Change Your Life. Change the World.
Become a certified Vegan Lifestyle Coach & Educator (VLCE)
We get it: you're passionate. You're determined to bring about a vegan world. At Main Street Vegan Academy, we share this passion, and we know that equipping you for the task ahead demands a personalized, professional, in-depth experience. Because this is what it takes, this is what we offer -- live via Zoom, with all sessions fully recorded. Our commitment is to the provide excellence in plant-based training and vegan education, and support our graduates’ progress going forward.
Upcoming Classes
Since our inception in 2012, we’ve realized that the training we provide is relevant not only for one-on-one vegan coaching, group classes, and outreach, but to vegan entrepreneurs of every stripe. In addition to coaching and teaching, our graduates are running plant-based companies, vegan shops, and restaurants, they are on staff at animal rights and health-promotion organizations, writing books, podcasting, and using their VLCE credential as part of a pre-existing profession in healthcare, nutrition, fitness, yoga, etc.
And there's more: the connections you make here are priceless. Our vegan classes are kept small so that you can get to know your fellow students and our respected instructors. After your course, you will be connected via our private Facebook group not only with members of your class, but with other alumni who share interests, backgrounds, or locale with you. The networking opportunities are unparalleled.
Here's what Forbes.com has to say about us:
What You'll Learn
- Fundamentals of plant-based nutrition
- Nutrition throughout the life cycle
- Diet in the prevention and reversal of disease
- History of the vegetarian and vegan movements
- Overview of animal rights and animal law
- Environmental implications of animal agriculture
- Animal use and abuse in fashion, and vegan alternatives
- How to do a food demo
- Techniques of vegan lifestyle coaching and counseling
- Working with mixed (vegan/non-vegan) and transitional families
- Public speaking for vegan educators and entrepreneurs
- Building your brand, and marketing for success
- Finding your niche in today’s vegan business scene
- Client attraction and business development
- Digital marketing for VLCEs
Meet Our Instructors
Joshua Katcher, BraveGentleman.com
Marty Davey, MS, RD
Robert Ostfeld, MD
Chef Fran Costigan
Doc G (Fred Beasly II), NYC Hip Hop Is Green
JL Fields, VLCE
MSVA Instructors
Your instructors include major voices in the vegan/plant-based world. Among them are:
- Robert Ostfeld, MD, cardiologist, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY
- Joshua Katcher, fashion designer, BraveGentleman
- Chef Fran Costigan, noted pastry chef, author, Vegan Chocolate
- Doc G (Fred Beasley II), director, NYC Hip Hop Is Green
- JL Fields, VLCE, author and consultant
- Marty Davey, MS, RD, registered dietitian, University of South Carolina
- Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan, JD, cofounders of Our Hen House
- David Benzaquen, Founder of Mission Plant; founder of Ocean-Hugger Foods
- Tatiana Forero-Puerta, philosophy professor, author Yoga for the Wounded Heart
- Martin Rowe, publisher, Lantern Books, fellow, Brighter Green Environmental Action Tank
- Milton Mills, MD, critical care physician, former Associate Director of Preventive Medicine, PCRM
Some of Our Graduates
We have some 520 graduates from 31 countries on 6 continents. Here are a few of them:
Some Ways Our Grads are Veganizing the World
- JL Fields, Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook
- Michael Suchman, Iconic Recipes for a Taste of the Big Apple
- Dianne Wenz, Truly Healthy Vegan Cookbook
- Sande Nosonowitz, Oblivious: A Vegan Memoir
- Jackie Demeri-Costello, Animooves
- Carol Cymerint, The Answer Is Vegan
Testimonials
FAQ
Being a dietary vegan over 18 who satisfactorily completes the application, reads or listens to the 6 required books (list sent upon acceptance), and listens to 21 hours of the Main Street Vegan podcast qualifies you for the course.
1. The highly respected Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator (VLCE) certification.
2. A solid background in Vegan Principles, Communication Principles, and Business Principles equipping you to confidently share this way of life with others.
3. A life-changing live experience in which you'll be interacting with instructors who are major movers in the vegan and plant-based worlds.
4. The welcome association of other vegans in your class, many of whom will become lifelong friends.
5. Unparalleled networking opportunities through regular Zoom reunions (and some in person, too), access to the private Alumni of MSVA Facebook group, and the MSVA Graduate Directory through which you can contact peers in your area and around the world.
6. The opportunity to be published online through the Main Street Vegan blog.
7. Follow-up support, if you want it, for as long as you want it.
In this boutique course, you are not just a number or an email address: you are a member of the family. Our founder and director Victoria Moran frequently writes job and grad school recommendations for MSVA grads, provides blurbs for graduates' books, etc.
Please note: If you apply now and pay in full, you can do that in a one-click. If you need help with tuition, or a payment plan, please be in touch directly with our director, Victoria Moran: [email protected]
There are terrific classes out there and MSVA celebrates all our colleagues in their important work. Among MSVA's shining features are:
(1) We cover every aspect of vegan living, equipping you with well-rounded expertise
(2) We inspire you to actively use your VLCE to change this world for the better
(3) You’re free to disseminate these ideas in your own way
(4) If you wish to stay connected through the Main Street Vegan private Academy Facebook group, private mailings, graduate projects and other events, we're here for you for the duration
(5) Although we offer an in-depth master class for graduates every two years, no continuing education is required to keep your VLCE in good standing
Founder and Director Victoria Moran
Victoria Moran is a force of nature. At 14, with credentials from a teen magazine, she attended her first Beatles press conference. She’s been surprising herself ever since.
Victoria went vegan in 1983; overcame a binge-eating disorder; in 1985 wrote Compassion the Ultimate Ethic, the first book about vegan philosophy and practice to come from an actual publisher; raised a vegan daughter (aerialist and stunt performer, Adair Moran); wrote 12 additional books and has another on the way; and appeared twice on Oprah.
Her books including Main Street Vegan, Creating a Charmed Life, Shelter for the Spirit, and The Love-Powered Diet have been praised by Neal Barnard, MD, Ellen Degeneres, musician Moby, filmmaker Michael Moore, Dean Ornish, MD, Marianne Williamson, and former President Bill Clinton.
Victoria hosts the award-winning Main Street Vegan Podcast, was voted Peta’s Sexiest [Female] Vegan Over 50 in 2016, and she is lead producer of the 2019 documentary, A Prayer for Compassion.
Upcoming Classes
Autumn 2022
7 days
Tuition: $1195
Important notes:
- This course is designed to help you guide others to thrive with a vegan lifestyle. While you will receive at least 4.5 hours of health and nutrition training, you will not be a nutritionist. Being a certified Vegan Lifestyle Coach & Educator does NOT qualify you to provide medical advice or treat any illness. Any person looking to undergo a major change in diet should consult a licensed healthcare professional.
- This is also not a culinary program: your expertise upon completion of this plant-based course will be to teach, guide, and counsel individuals and groups about vegan eating and living, as well as align the entrepreneurial gifts and talents you may bring to the table with your desire for extended vegan outreach.
- While we give you a jam-packed educational experience and the support of our active alumni group afterwards, we make no guarantees about what any graduate will or will not accomplish upon completion of our program. Many of our graduates have successful practices and/or vegan businesses — and we can put you in touch with some of these if you’d like. We cannot, however, promise this outcome for everyone, nor do we promise that any graduate will necessarily earn income as a result of taking this course.
- This is a vegan certification program in which individuals who are already vegan learn to teach and counsel others. It is not a how-to-go-vegan course. If you’re looking for this kind of help, check out the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, free and online, from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
Main Street Vegan Academy: the first plant-based course to receive BeVeg certification.
