan since January 2016. I graduated Summa Cum Laude in Math and Marketing from Westminster College in 2021, moving to St. Louis shortly afterward. In the time I’m not working as a data scientist, I rescue lab rats, skate, eat plants, play volleyball, and advocate for animals.
VICE PRESIDENT: Hi! Autumn Gwinn here from the Springfield, IL area. I've been a vegan since 2012 and have always wanted to be involved in animal activism and volunteering! I went vegan for the animals when I was 15, and I've always looked at animals differently than most people. I have a lot of empathy and can really put myself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling. I love Project Animal Freedom so much because they are making more vegan options known and accessible! I do a lot of cooking and my non-vegan family loves to try my creations. It has really opened up their minds to reducing their animal product consumption. I love animals, all things retro, jazz music, the outdoors, gardening, biking, exercising, and tattoos. When I'm not volunteering with Project Animal Freedom, I'm working at a greenhouse growing Illinois native plants.
TREASURER: Laura Robinson serves as our accountant and board treasurer. She is a dedicated vegan and a proud cancer survivor.
Hi, my name’s Alex Gewecke. I’ve been vegan for six years now and I’m trying to expand the movement. I started a plant based nutrition group as an undergraduate, but then COVID-19 shut things down, I graduated a couple months later, and my career took me elsewhere. I’m looking forward to helping build a movement here in Lincoln! I enjoy volunteering, playing trombone, gardening, and calisthenics workouts, among other things.
My name is Austin Simmons, and I have been vegan since 2015 in Springfield, Illinois. I decided to join Project Animal Freedom because of the resources and support they provide to build up the vegan movement in my area. I want to share with my community how easy life as a vegan can be if you see the value in the cause and how easy it is to eat healthy, delicious food. I am going back to school to finish my Associate's degree in Business Administration, and in my free time, I love martial arts, hiking, biking, and gaming.
Jahnavi Maru is a student at San Jose State University in California. She is majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. Jahnavi has been a vegetarian her entire life, up until two years ago when she decided to go vegan along with her family. She is passionate about promoting a vegan diet for a multitude of reasons, including its various health benefits, environmental benefits, and animal rights. In her free time, Jahnavi enjoys dancing, traveling, swimming, and reading. As a member of the Marketing and Communications team at Project Animal Freedom, Jahnavi hopes to make a difference and be a voice for those beings who are unable to do so themselves.
Hello, I'm Brandon Shishido, and I'm an 18 year (and counting) active duty Marine Science Technician in the USCG. Fields of expertise include Waterway Management, Pollution Response, Oil and Chemical Facility Inspector, and Port State Control Vessel Inspector. Believe me when I say those are all not as technical as they sound. I've been vegan for about 7 or 8 years. I was first convinced to go vegetarian by a friend. After about 2 weeks into that venture I watched Dominion and went vegan. My most cherished food group is dessert, and I've not missed out on any of that since going vegan. To say going vegan has been epiphanous would be a massive understatement. In my spare time I play board games (a hobby at direct odds with my introversion), video games, go running, and read.
Together, we can change the Midwest one heart, one mind, one stomach at a time!
At Project Animal Freedom, we dare to dream of a world where the horrors, injustices, and atrocities of the animal abuse industry are no more; a world where all animals can live safe, happy, and free, no matter their sex, sexuality, skin color, socioeconomic status, disability status, site of origin, senescence, or even species.
Please join us as we go about building a just, equitable future for all Earth’s creatures, a future defined not by the trajectory we once thought inevitable, but by the trajectory we once thought impossible.
Want to join our team?
Do you despise animal cruelty? Do you wish for the end of factory farms and slaughterhouses? Would you like to find more meaning in your life by fighting for animal liberation?
As the only organization expressly dedicated to building a fully vegan Midwest, Project Animal Freedom offers a variety of leadership opportunities directed toward our overarching vision of thriving animal rights communities in every major Midwestern metropolitan area. We strive to build a world where all animals live safe, happy, and free from needless harm, exploitation, and oppression. But we cannot realize our mission without advocates like you.
As we strive to save more lives and reduce more suffering than ever before, we invite you to participate in our Vegan Talent Search. Do you have experience cooking, writing, or fundraising? Do you have experience in photography, video editing, or graphic design? How about volunteer coordination, nonprofit management, or social media marketing? Then apply today; all are welcome!