Wayne Hsiung  Wayne Hsiung (born June 18, 1981) is an American attorney, activist, and 2020 candidate for Mayor of Berkeley. Hsiung is a co-founder and organizer with the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). Prior to founding DxE, Wayne was a lawyer with the law firms DLA Piper and Steptoe & Johnson, a Searle Fellow and visiting assistant professor at the Northwestern University School of Law, and a NSF Graduate Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hsiung grew up in Indiana. His parents emigrated from China in the 1970s. His father did work involving vivisection for several years, which left a lasting impact on Hsiung and motivated him to become an animal rights activist. He also was influenced by Patty Mark, an Australian animal rights activist. Hsiung has two dogs, Lisa and Oliver, and a cat named Joan. He rescued Oliver from Yulin, China, where Oliver was to be slaughtered at the Yulin dog meat festival. Hsiung is on the Board of Directors of the Climate Defense Project, which represents environmental activists and pursues environmental impact litigation. Due to his activism, and history of entering farms without the permission of the owners to rescue animals, he is facing charges of up to 60 years in prison. Hsiung graduated from the University of Chicago in 2001 and received a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship to study economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but went on leave after his first year to pursue a JD/PhD. He attended the University of Chicago law school with a focus on behavioral law and economics. After graduating, Hsiung taught at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law as a visiting assistant professor for one year. As a lawyer, Hsiung was involved in environmental advocacy and studied behavioral economics, studying with economics scholars including Eric Posner and Mark Duggan. He partnered with behavioral law and economics scholar Cass Sunstein to write an analysis of the effect of climate change on nonhuman animals. In January 2015, Hsiung organized an "open rescue/investigation" on a certified humane egg farm in Petaluma, California. Hsiung and Direct Action Everywhere protesters climbed over a barbed wire fence to enter an egg farm and extensively recorded video of alleged animal abuses such as confines that were far too small, preening from stress, and lack of water. In January 2015, DxE released a video narrated by Hsiung and showing him rescuing a hen with the help of several other activists.