Our Staff
Vegan Scouts is a collective creation of our volunteers, supportive members of the larger community, member parents, and, of course, all of our remarkable Scouts!
At the core, behind the scenes, is our staff. The majority of our staff members are unpaid for this work but are rich in smiles.
Amanda Hymansmith
Amanda (any pronouns work) is one of the founders of Vegan Scouts, and has really enjoyed teaming up with other committed, creative, and compassionate parents to develop this idea into an organization. She wanted there to be a space for her kids to feel empowered and PROUD as vegans, while also learning and sharing life skills and developing friendships with other compassionate kids. She searched, but an organization like this didn’t exist, so she decided to create one! Amanda loves working with kids and Vegan Scouts is the culmination of over twenty years of work in the fields of education and environmental stewardship. Amanda sees herself as a helper and creator at her core, and her personal interests include pottery, native gardening, eating good food, reading cozy books, and admiring doggie rascality. Amanda has been vegan since 2006. She lives with her kid, partner, parents, and three dogs in North Portland!
Amanda chairs the Steering Committee and the Events Team. She is the Membership Coordinator, as well as a member of the Fundraising Warriors and Communications and Web Committee.
Brian Cohen
Brian (he/him) is a career long accountant and has been in a financial executive leadership position for the last three decades. His focus has mainly been on debt financing, receivable management and financial reporting. He and his wife Lori moved to Portland five years ago from Pittsburgh, PA to be closer to family, while maintaining his Pittsburgh based position. Brian also has served on two non-profit boards and finance committees and is currently active locally with Meals on Wheels. He has a strong sense of wanting to give back to the communities he lives in. Time away from work and volunteering includes family time with a large family unit including grandchildren, cycling, hiking, pickleball and just about anything else outdoors. He also enjoys reading and listening to a wide range of musical genres.
Brian is Vegan Scout’s Accountant and looks forward to advancing and supporting the growth of Vegan Scout programs and influence.
Britt Baysinger
Britt joins us with a passion for creating community, discovering found family, and sharing good food. New to the Portland area, she relocated at the end of 2025 from Boise, Idaho, where she ran an all-vegan bakery out of a shared commissary kitchen. During her time there, she also helped build and grow the Boise Vegan Market, making a beautiful impact on the local vegan community.
Britt chose to relocate to Portland to find like-minded peers for her two homeschooled kiddos. Scouts proved to be the perfect fit, helping her plug right into the local community. She and her family went vegan in 2016 and have since found “opting out” to be a powerful tool for personal alignment.
In her spare time, Britt loves to feed people, practice yoga, and take nature walks. She much prefers deep dives to small talk—and she ABSOLUTELY wants to see pictures of your pets!
Emelda de Luna
Emelda (she/her/ella) is a transplant from Chicago who fell in love with the PNW. She loves birding, along with learning more about plants, mushrooms, and the general unique ecology of the PNW. She has lived a lot of lives, working with companion animals, children, women, and queer populations in education, reproductive/health justice, companion animal fostering/rescue, DIY publishing and art, animal rights, Palestine, and other progressive/leftist issues. She is currently a stay-at-home parent of a Koala Pod Scout, while slowly trying to finish her double B.S. in Psychology and Child, Youth, and Family Studies at PSU.
Emelda is Chair of the Communication and Web Team, along with being the Social Media Manager. She is also a member of the Outdoorsy Club Committee and Fundraising Champs.
Iris VanDyke
Iris (she/her) was looking for something like Vegan Scouts for her daughter and was so excited to see the call from other parents and guardians to create this opportunity. She homeschools her daughter and is always looking for ways to get her involved with other vegan kiddos. Iris didn’t realize it at the time but she began her vegan journey by slowly cutting things out for over a decade, leading up to a fully vegan lifestyle in 2019. She has a love of travel, birding, hiking, baking, lifelong learning, gardening, and spreading Halloween cheer all year long. Iris grew up living all over the country and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Geology at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has lived in the Portland area for 30 years and currently works in health care compliance.
Iris is Uniforms Coordinator. She is also a member of the Events Team and the Outdoorsy Club Committee.
Joel Turner
Joel is a software developer specializing in web applications and an illustrator with a passion for creativity and innovation. A committed vegan since 2011, he enjoys crafting fermented delights like kombucha, ginger bug, and fire cider, blending his love for food and wellness. His enthusiasm for the outdoors shines through his love of camping, hiking, and exploring nature, where he feels most connected with his family and the world around him.
As a parent, Joel is thrilled to contribute to a space where his children can forge friendships and participate in events aligned with their vegan lifestyle. Whether he’s coding, drawing, or exploring the woods with his family, he’s enjoying life and embracing experiences.
Joel is a member of the Outdoorsy Club and Communications and Web Team.
Melissa Burkee
Melissa traded many decades of long Chicago gray winters for Portland’s vibrant green all year long. Originally from California, she feels right at home being back on the West Coast, living here for the past 10 years now. For work she is a Graphic Designer and spends her free time walking/hiking, gardening, hanging out with family, going to see live music, seeking out Vegan food spots, and volunteering for the Vegan Scouts! It is truly a family effort with Melissa and David volunteering together, leading the Westside Troop. What a joy it’s been to see Emma connect with other vegan kids and for us to meet such wonderful families and become part of this very special community filled with so much heart.
Melissa volunteers as a Westside Troop Leader.
Suzanne Turner
An introverted lover of art and design, Suzanne enjoyed working in a bookstore for years where she read books on veganism, natural medicine, and many others that shaped her life. She lived in San Diego, where she received her B.S. in interior design, until venturing to Southeast Alaska with her then-boyfriend, Joel. They were married in Boulder in 2010 where Suzanne worked as a design assistant, and Joel continued to spend summers in Alaska.
When it came time to choose a place to make their home, the Turners chose Portland for its lush forests, art culture, and vegan food. They ran a web and graphic design business before Joel launched his own career in Product Engineering. Suzanne also enjoyed caring for children from infants to age 5 as a preschool teacher and nanny. She is currently focused on homeschooling their own two children while nurturing her creative side through writing her first novel.
Suzanne is a member of Outdoorsy Club.
Taylor Lardas
Taylor (she/her) is originally from Orange County, California, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts with an emphasis on performance and directing from Vanguard University.
After college, Taylor worked as a teacher with Shakespeare Kids in Los Angeles, supporting homeschool programs for youth ages 4–18 through theatrical education and performance. She later transitioned into the food/beverage/hospitality industry, where her path toward veganism began. In 2016, a chance meeting with a vegan chef who had taken a vow of silence for voiceless animals profoundly impacted Taylor and inspired her to embrace a compassionate vegan lifestyle.
Since then, Taylor has been actively involved in animal rights activism and community organizing, participating in numerous movements and organizations. She also intentionally aligned her professional work in food and beverage with plant-based establishments. After moving from Los Angeles to New Orleans and ultimately settling in Portland in 2020 during the pandemic, Taylor felt the absence of community. The vision of Vegan Scouts deeply resonated with her desire to help build connection, compassion, and feel a sense of belonging within the vegan community, especially as the new parent of a wonderful vegan child.
Taylor became a founding member of Vegan Scouts in 2023 and currently serves as Acting Volunteer Coordinator. She is also an active member of the Steering Committee, Events Team, Communications Committee, and Fundraising Warriors. Taylor looks forward to continuing to grow alongside the organization as Vegan Scouts expands to support more vegan families nationwide.
Thomas Vanderpol
Thomas (he/him) joined Vegan Scouts soon after its inception. Seeking to find a broader vegan community for himself and his young son, the group seemed like a great fit for the pair. He soon immersed himself in supportive roles within the organization. Professionally, he has worked in the public sector in HR roles for over a decade.
Thomas went vegetarian in 2007 and vegan in 2009, largely through the support of his local music scene in Northern California. Outside of family life, music is Thomas’ main hobby. He can often be found playing drums, refining his record and t-shirt collection, and interviewing bands and reviewing albums in his spare time. He relocated to Portland in 2019 with his co-parent and is passionate about his contributions to his family, the local music scene, and the vegan community.
Thomas is a Troop Leader.
Join us!
Membership dues are $50-$150 sliding scale/year per child. Dues help cover costs. Vegan Scouts is an all-volunteer organization. Dues may be paid in installments. We provide fee subsidies whenever possible so that no family is turned away for lack of funds.
All Vegan Scouts activities are parent/child.
Join us by completing the membership form.
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