Meet our Speakers
Learn more about the speakers who joined us at the 2024 New England VegFest! Also be sure to check out our Activity Line-Up and Kid's Corner.
Jackie Akerberg - Jackfruitful Kitchen
Jackie Akerberg is the recipe creator, food lover, and photographer behind the popular plant-based food blog Jackfruitful Kitchen and the Instagram account @jackfruitfulkitchen. What started as a creative outlet and passion project after going vegan in 2019 has turned into a much bigger part of Jackie’s life, with a rapidly growing Internet presence and now, her first cookbook, The Clean Vegan Cookbook. Jackie specializes in creating original, delicious, easy-to-follow vegan and gluten-free recipes to simplify healthy cooking and meal planning while utilizing whole foods and organic ingredients that are good for you and good for the planet. Jackie has been featured in The Complete Guide to Plant-Based Food and dsm magazine, Good Old Vegan, and Vegan Bowls™.
When Jackie is not creating new recipes, photographing food and writing content, she is busy managing the daily operations and systems of the entrepreneurial world she shares with her husband, Clinton. This includes their wealth-management firm, their co-working space, and a portfolio of real estate and Airbnb properties. Being self-employed enables Jackie and Clinton to travel often, which they love to do. Some of their favorite destinations are Paris, the South of France (where they were married), Colorado, and the Caribbean. They love to enjoy new vegan food experiences, good wine, hiking, cycling, sailing, diving, and skiing. Jackie lives in Des Moines, Iowa, where she grew up, and she enjoys hosting dinners and parties for friends and family in her and Clinton’s historic 100-year-old home. While she loves to travel, she also enjoys spending time in her rapidly growing hometown, where new restaurants are frequently opening with more and more offering healthy plant-based options.
Sara Tercero - BetterFoodGuru
Sara Tercero is the Chef and creative force behind the popular vegan food blog and Instagram sensation @Betterfoodguru. She was a restaurant chef for almost three decades before bringing her passion and creativity to the internet. As a lifelong salad lover, her penchant for creating vibrant and balanced meal salads has earned her the moniker “The Salad Queen.” Sara’s video style and unique voiceovers (replete with a “wicked” Massachusetts accent) have amassed over 1 million followers online.
Sara’s mission is to present vegan food in a way that is appealing to everyone. Her recipes are approachable and full of healthy whole foods and bold global flavors. Since going vegan in 2019, she has been sharing vegan recipes on social media and at Betterfoodguru.com. People love her recipes because they are easy to make and taste delicious. Plus, her “soft” approach to veganism and non-judgmental space is friendly to vegans and non-vegans alike. She wants to change the world one plate at a time by helping people enjoy eating their vegetables.
Sara’s debut cookbook, Plant-Based Diet in 30 Days, is an essential guide for anyone trying out or transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle. Her book includes easy and creative recipes organized into a 30-day meal plan, with shopping lists and extras to make the transition simple. The lifestyle is explained in easy-to-understand language, and the recipes are imaginative and simple to execute.
Sara is a Massachusetts native who attended UMass Amherst. She spent years cooking in iconic fast casual restaurants like Tortilla Sams of Worcester and Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in the California Bay Area, among many others. She was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2011, her recipes and food photos have appeared in THRIVE Magazine, and she even has her own meal planning app. Nowadays, Sara and her rowdy young family are enjoying the Massachusetts scenery, culture, and food. And you will always find her “smashing salad” in her face.
Joint Presentation & Demo - Debunking Common Myths about Plant-Based Eating
Jackie and Sara...
- 2:30pm in the Ghosh Center Lecture Hall -
Book signings to follow
Robert Cheeke
Sara Tercero is the Chef and creative force behind the popular vegan food blog and Instagram sensation @Betterfoodguru. She was a restaurant chef for almost three decades before bringing her passion and creativity to the internet. As a lifelong salad lover, her penchant for creating vibrant and balanced meal salads has earned her the moniker “The Salad Queen.” Sara’s video style and unique voiceovers (replete with a “wicked” Massachusetts accent) have amassed over 1 million followers online.
Sara’s mission is to present vegan food in a way that is appealing to everyone. Her recipes are approachable and full of healthy whole foods and bold global flavors. Since going vegan in 2019, she has been sharing vegan recipes on social media and at Betterfoodguru.com. People love her recipes because they are easy to make and taste delicious. Plus, her “soft” approach to veganism and non-judgmental space is friendly to vegans and non-vegans alike. She wants to change the world one plate at a time by helping people enjoy eating their vegetables.
Sara’s debut cookbook, Plant-Based Diet in 30 Days, is an essential guide for anyone trying out or transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle. Her book includes easy and creative recipes organized into a 30-day meal plan, with shopping lists and extras to make the transition simple. The lifestyle is explained in easy-to-understand language, and the recipes are imaginative and simple to execute.
Sara is a Massachusetts native who attended UMass Amherst. She spent years cooking in iconic fast casual restaurants like Tortilla Sams of Worcester and Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in the California Bay Area, among many others. She was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2011, her recipes and food photos have appeared in THRIVE Magazine, and she even has her own meal planning app. Nowadays, Sara and her rowdy young family are enjoying the Massachusetts scenery, culture, and food. And you will always find her “smashing salad” in her face.
Presentation - Debunking Common Myths about Plant-Based Eating
Jackie and Sara...
- 2:30pm in the Ghosh Center Lecture Hall -
Book signings to follow
Sara Tercero - BetterFoodGuru
Sara Tercero is the Chef and creative force behind the popular vegan food blog and Instagram sensation @Betterfoodguru. She was a restaurant chef for almost three decades before bringing her passion and creativity to the internet. As a lifelong salad lover, her penchant for creating vibrant and balanced meal salads has earned her the moniker “The Salad Queen.” Sara’s video style and unique voiceovers (replete with a “wicked” Massachusetts accent) have amassed over 1 million followers online.
Sara’s mission is to present vegan food in a way that is appealing to everyone. Her recipes are approachable and full of healthy whole foods and bold global flavors. Since going vegan in 2019, she has been sharing vegan recipes on social media and at Betterfoodguru.com. People love her recipes because they are easy to make and taste delicious. Plus, her “soft” approach to veganism and non-judgmental space is friendly to vegans and non-vegans alike. She wants to change the world one plate at a time by helping people enjoy eating their vegetables.
Sara’s debut cookbook, Plant-Based Diet in 30 Days, is an essential guide for anyone trying out or transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle. Her book includes easy and creative recipes organized into a 30-day meal plan, with shopping lists and extras to make the transition simple. The lifestyle is explained in easy-to-understand language, and the recipes are imaginative and simple to execute.
Sara is a Massachusetts native who attended UMass Amherst. She spent years cooking in iconic fast casual restaurants like Tortilla Sams of Worcester and Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in the California Bay Area, among many others. She was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2011, her recipes and food photos have appeared in THRIVE Magazine, and she even has her own meal planning app. Nowadays, Sara and her rowdy young family are enjoying the Massachusetts scenery, culture, and food. And you will always find her “smashing salad” in her face.
Presentation - Debunking Common Myths about Plant-Based Eating
Jackie and Sara...
- 2:30pm in the Ghosh Center Lecture Hall -
Book signings to follow
Nicole Broushet
The Vegan Nest
In 2014, Nicole left her work as an organizational psychologist for large, international NGOs to join her husband to launch The Vegan Nest, a culinary nutrition education and health advocacy organization committed to educating, empowering, and strengthening communities. In 2017, they established The Vegan Nest Café, an organic, farm-to-table, plant-based café. Food is their passion—the flavors, the colors, the textures, but it goes so much deeper. Food has culture. It has history. It has story. It has relationships. It is often through food that we find the perfect way to build community.
There's another important element to this passion of theirs...and that is the deeply nourishing, healing, and life-giving qualities of whole plant foods thoughtfully curated, prepared, and served. This is the foundation of their organic, plant-based cafe and culinary nutrition education organization, The Vegan Nest Café. Yes, food is a passion of theirs but more so than that; it is to live in harmony with nature and not in conflict, it is to come alongside others in their journey to health and wholeness, to create space for their stories and to serve as an access point to freely given, abundant health (in all its forms) that is rooted in simplicity and intention.