Meet our staff
Laura Matanah, Executive Director
Laura (she/her) leads Compassionate Action for Animals’ efforts to encourage people to cultivate empathy for animals and move toward a plant-based diet. Prior to becoming executive director, Laura frequently enjoyed CAA’s community-building events. She brings experience in nonprofit strategic planning, program development, and program evaluation, as well as fundraising, working toward racial equity, and developing volunteer management systems. Laura also enjoys being outdoors, family time, whole-foods cooking, board games, and reading. You can read a more extensive personal profile of her on our blog.
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Tamuno Imbu, Community Organizer
Tamuno Imbu (he/him) joins our team as a community organizer! He is passionate about building a community of health and wellness while having fun along the way. Tamuno is an advocate for social justice, fatherhood, and living a plant-based lifestyle. He has spent the past decade supporting people committed to live a sober lifestyle and learning the principles of healthy relationships. A few specialties he brings to our team include coaching workability standards, leadership, empowerment, and entertainment for youth and adults.
His professional and personal interests have blossomed in the Twin Cities community. He lives in North Minneapolis and has children in the Minneapolis Public Schools as well as shares his life with a Educational Tech specialist who supports teachers in our community. He is a certified Life Coach who believes in the power we all possess; when given the tools, education and resources he knows we all have the ability to transform our lives while ensuring we as a community are challenged to learn and grow together. After spending nearly 20 years working with youth and adults, Tamuno knows what truly drives transformational development through community-based learning. He possesses enthusiasm, compassion, spontaneity, vision, and a deep-seated desire to learn something new every day.
Abbey Feola, Program Manager
Abbey (she/her) joined CAA in 2022 as a part time Program Assistant after volunteering at several CAA events and loving the open, welcoming atmosphere she found there. As Program Assistant, she supported participants taking the Explore Veg Challenge and assisted with a variety of other CAA programming. In 2023 she accepted a full time position with CAA as a Program Manager. This new position was added because the needs of our growth require more hours and an enhanced focus. In her new role she will organize and coordinate many of our initiatives.
In her previous years at Macalester College and Habitat for Humanity, she created outreach programs and worked with volunteers around topics relating to sustainability and housing. She currently spends her time outside of CAA volunteering at animal rescues and sanctuaries, spending time with her friends and family, and taking care of her pets.
Jodi Gruhn, Wholesome Minnesota Director
Jodi (she/her) is an evangelist for all things plant-based, an outdoor enthusiast (with a podcast to prove it), a health coach, a mom and our Wholesome Minnesota Coordinator. She has been a volunteer on a variety of CAA initiatives including Twin Cities Veg Fest and the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge. Jodi brings with her a career in marketing that focuses on advocating and building awareness for organizations that positively affect people’s lives. She has extensive experience in events, public relations, communications and digital marketing, having led strategy, planning, and execution for companies across many verticals. By providing the “why”, she shows people and organizations how a plant-forward lifestyle is more in alignment with their values and bottom line that they may have thought. She inspires individuals to consider their daily decisions and the impact they have on human, animal and planetary health. Jodi enjoys a balanced life that includes lots of camping in far away places, concocting plant-based recipes to be cooked over a campfire, mountain biking and encouraging everyone to get outside.
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Theresa Zingery, Communications Coordinator
Theresa (she/her) joins the CAA staff as Blog and Newsletter Editor after more than five years of involvement with CAA in various capacities. Early on she joined the Board of Directors and in that role worked on strategic planning and fund development as well as assisting with proofing articles and grant applications. Other volunteer work included greeting at in-person events (when those were possible) and most recently, helping organize the Annual Banquet and coordinating the Auction.
Theresa has over 25 years of experience in nonprofit management with a focus on marketing and communications. She recently retired from her role as Community Education Manager for Anoka-Hennepin schools. Rather than a life of leisure, she had the goal of being able to focus on her favorite part of previous jobs – communications. She is thrilled to have the opportunity now to utilize her skills to support a cause which is her passion and to join an outstanding staff committed to impactful work on behalf of farmed animals.
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