12:15 p.m. – Haile Thomas: How the Interconnectivity of Veganism Can Change the World

Haile Thomas is 18 years old, an international speaker, health activist, vegan food and lifestyle influencer, the youngest Certified Integrative Health Coach in the United States, and the founder/CEO of the nonprofit HAPPY (Healthy Active Positive Purposeful Youth). Haile founded HAPPY when she was 12 years old to address the need for free/affordable plant-based nutrition and culinary education in under served/ at-risk communities, as well as in schools and through annual summer camps.

Haile has personally engaged over 15,000 kids and thousands of adults around the world since beginning her activism in 2010. She was inspired to pursue this passion after her family successfully reversed her father’s type-2 diabetes without the use of medication, only healthy eating and lifestyle choices, and upon learning that kids were also increasingly being diagnosed with conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. All of Haile’s programs, projects, and initiatives, are geared towards engaging, educating, motivating and empowering young people to make healthy lifestyle choices to live their best life.

Haile and her work have been featured on The Today Show, Food Network, CNN, Dr. Oz, Teen Vogue, Fortune, O Magazine, and Experience Life Magazine, to name a few.