Julie Watkins is a green reporter and meteorologist with the CBS and FOX affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida. She has worked in the broadcasting industry for over 15 years and has always taken an active role in local environmental and animal welfare groups. The combination of her concern and dedication serves to improve the treatment of our air, water, animals and each other.

Julie covers various news topics including the the controversial sport called fox penning and its subsequent banning in the state of Florida and how people can go green in the afterlife.  If you have a story idea please email Julie at jwatkins@actionnewsjax.com.

She emcees various events including animal shelter fundraisers, vegetarian festivals, Earth Day celebrations and any event that heightens awareness about the benefits of reducing and reusing. She hosts talks in schools, conventions and luncheons and is always willing to discuss green matters.

Julie feels having access to as much information as possible is the best way to make informed decisions on one's own health and the health of the planet. She hopes that the information she shares will help everyone live a healthy and happy life!

Jen Graham is a vegan and holds a Master's Degree in Social Work. Her fight to help people who have been discriminated against extends to fighting for the weakest in our society, animals.  She easily sees the connection between how we treat animals to how we treat people and she works hard to impove the lives of both.  She enjoys doing outreach in the community on green, health, and animal right issues. Jen loves to bake vegan treats and is always looking for new yummy recipes.  Once you try one of her vegan cupcakes, you'll never look at veganism the same again, yum!

Jen helped coordinate the very first Northeast Florida Veg Fest in Jacksonville, Florida and has participated in a variety of events including Earth Day, Butterfly Festival, Dogtoberfest and the Green Expo.  She is passionate about promoting compassion to both animals and each other.  Her enthusiam and optimism is contagious and she is a great new addition to The Girls Gone Green.

Cate DiCarlo believes she was born to be vegan and to stand up for animals and the environment. Her love of animals likely stems from her Grandpa who took in stray animals, fed raccoon families her whole life, and saved spiders instead of squashing them. Cate has always shunned dairy and eggs, especially the unpleasant, “cheese-y” smell of cheese. When she was 15 years old, she banished red meat and pork from her diet without ever looking back..

In 2003, Cate’s “bleeding heart” for animals led her to sign up for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as a volunteer. They sent her an issue of their magazine, Animals Times. There was an article about the cruelty chickens endure in slaughterhouses. Sickened by what she read, she stopped eating chickens that very day. And just that swiftly,  she became vegan! No longer was she merely a “picky eater.”  She fit into a category AND had a name for it -- VEGAN!! A true Aha! moment.

Going vegan was like falling down the rabbit hole.  Cate became more and more aware of the truths about our food and ecology, as well as the impacts we all make. With her eyes wider and mind more open, she became deeply aware of her connection to all living things.

Cate had a completely vegan pregnancy in 2008, and now plays, gardens, cooks, and chases her sweet growing vegan boy around all day. She writes, whenever she gets the urge, about being a green, vegan mom @ veganearthmama.blogspot.com. She couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the super awesome Girls Gone Green and can’t wait to make big, bold changes in Jacksonville -- and beyond -- with these amazing women!

Dori is energetic and passionate about living a healthy lifestyle, which encompasses a love for our planet and all living beings. Her cultural anthropology degree is a perfect backdrop to her setting an example for others that being green is easy, fun and rewarding. When she is not working her day job she enjoys traveling, hiking, spinning at the YMCA, and hosting diners where she prepares delicious vegan meals for others. If she could invite anyone in history to dinner it would be Gandhi.

People who inspire her are author Colleen Patrick Goudreau, Ironman Triathlete Brendon Brazier, and the medical professionals of PCRM.org. Her website www.vegantraveler.com shows her commitment to educating others and leading by example. She says "Life is a journey - join me."

Patricia Borgess is the newest Girl on the block, moving to Jacksonville just in time to help plan the Second Annual Northeast Florida Veg Fest. She is also the newest of the girls to adopt a whole foods, plant based diet after reading Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet and Jessica Porter's The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics in February of 2011. Already knowing a bit about the three big reasons to go vegan - the animals, health, and the environment - it still was only enough for her to be semi-vegetarian for the past several years. After reading those books, something clicked when she realized there is what she considers a "fourth reason" - the spiritual aspect! Eating animal products is like building an enormous wall between oneself and spiritual enlightenment; it breaks the golden rule of doing no harm to others. Consuming meat, dairy and eggs is actually super harmful to one's self and animals and every person on the planet and the freakin' planet itself! For anyone out there who wishes they could be vegan but feels that it's way too hard, Patricia recommends commiting to trying it out just one day a week for fun. Tuesdays are good. Whip up a yummy green smoothie for breakfast, create your own veggie burrito bowl for lunch, and treat yourself to a fun vegan cookbook like Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chanda Moskowitz for dinner and dessert ideas. www.vegweb.com has thousands of free recipes too. Even if you only follow this diet one day a week, it will add up to hundreds of animals saved, and one special day each week you commit to love and take care of yourself by cooking healthy, delicious food!

An idealist at heart, Patricia believes anything is possible and is super excited to be on the front lines in Jax, fighting for a future where all the restaurants are vegan and it's not weird to smile at strangers you pass on the street. Hey, shoot for the moon and you'll land among the stars, right?

Jennifer Mishler is a vegan and a passionate advocate for animals and the environment. She believes in veganism as an effective way to help save animals, the earth and yourself in one step! She is very excited to be a part of The Girls Gone Green and to have the opportunity to spread the message of compassion and eco-friendly living to Jacksonville and beyond!  Along with The GGG, she is also an Onshore Volunteer for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.  Jennifer has also participated in various outreach events and campaigns.

She is always looking for more ways to get the going green message out there!

Check out her blog, A Dog's Eye View.

Deb Hoag unleashed her environment/animal advocacy by recycling herself off the corporate-MBA path. She handled publicity for the premier Earth Day Jacksonville and started the Jacksonville Coalition of Animal Rescuers (JCAR) in 1990. That same year, her first article, "Earth Day Is for the Birds...and Wolves, Bears, Cows, Too" lead the way to related articles, reiterating this theme: IT'S ALL CONNECTED! Animal-based agriculture degrades the environment, destroys our health, sickens our spirit, is unsustainable, inefficient, and oh, yeah...IS REALLY BAD FOR THE ANIMALS!

In Japan, Deb taught English, adopted two stray cats (neko chan), wrote a weekly column for the Asahi Shimbun  -- including articles against whaling, and did a report for HSUS on Japanese animal organizations. After returning to Jacksonville, she joined the Jacksonville Humane Society board and pushed for the successful adoption of a no-kill policy in 2005. She coordinated monthly veg dinners in 1998 that became today's Northeast Florida Vegetarian Society. She now serves on the Wildlife Rescue Coalition of Northeast Florida's board, as well as supporting various national and international animal- and environmental-championing organizations.  And she's thrilled to join forces with The Girls Gone Green in connecting those dots in the big picture of compassion and common sense!