Our Mission

Yasmin Badshamiah is a communications strategist and collaborator focused on abolition, animal liberation, and collective care. A multiracial queer femme, survivor, mother, and immigrant settler, they bring 17 years of vegan practice and a deep commitment to decolonial ethics into every part of their work.

Living in the so-called United States set off a process of learning and unlearning: about power, survival, responsibility, and what it means to build in a place designed to exploit. That path sharpened their understanding of communication as both political work and care work. Whether shaping strategy, writing poetry, or building sanctuary through mutual aid, Yasmin moves with tenderness, precision, and fire.

For them, language is a site of accountability - rooted in lived experience, embodied listening, and collective imagination. They create space for belonging and transformation, always in service to collective liberation.

To stay tethered to spirit, Yasmin hikes forest trails, collaborates with comrades, roots for her daughter at track meets, DJs (mostly for the housecats), reads and learns with reverence about legacies of struggle, returns often to June Jordan, birdwatches/listens, strength trains, and dances (more of that, please!).

Nikki, veteran activist with 20 years experience, is a South African who grew up in a white supremacy household during apartheid. This and a difficult childhood fuelled an unwavering sense of justice which led to her passion for intersectional liberationism. 

Other than dedicating her life to make tangible change in society, she is also an international vegan catering chef; a qualified private investigator; completed courses in criminal intelligence, wildlife forensics and is currently pursuing her law degree with a focus on international human rights and animal law. She has traveled the world documenting and investigating animal cruelty and abuse and has spent time in a foreign jail for her efforts. 

In her own words: “After a few years of volunteering for Apex Advocacy, I still feel so unbelievably blessed and privileged to be part of such an incredible, dynamic team and I cannot be prouder to stand shoulder to shoulder with each team member in the fight for total liberation! How lucky am I to know such wonderous people?”

Fernando was born and raised 8600 ft up in the Andes, in Bogotá, Colombia. He first got involved in anti-bullfighting campaigns in his hometown during the late 1990s, after which he co-founded Verdadera Compasión, the first organization in the country to embrace ethical veganism as a core tenet of animal liberation. He immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has volunteered and organized for different animal rights and vegan food justice organizations since then. Due to his experience growing up in a war torn country, his activism focuses on the intersection between human conflict and animal rights. In his spare time, he can be found in the mountains either rock climbing, hiking or backpacking; taking pictures, discussing the latest findings in particle physics, or any writings related to 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

With her mind made up and a stroke of luck, Marissa made animal advocacy her full-time gig within a few months of becoming vegan. For eight years she has focused primarily on ending the exploitation of farmed animals. Digital marketing and fundraising is her speciality—well suited for her introverted, problem-solving nature. She quietly thrives on self-competition too. Now, as a volunteer with APEX, she’s excited to evolve her activism into a truer, more intersectional form.  “I’m profoundly grateful and honored to know this group of passionate, creative, and deeply caring rebels.”

Marissa lives in her hometown of Ventura, CA, with her best friends Romeo and Cruz. 🐶🐶

Kim Reece is based in occupied Potawatomi territory (currently recognized as Southwestern Michigan in the so-called United States). She has been working in left-leaning, non-profit spaces as an event planner and community organizer since 2010. Her zero tolerance policy for intentional harm, bullying and cruelty has been a guiding beacon in her work and personal life since her teenage years. What has radicalized her most, though, was experiencing pregnancy, giving birth and becoming a parent in the so-called US. This experience opened her mind and heart in many ways and allowed her to realize that all of the world's children are her own. Desiring for all of them to have a safe place to live - on a living, thriving planet where housing is for shelter and not for profit, where food and water are a right and where all beings can enjoy both bread and roses - has become her greatest passion. 

Wanting every being to have their needs met, to be safe and seen as their whole, unique self is not a radical idea. Kim is right at home amongst like-minded comrades here at APEX, who tirelessly work towards this reality. Working with BIPOC leaders and activists here at APEX who are keeping the movement in motion and hold the answers to achieving a brighter, safer, more equitable future for all beings is her dream job. 

Other than dedicating her life to make tangible change in society, she is also an international vegan catering chef; a qualified private investigator; completed courses in criminal intelligence, wildlife forensics and is currently pursuing her law degree with a focus on international human rights and animal law. She has traveled the world documenting and investigating animal cruelty and abuse and has spent time in a foreign jail for her efforts. 

In her own words: “After a few years of volunteering for Apex Advocacy, I still feel so unbelievably blessed and privileged to be part of such an incredible, dynamic team and I cannot be prouder to stand shoulder to shoulder with each team member in the fight for total liberation! How lucky am I to know such wonderous people?”