Art of Compassion Award

This April, PCRM established the Art of Compassion Award. Its first recipient is humanitarian Nanci Alexander.

Alec Baldwin, Nanci Alexander, and Neal Barnard, M.D.

Compassion is the most fundamental value in medicine as well as in our day-to-day lives. If compassion were truly put to work—if it were learned and practiced in every aspect of life—our world would be very different indeed. PCRM's Art of Compassion Award recognizes an individual who exemplifies compassion to an extraordinary degree and works to extend this value as broadly as possible.

The Art of Compassion Award medal carries the image of Hippocrates, the Greek physician born in 460 B.C.E. Although he is best known for the Hippocratic oath sworn by all new physicians and his enduring words, "First, do no harm," he also had a broadly compassionate outlook, one that included both humans and animals. "The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different," he wrote.

Nanci Alexander
Art of Compassion Award Recipient

Nanci Alexander

Nanci Alexander has long been a leader and visionary working for a more compassionate world. In 1989, she founded the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, and has volunteered as its president ever since. With 4,000 members, ARFF educates and advocates on behalf of animals abused for food, fashion, entertainment, and experimentation, as well as for wildlife and companion animals. ARFF has put an end to many petting zoos and cruel animal exhibits, opened a mobile free spay/neuter clinic, and brought about the cancellation of annual dove hunts held by the Boy Scouts. ARFF also took a leading role in the successful battle to ban the use of gestation crates for pigs in Florida, the first time a specific factory farming practice was banned in the United States.

In 2003, Alexander opened Sublime, a gourmet vegan restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, receiving rave reviews, including a four-star rating from the Sun-Sentinel and a write-up in USA Today. With its boutique featuring cruelty-free products and books, the restaurant has become a mecca for health-conscious diners.

Recognized by other national and local animal organizations for her work, Alexander also received the first-ever Cleveland Amory Humanitarian Award. Her unwavering dedication, professionalism, and boundless energy are an inspiration to activists across the country.