Leslie Patterson serves as Mercy For Animals' Chicago Leafleting Coordinator, where she has been organizing outreach events around the city and at local colleges since 2007. Leslie also uses time off from her full-time job as a public librarian to leaflet at colleges across Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, and has reached over 50,000 students as part of Vegan Outreach's Adopt-a-College program.

A native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, she became vegetarian after growing up in a liberal family with many beloved companion animals. She went vegan and committed her life to animal rights after attending a Mercy For Animals screening of Peaceable Kingdom in January of 2007. Leslie began volunteering for Mercy For Animals because of our focus on farmed animals and public outreach, as she reasoned that by promoting plant-based diets activists can help spare the largest number of animals from some of the worst abuse, and change how animals are viewed in our society.