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. All of our staff members are unpaid for this work but are rich in smiles.

Amanda Hymansmith
Amanda (she/her) is co-founder 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’s background is in the environmental nonprofit world, and she has always enjoyed working with kids. 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 also a member of the Communications and Web Team.
Debora Thomas
Debora Thomas (she/her) is a Kindergarten teacher in Vancouver, Wa, where she lives with her family on a small little homestead in the city. She likes to grow fruit and vegetables and share them with her community. Her family went vegan after her husband got sick. She jumped at the opportunity to join Vegan Scouts because she had been looking for a way for her kids to get to spend time with other vegan kids! She spends her free time hiking, camping, planting trees, and cooking!
Debora is a Troop Leader and Curriculum Developer.
Emelda de Luna
Victoria Castillo
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 toddler, while slowly trying to finish her B.S. in Psychology and Child, Youth, and Family Studies at PSU.
Emelda is Communications Coordinator. She is also a member of the Steering Committee and Outdoorsy Club Committee.
Emily Ketola
Emily (she/her) has been an ethical vegan since 2004. She has two young sons and wants to engage and continue to build a community that values animal rights.
She is particularly committed to growing the vegan community in to the Vancouver, WA area.
She has worked in the behavioral health field for the past 20 years supporting youth, adults and families with navigating mental health and substance use issues. She values curiosity and authenticity when wrestling with complex ideas and issues.
Emily is a Troop Leader. She is also a member of the Events Team.
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 24 years and currently works in health care compliance.
Iris is Uniforms Coordinator. She is also a member of the Steering Committee, 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 Communications and Web Team.
Skip Spitzer
Skip (he/him) is a co-founder of Vegan Scouts. Always looking for developmentally-positive experiences for his son, Skip jumped at the opportunity to help make Vegan Scouts happen. He ran a RIE baby and toddler playgroup, the Stand Up Kids Club, One and World micro-preschool, and other projects for fostering kids’ values and capacities in support of themselves, others, and the world they live in. A changemaker on a wide range of social and environmental issues for more than 40 years, Skip has started co-ops, run electoral campaigns, founded a labor union, been some number of times to jail for justice, worked in war zones, coordinated international coalitions, and helped negotiate global environmental treaty texts. Currently focusing on climate change, Skip wrote “An open letter to parents about protecting your children from climate change,” available on his site RespondToClimateChange.net. He has been a vegan and living car-free for more than ten years. Skip works as a web applications developer, and nonprofit strategic planner and group process facilitator. He enjoys photography (Skip Spitzer Photography), sailing, backpacking, cycling adventures, and playing guitar.
Skip is a Troop Leader. He chairs the Troop Leader Committee (TLC) as Curriculum Coordinator. He is also a member of the Steering Committee and the Communications and Web Team.
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) has always been in leadership positions, starting in high school where she took the stage as a Drama Leader, organizing her high school improv team and other groups. She continued her pursuit of theater, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Arts with an emphasis on performance and directing from Vanguard University.
Following college, Taylor was referred into an assistant teacher position with Shakespeare Kids, enriching home school programs for ages 4-18 in Los Angeles by teaching and aiding in theatrical performances. Transitioning to the culinary world, her love for the art and joy of food flourished. In 2016, a meeting with a vegan chef, who took a vow of silence for voiceless animals, inspired Taylor to embrace a compassionate vegan lifestyle.
Currently, she is the Marketing and Sales Director at Earthly Gourmet, a vegan wholesale distributor spanning the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Taylor is also a dedicated mother to a 4-year-old.
Taylor is a member of the Events Team and the Communications and Web Team.
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.
Victoria (she/her) is a dedicated stay-at-home mom. She and her partner of eight years are raising four children under the age of eight while embracing a lifestyle centered on ethical veganism to minimize animal suffering and combat climate change. Victoria is passionate about working with children and recently became a Troop Leader for Vegan Scouts, where she fosters a sense of community and environmental stewardship. She enjoys teaching kids, pottery, engineering, and cooking new vegan foods, further enriching her creative and nurturing approach to life.
Victoria is a Troop Leader. She chairs the Outdoorsy Club Committee. She is also a member of the Steering Committee.
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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