Miyoko Schinner is an award-winning chef, author, entrepreneur and speaker. She is the founder of Miyoko’s Creamery, a leading plant-milk dairy company whose products are sold internationally, which she started at the “young” age of 57. At the same time, she founded Rancho Compasión, running it almost entirely by herself for the first two years.

Calling herself an epicurean activist, she has worked tirelessly for over thirty years to reimagine a food system built on sustainability, equity, and compassion for animals. Her popular cookbooks, products, and thought leadership have inspired people across the globe to reconsider their food choices and take personal joy and responsibility in helping to participate in a better food system. 

Photo by Joanne MacArthur.

Camellia is the former Sanctuary Director of Rancho Compasión (2020-2023), and has been involved since its inception when her family started the sanctuary in 2015.

Camellia is interested in how farmed animal sanctuaries can be transformative spaces for reimagining our relationship to the other-than-human world, and as spaces to model interspecies, intergenerational community care. She is a Master’s student at The New School for Social Research in New York City.

Samantha grew up nearby in the hills of Fairfax. She has always loved animals, which led to a study of biology and a vegan lifestyle. She’s had a successful career as a biopharma entrepreneur, and now realizes that her ultimate calling is to help animals, especially ‘farmed animals’, and the planet, by working to convert the world away from using animals for food and other products. She sees animal sanctuaries playing an important role in helping people develop compassion for these beautiful creatures. She lives with her husband, son, and 2 dogs in Piedmont, and loves to experiment with whole food plant-based cooking.

Dave Osborn lives in Point Reyes, is a retired Contractor and currently performs mold and water damage investigations throughout the Bay Area. He became a vegan after being diagnosed with cancer over 11 years ago. Because of his plant-based diet he conquered the cancer but also became aware of the effects of animal-based diets on the environment and the terrible treatment of the animals raised for food.

Dave has written and published articles in the local newspaper to bring awareness to the local dairy and ranch based populace of the negative effects of animal agriculture. He was fortunate to meet Miyoko Schinner, the founder of Rancho Compasión, and they hatched a plan to hold a film festival focusing on the many harms that a meat-based diet does to our health, the environment and the animals with the help of the volunteers and Board members of Rancho Compasión. At that time Miyoko asked Dave to serve on the Board of Directors and he readily accepted.

Because of his construction background and ranching experience he helps oversee the maintenance and new improvement projects for Rancho Compasión.

Brad lives in Fairfax with his wife and dog and, when he's home from college, his son. Now that Brad has retired from teaching middle school math, he is able to dedicate more time to both vegan cooking and baking and helping out at Rancho. Brad has been volunteering at Rancho from the beginning, and has loved being a part of its growth. Brad has been vegan since 2002, and loves planning events, helping out in the kitchen, and being with the animals.

My vegan journey stated at age 14 with one leaflet.  There was a group of PETA volunteers at my local shopping mall asking people to have a “Compassionate Christmas and Humane Hannukah”.  I was intrigued because I couldn’t imagine how I was being non-compassionate that holiday season.  Their plea was asking people to abstain from fur or leather.  I honestly had not considered how my choices affected other animals until then.  I read that leaflet carefully and eventually signed up for their mailing list.  A few months in, after reading about downed cows and an undercover operation at a Perdue chicken farm, I was well on my way.  That was over 35 years ago. 

Volunteering has always been an important part of my life.  As a teenager, I worked with children with learning differences at a local elementary school.  As a college and graduate student, I was able to work with local animal non-profits.  And as a mom, volunteering at our local elementary school, leading small groups in reading and math skills.  I have raised two amazing, empathetic, compassionate vegan boys whom I hope are having a positive influence on their community of friends.

My professional background revolves around my skills in Math and Statistics.  I enjoy working with data and finding the hidden stories in the numbers.  Either in marketing, customer satisfaction, or sales trends, data drives my desire to understand people’s behavior and leverage that behavior to provide a better experience for them and the people with whom they interact.  At Rancho, my goal is to share our mission of compassion, environmental stewardship,  and education to a broad and diverse group of people, as well as keep our existing donors updated on all of our events and opportunities.

Eva Holman is a passionate environmentalist, climate advocate, and human and animal rights activist with a background in plastic reduction policy, fundraising, event planning, and community building. She has worked to pass policies banning PFAS, straws, styrofoam, plastic water bottles, and disposable plastic foodware and is working with bay area cities on reusable foodware policies for restaurants and reusable non toxic foodware in schools. She is (very slowly) writing a vegan and low climate impact cookbook - but mostly playing in the kitchen concocting dishes with bright, beautiful, seasonal, and local vegetables.

Eva spends her free time hiking, biking, laughing, and cooking with her husband John, son William, and spunky chihuahua Curry. You can follow her adventures @bakerbeachsf.

A Rancho Compasion volunteer and supporter since 2019, and new to the Board in 2025, Ryan has worked in the healthcare sector for over 15 years in hospital safety management where he experiences the nexus of the food system, disease, inequality, and the climate crisis— the intersection of which lands at the doorstep of our hospitals. 

He had an awakening that the public health and climate-related disasters hospitals were responding to ultimately stem from the way we treat and consume animals; and that hospitals can and should be at the forefront of change by widening the circle of compassion and embracing ecological intelligence.

Many questions emerged such as, how could his work in “healthcare” serve to inspire better health, equity, and caring for all?  As a result, being vegan for over a decade has been one of his most life-affirming choices.

A champion for the “One Health” approach, Ryan centers the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health in order to make coexistence more beautiful. In that spirit, he loves supporting Rancho Compasion in community with like-hearted systems-thinkers.

Ryan lives on unceded ancestral Coast Miwok (Hookooeko) land in San Rafael with his wife, rescue pooch, and a lot of plants.