Phoenix Zones Initiative 2022 Annual Report

2022 Annual Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
LETTER FROM
THE PRESIDENT
3
MISSION
7
HEALTH THROUGH JUSTICE
8
PROGRESS THROUGH ETHICS
4
IMPACT
9
FINANCIALS
5
A YEAR IN FOCUS
10
A LOOK AHEAD

Dear Friends,
What a year! This moment in time has proven how much each person
can make a difference. In 2022, our supporters, team, and partners
have given us the momentum and insight needed to steadfastly
advance our work on behalf of people, animals, and the planet.
Dr. Nik Kulkarni and I co-founded Phoenix Zones Initiative (PZI) after
working around the globe and witnessing how certain policies and
industries have driven the exploitation of vulnerable human and
nonhuman populations, as well as climate change, hunger, chronic
diseases, emerging infectious diseases, poverty, forced migration,
and conflict. These threats increasingly endanger human and
nonhuman beings.
We also witnessed the power of resilience—how people and animals
can heal in healthy environments. I wrote about this phenomenon in
Phoenix Zones: Where Strength Is Born and Resilience Lives, a book
named after places where individuals and communities can rise and
thrive—like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes.
With the help of key partners, we launched PZI in 2019 to advance the
interdependent rights, health, and wellbeing of humans, other
animals, and the planet, and to fuel the creation of more Phoenix
Zones.
With the extraordinary generosity of our donors, PZI has continued
to leverage medical and public health expertise to solve problems for
people, animals, and the planet. In 2022, from Washington, DC, to the
United Nations, PZI worked to advance social, economic, and
environmental policies to uplift the most vulnerable.
Our work focused on preventing the next pandemic; creating a
healthier and more just food system; transforming medical research
so that it protects and benefits people and animals; and inspiring
sustainable development and public health interventions that
recognize the interdependent needs of people, animals, and the
planet.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Hope Ferdowsian, MD, MPH
President
Nik Kulkarni, MD
Vice President
Kavita Rajasekhar, MD, MPH
Secretary
Sonia Silva, MPA
Treasurer
John Gluck, PhD
“Both Hope and Nik bring tremendous
scholarship, wisdom, and compassion to
PZI. . . . In exposing the root causes of
different forms of violence and oppression,
PZI identifies the systemic changes necessary
to improve the lives of humans, animals, and
the planet. And this isn’t just theory. Over the
relatively short period that PZI has been
around, it has accomplished SO
MUCH—editing special journal editions,
hosting a webinar series featuring top-notch
experts, offering trainings to groups of
students, providing testimony to the World
Health Organization, working on policy
initiatives, and so much more. And through
all of this, they have built a community of
brilliant and caring individuals who will
surely make ours a kinder, more just world.”
~Dr. Alka Chandna
We are truly grateful to everyone who has strengthened our efforts
to provide global leadership; education and outreach to
professionals, students, and advocates across six continents; and
expert guidance and advocacy in international, national, and local
forums. Your support makes local and global innovation—and
progress—a reality.
As we look ahead, we encourage you to invest in a world of Phoenix
Zones.
Thank you so much for standing with PZI, and we look forward to
partnering with you in the years to come.
With appreciation,
Hope Ferdowsian, MD, MPH
2

OUR MISSION
Led by physicians and an interdisciplinary team, Phoenix Zones Initiative
(PZI) advances the interdependent rights, health, and wellbeing of people,
animals, and the planet through education, research, and advocacy.
OUR VISION
We envision a world that protects the most vulnerable and that enables
people, animals, and the planet to thrive.
OUR IMPACT
We ground our work in a Just One Health approach, placing justice,
prevention, and the links between people, animals, and the planet at the
heart of policy, research, and practice. We envision that policies and
practices can become more socially and ecologically just, and that they can
uplift the most vulnerable.
3

PZI’s IMPACT
across seven continents
Influenced changes in
international and
national policy.
Helped teach the next
generation and today’s
leaders to be more
effective advocates.
Brought world-renowned
leaders and experts to the
conversation.
Appeared on podcasts with
a combined estimated reach
of 957,602 followers.
Published academic papers
and editorials in international
journals and magazines with
a combined estimated reach
of more than 53 million.
Partnered with over 150
organizations worldwide
through coalitions and
alliances.
Served as a voice for
people, animals, and the
planet in international
forums.
4
4

A YEAR
IN FOCUS
Advanced our initiative to transform medical
research by hosting a simulcast expert panel
that drew more than 500 registrants and a
message from Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE,
Messenger of Peace.
As an accredited organization of the UN
Environment Program, worked with coalitions
to advance an international pandemic
prevention treaty and ethical, sustainable
development policies that benefit people and
animals.
Published our international coalition’s
paper on why a US high-level office for
children is critical for children’s rights,
health, and wellbeing, while supporting
the Children's Act for Responsible
Employment and Farm Safety (CARE Act).
Pushed for a prevention- and
justice-centered (Just One Health)
approach to the One Health Joint Plan
of Action launched by the UN
Environment Program, the World
Health Organization, the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, and the
World Organization for Animal Health.
Published an open letter to the World Health
Organization, signed by a community of
medical and public health experts, calling for
a justice-centered international pandemic
prevention treaty.
Provided expertise to the UN
High-Level Political Forum on
Sustainable Development on
the need for the Sustainable
Development Goals to prioritize
the interdependent rights,
health, and wellbeing of people,
animals, and the planet.
5

Presented powerful support for a Just One
Health approach in an international public
service announcement and launched a free
teaching guide on ecological justice and a
right to health for undergraduate and
graduate faculty and students.
Mobilized supporters to urge legislators
to pass the FDA Modernization Act to
end the Depression-level requirement
for drug developers to use animal
testing instead of more ethical and
effective research methods.
Provided public education and professional
trainings on how we can advance
evidence-based, modern, ethical research
founded on primary prevention, justice, and
the interdependent connections between the
treatment of people and animals.
Offered a training program on how
public policies, institutions, and practices
could become more socially,
environmentally, and economically just,
and promote optimal health and
wellbeing for people, animals, and the
planet.
Addressed UN member states on the nexus
between sustainable development, human
rights, and animal protection.
Celebrated the victory of helping the FDA
Modernization Act pass the US House and
Senate to make its way to President Biden’s
desk.
6

ADVANCING HEALTH THROUGH JUSTICE
Throughout the year, PZI worked to ensure that
international, national, and local policies abide
by principles that advance the right to health
and protect people, animals, and the
environment from exploitation—especially in
publicly funded activities such as food policy,
medical research, public health priorities, and
international development.
Working in coalition with international
partners, PZI fought to influence change—from
our groundbreaking expert panel in May and
our training program in November, to key
publications and speaking engagements
throughout the year outlining why and how we
need to center ecological justice and the right
to health, to our work with UN bodies to
influence international policy such as the
sound implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals and the global adoption of
a pandemic prevention treaty.
In testimony to UN bodies and member
states, PZI continued to highlight the need to
stop ecosystem degradation, habitat loss and
fragmentation, biodiversity loss,
encroachment into wildlife habitats, the
commercial trade in wild animals, and
intensive animal farming—all of which
increase the risk of emerging infectious
disease outbreaks and harm human and
animal health in other ways.
PZI also provided resources to inform faculty,
students, and the public, and to enable them
to better advocate for change. And PZI
continued to engage with medical, public
health, and legal professionals via invited
talks to encourage them to show leadership
using a Just One Health approach.
PZI’s open letter from the medical and public
health community to the World Health
Organization on the need for a justice-centered
pandemic prevention treaty garnered the
support of more than 100 leaders from some
of the largest and most influential public health
organizations. PZI’s president, Dr. Hope
Ferdowsian, highlighted the letter in testimony
to the World Health Organization. PZI also
welcomed a conceptual zero draft of a legally
binding pandemic prevention instrument that
reflected many of the elements PZI has
advanced. And we continue to fight for an even
better treaty.
It will soon be a year since I became aware of
Phoenix Zones Initiative (PZI) and in that time,
they've grown to become my favorite organization …
Protecting the vulnerable and interdependency are
their clarion calls. There have been two four-week
seminars regarding this [issue]; each was attended
by people actively working in this field; I felt
welcomed at these forums and thus experienced PZI
walking the Just One Health talk with its emphasis
on inclusivity, rights, and justice.
~ Risa Mandell
7

MAKING PROGRESS THROUGH ETHICS AND SCIENCE
PZI began the year by hosting a revolutionary
expert panel in January, followed by key
publications throughout the year outlining why
and how we need to shift to a more ethical,
modern research system.
PZI mobilized the public to urge members of
Congress to support the FDA Modernization Act
to end Depression-era animal testing
requirements for drug developers. PZI also
offered innovative training and education
programs that enabled professionals and
advocates to take meaningful action.
PZI’s president, Dr. Hope Ferdowsian,
submitted Congressional testimony on the
importance of encouraging scientific and
ethical innovation to improve the lives of
patients and to save animals from unethical
and ineffective experiments. She and other
leaders in medicine, public health, ethics, and
the sciences called upon the president of the
National Academy of Sciences to redirect a
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering,
and Medicine committee on primate research
to its original mandate from Congress, its
obligations to the public, and its promise of
independent objectivity.
Public education campaigns helped mobilize a
groundswell of support for key legislation and
funding shifts, while PZI continued to build a
network of interdisciplinary experts in
medicine, the sciences, law, and other fields to
create a roadmap toward
• a more ethical and just research
paradigm;
• improved standards in academic
research and publication standards;
• more innovative and ethical education,
training, and career pathways and
pipelines; and
• more modernization and innovation
that protect and benefit people and
animals.
By the end of the year, the FDA Modernization
Act passed the US House and Senate to make
its way to President Biden’s desk to be signed
into law.
The progress made in 2022 sets the stage for
more meaningful advancements in 2023 and
the years to come.
8

FINANCIALS
Because of partners like you, PZI received critical support in 2020, 2021, and 2022 as part of a growing call for
transformational change.
In 2022, PZI made strategic investments and changes to remain resilient and to ensure long-term sustainability
as public support began to fluctuate following the onset of the pandemic.
Our work is supported entirely through donations. Donors like you entrust PZI with your
hard-earned dollars, and we promise to use every dollar to create the greatest impact possible.
Thank you to the Carroll Petrie Foundation, the William and Charlotte Parks Foundation, the Lush Charity Pot,
and to individuals like you for your generous support.
2020
2021
2022
REVENUE
Individual donations
Foundation support
Total Revenue
$256,439
$256,439
$222,860
$29,250
$252,110
$115,891
$124,200
$240,091
EXPENSES
Programs
Fundraising
General operation
Total Expenses
$129,558
$1,499
$3,478
$134,535
$209,370
$20,502
$8,846
$238,718
$152,514
$15,532
$6,083
$174,129
NET ASSETS
$133,717
$147,109
$213,071
“I’m proud to support PZI because you have guts, wisdom, and a plan to effect positive
change in how we treat each other, all animals, and our beautiful planet so that we can
all thrive together." ~ Sarah Speare
You can show your continued solidarity with our movement by exploring all the ways to give to PZI,
including:
• Online donations through our website
• A check mailed to Phoenix Zones Initiative, 13170-B Central Avenue SE, PMB 385,
Albuquerque, NM 87123-5588
• Donor Advised Fund (DAF) grants initiated by contacting your grant administrator
• Memorial or Tribute gifts
• Legacy Gifts by naming PZI as a beneficiary of your estate plan
To learn more, visit: https://phoenixzonesinitiative.org/donate
Every donation makes a difference.
9

A LOOK AHEAD
At PZI, we ground all our work in a Just One Health approach. Just One Health places justice, primary
prevention, and the connections between people, animals, and the planet at the heart of global and
local policy, research, and practice. Just One Health builds on a One Health framework and recognizes
that humans and other animals have rights, including rights to self-determination, and rights against
abuse and exploitation.
If businesses and governments, and all our systems—health, education, economic, legal, political, and
more—used a Just One Health framework as the foundation for all policies and practices, we could
mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis, prevent future pandemics, and center the needs of the most
vulnerable so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
That’s why, in the years to come, we will continue to advocate for national and international policies,
funding mechanisms, and economic frameworks that advance the right to health and justice for
people and animals. Through an emphasis on primary prevention, we will continue to advocate for
medical, public health, and research frameworks that address structural inequities and factors that
impact health and wellbeing.
"PZI leverages science, data, and facts to educate and advocate for a One Health approach. It has an
innovative pipeline of projects that can help us build social, governmental, and economic systems rooted
in a One Health approach. I strongly support PZI." ~ Nilang Gor
WHY WE FOCUS ON THE MOST VULNERABLE
PZI has continued to lead the way to create a better tomorrow. Our vision is grounded in
meeting the needs of the most vulnerable human and nonhuman individuals, populations,
and communities.
As part of a commitment to a Just One Health approach, many of our efforts focus on children
and animals, who belong to two of the most vulnerable groups in the world. A failure to
adequately recognize their needs and rights in international frameworks, national and local
policies, and everyday practice leads to widespread abuse and exploitation.
Since the most vulnerable are usually the first and last to be exploited, they are where we place
our focus—while also recognizing their agency. If the most vulnerable thrive, the rest of us can
too.
10

13170-B Central Avenue SE, PMB 385, Albuquerque, NM 87123-5588
505.269.1200 | phoenixzonesinitiative.org
Phoenix Zones Initiative is a 501(c)(3) public charity, Tax ID 84-2337171.
© 2022 Phoenix Zones Initiative. All rights reserved.