Matt Ball, along with Jack Norris, co-founded Vegan Outreach in 1993. Before working full-time as the Executive Director of Vegan Outreach, he was a Department of Energy Global Change Fellow, and earned degrees in the Department of Forest Ecology at the University of Illinois, and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Vegan Outreach activists have distributed millions of detailed animal advocacy booklets around the world, with distribution growing every year. Along with Mr. Norris, Matt was elected into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2005.