After five wonderful years of growth, joy, and the profound meaning that can only come from serving in a role aligned with my heart’s most sincere purpose — to create a better world for non-humans and humans — I have decided to step aside as executive director of Encompass and move into an advisory role.

Brialle Ringer shifts to Encompass’ caucus and social media manager to bring 100% of her brilliance to work for animals.

Brialle Ringer joins the Encompass team as the caucus and social media manager. My identities are vast and ever evolving, but I’ll share a few that stand out as key. I identify as a biracial Black woman with a joyful and free white family on my mother’s side, and a loving, passionate Black family on my father’s side. I am queer, meaning my capacity for love isn’t bound by gender. I’m a vegan, healer, dancer, and mindfulness coach that is committed to liberation for all.

On June 17, 2019, Michelle Rojas-Soto joined the Encompass team as our Managing Director and our first hire. During this time, Michelle has been instrumental in moving Encompass forward and making our vision come to life. It’s with a heavy heart that I share today is Michelle’s last day with Encompass as a staff member.

If we plan to make strides towards dismantling speciesism, we must care about our fellow humans as we work to fight for non-human animals. It is not sufficient for white, middle/upper class people to feel comfortable in the movement while everyone else feels like they don’t belong in this cause. We must be able to encompass the whole of humanity in order to create change that is lasting.

Activists are special. They choose to work in service of others, at a time when most people choose to work in service of self. Encompass supports activists and activist organizations, helping them create the conditions that will allow them to focus on their work, reach their goals, and thrive.

In early December 2018, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ)––the most outspoken ethical vegan in Congress––expressed his support for Encompass. Check out his video here.

Growing up in rural Virginia, veganism was never on the menu. It was one of the many things I simply did not know about until later in my life—much like the idea that I could love women, or that I am complicit in systems that oppress people of color.

I’ve struggled with identity and place my whole life. I never feel totally at home anywhere, so I’m always searching to belong. As I’ve worked to develop the core tenets of Encompass, I’ve realized that, like me, most advocates of color also need a sense of belonging to thrive in this movement.

As an animal group that discusses issues related to race, it can sometimes be difficult to know when to wade into the national political conversation. But as the child of immigrant parents, I can’t help but feel a certain type of closeness with these children. As a movement, as people who show compassion to nonhuman animals, we must show this to our fellow humans.

I grew up thinking I was white because of a technicality. But after my racial awakening, I claimed boldly and proudly my identity as a woman of color. As an animal advocate, I want to help facilitate a conversation that in the professional movement we have avoided for far too long. Let’s do this together!

As one of a few women of color working in the big groups, and one of even fewer women of color working in the high-pressure, white-male-dominated corporate outreach space, I have struggled. In my daily dealings with companies, colleagues, and members of the broader animal rights community, I have had to cope repeatedly with microaggressions and, at times, outright racism. Just as animals should be respected, their advocates should be too.

We all want to feel like we belong, like we’re welcome, like we’re understood, and like we matter just as much as the next person. If people feel alienated, misrepresented, or unrepresented, we’re not going to see the change our movement is tirelessly striving for -- and, unfortunately, these feelings are often the reality for many people of color who come to our movement.

Amplification is when people support your message or point by referring to it, crediting it, and/or building on it. When each person’s contribution is marred due to explicit or implicit bias, lack of connection or ignorance, the project and the company lose.

As a biracial woman, I have been asked “what are you” more times in my life than I can count. Some evolutionary psychologists theorize that categorizing things in the world around us is part of our evolutionary psychology. Whatever the origins of this urge, we ought to be more conscious of it and how it seeps into our interactions with people of different races.