100 Grassroots Psychedelic Community Leaders You Need to Know in 2024
We compiled a nice list, so now they can't say "We didn't know".
Why Did We Make This List?
In the years that we have been active in the above ground psychedelics space, we have seen numerous lists of the so called movers and shakers put out at the end of each year. Generally these lists tend to be dominated by people with the complexion for the connection regardless of their merit, skill, talent, or work product.
Additionally as we attend the many psychedelics focused events around the country the absence of diversity is glaring.
When we ask questions of the producers of these events about why this is, the answer is almost always, “ we are trying our best but it’s so hard to find those folks”.
This list is Hyphae Leaks’ answer to the excuse of “we didn’t know”. Now it can’t be said that they don’t know.
The talent in this list is based upon the following criteria:
Impact on their community
Integrity
Dependability
Mission
Depth
We acknowledge that this list by no means exhaustive and to make room for as many folks as we could we expanded the list from 40 last year to 100 this year. It is our goal to do right by the community and uplift as many folks as we can.
Please share this list widely as a roster for future bookings of all kinds so folks can’t say they didn’t know!
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Alchemy Therapy
An Oakland-based ketamine clinic that envisions a world where everyone has access to liberating mental health care, especially communities impacted by systemic injustice. They provide affordable psychedelic-assisted therapy to underserved communities, as well as high-quality training to diverse therapists and are deeply committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical care.
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Akua Prieto Brown
Born and raised in the Bay Area, after attending medical school in Havana, Cuba and completing residency in Internal Medicine in Brooklyn, New York, She is glad to be able to bring all that she have learned back to my home community. It feels so aligned to be able to do this with Alchemy Community Therapy Center.
Alchemy has a seemingly magical process of transformation and/or creation and community as fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
It is an honor and a privilege to be able to assist in providing quality mental health care and training to folks who have been impacted by social injustice. She looks forward to meeting you and walking with you on the path towards your optimal health.
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Danielle Herrera
She is an Ohlone Land (Oakland)-based psychotherapist providing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, psychedelic integration, and harm reduction psychotherapy. Danielle Herrera is a Queer, detribalized mixed-Indigenous woman of Chiricahua, Yaqui, Chicana, and Filipina descent.
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Diedra Sommerville
Born in Ramaytush Ohlone territory (San Francisco, CA) Deidra Somerville (she/her) is a mother, activist, scholar, and healer whose work is intentional in organizing, co-operative development, healing from trauma, and advancing decolonized principles and practices in organizational spaces. Dr. Somerville is trained in clinical and liberatory based healing strategies and draws upon these approaches in her work with clients and communities.
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Mary Sanders
Mary is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with extensive history addressing trauma in communities of color and marginalized populations. She currently provides community mental health services for formerly unhoused Veterans at Veteran Affairs in San Francisco, CA and recently opened a private practice called EMPATH Center in Oakland, CA serving Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). Mary has future plans to integrate psychedelic-assisted therapy and community integration in her private practice. She graduated from the 2019 Certificate of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research at California Institute of Integral Studies, certified in Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and is currently enrolled in the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. Mary is involved in development of the national organization, People of Color Psychedelic Collective which involves increasing content, awareness, and access to psychedelic medicine practices that represent BIPOC voices.
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Maurice Byrd
Maurice Byrd, LMFT, has worked as a harm reduction therapist since 2004. He works in the Center’s San Francisco and Oakland therapy offices. He provides therapy and coordinates programs in our community programs for transitional aged youth at the Homeless Youth Alliance and our TAY Mobile Therapy Team. During his career, he has worked with adults and adolescents, including youth who have run away from difficult homes, families, people court mandated to treatment, and people convicted of violent crimes. He specializes in leading groups, including a unique Harm Reduction Marijuana Group for youth. Maurice is also a Certified Anger Management Facilitator. He teaches and consults with both clinical non-clinical staff at several non-profit agencies around the Bay Area and specializes in teaching harm reduction groups. He is a published author, cowriting the chapter Dealing with Drug Use After Prison: Harm Reduction Therapy in the book Decarcerating America.
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ALKEMI Consulting
A consulting firm created for companies who are entering the Plant Medicine Healthcare Industry.
We optimize, design and align established and developing organizations through a holistic, living ecosystems-based approach, to align with regenerative ethics and values.
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Jaz Cadoch
Jessica, otherwise known as Jaz, is a cultural and medical anthropologist that has been studying the nuanced parts of the psychedelic movement since 2016. With a particular interest in understanding and contributing to the ways in which we can ethically integrate psychedelics into the biomedical system and Western status quo.
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Sovereign Oshumare
Sovereign serves as catalyst, curator, educator, and alchemist of systemic change. As the Founder and Co-Creator of ALKEMI Consulting & Development, Sovereign collaborates with individuals, organizations and movements through the transmutation of cultural, interpersonal, contextual, and ecological design.
Sovereign earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology & Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Race and Resistance Studies from San Francisco State University as well as their Masters in Resilient Leadership at Naropa University in Boulder Colorado.
Sovereign is guided by three core values: self-care, community care, and collective liberation. Sovereign’s mission is to create containers of transformation based in reciprocity and solidarity where all voices are heard and cared for. Sovereign believes that the work to make the world a better place is a shared responsibility and we cannot expect others to fight for our liberation without fighting for theirs.
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Ariel Clarke
Ariel Clark (she/they) is an attorney, activist, and co-founder of Clark Howell LLP, a women-steered law firm focused on cannabis, hemp and psychedelics. Clark Howell LLP is actively engaged in conversations regarding interconnectedness-driven law reform, psychedelic lawyering, and helping to shape policy that emphasizes ethical business models that reimagine a new role for capitalism in commercialization. Ariel walks the Red Road and is on a healing path. She is biracial, Odawa Anishinaabe and mixed European lineages. After practicing law at California Indian Legal Services, she started her own firm in 2010, to be of service to the plants and communities she is in deep connection with.
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Ash Ritter
Ash Ritter is a west coast born, desert-dwelling ethnobotanist, educator, writer, multi-disciplinary animist, and poet in disguise as herbalist. For twenty years & counting, Ash continues to reverently devote her life to fungal & botanical studies, encompassing traditional, academic, clinical, and directly relational terrains.
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Ashley Manta
Ashley Manta is an award-winning sex educator and coach and has become a sought-after authority on mindfully combining sex and cannabis as part of her CannaSexual® brand. She is the author of The CBD Solution: Sex, published in 2020 in conjunction with Merry Jane and Chronicle Books. She completed her certification as a Bodysex® Facilitator after studying with legendary pleasure pioneer Betty Dodson.
Ashley has presented at mainstream, adult, and cannabis events, including SXSW, American Association of Sexuality Educators Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) Conference, Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit, Oakland Psychedelic Conference, and the Cannabis Nurse Network Conference.
She has been a guest lecturer and keynote speaker at Sex Week for colleges and universities across the country including UCLA, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Claremont McKenna College, Cornell College, Widener University, West Chester University, Temple University, St. Joseph's University, and many more.
She was a contributing writer to Leafly.com from 2015-2017 and for Dope Magazine from 2016-2018. She wrote for Playboy as a Playboy Advisor.
Ashley earned a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy with a minor in Women’s Studies and has completed graduate coursework for a Master of Arts in Philosophy. Ashley is a certified and attuned Reiki II Practitioner, a certified consulting hypnotist, and a trauma-trained victim advocate.
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Becca Evans
Becca Evans is a certified addiction counselor with over 10 years experience working in mental health treatment, queer, neurodivergent artist and writer, mother of 2 amazing humans, dedicated meditation & yoga practitioner, certified psycho-spiritual integration & transformational recovery coach, dedicated student of entheogenic and non-psychoactive plant & fungi medicines of 7 years.
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Big Psych
Big Psych is an activist and education organization that centers everyday people in the plant medicine community. We can evolve with cohesion and empathy by integrating traditional, scientific, spiritual, environmental, and communal explorations of plant medicine—the many ways of knowing collective anchor progress.
This organization advocates for sustainable healing, open conversation, and creative exploration. They support everyday people's ability to experience, integrate, and contribute.
We are experiencing transformative, revolutionary times, and Big Psych is a contribution to this movement. The liberation of plant medicine is not a separate evolution. It is a unifying expedition of mental wealth and joint stability. Big Psych wants to cultivate a community that aligns with accessibility, representation, and personal agency.
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Jade Mycelia
Jade has lived all over my hometown of Minneapolis, and is happy to orbit back to my childhood home on the Northside to advocate for the lifestyle that has supported my path of self discovery. Her journey of psychedelic activism was ignited through free-range experimentation starting in 2014. This independent study led her to an academic exploration of Psychology, Environmental Sustainability Studies, and AFRO Studies at the University of Minnesota. She acted as Vice President of the Association of Black Psychology Students and Mental Health Advocate for adults with severe and persistent mental health matters, aided my search for improving Western healthcare systems. As an experiential learner, she enjoys exploring the diverse range of truths in this world. She’s always learning, integrating, and evolving with the help of my plant medicine friends. These teachings motivate her passion for sparking introspective conversation and organizing spaces such as Big Psych.
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Stig Mycelia
He is a Minneapolis native who moved to the Northside with his wife after high school. He paved a self taught path by learning to cultivate mushrooms in the comfort of his home space before entering the commercial cultivation world at Mississippi Mushrooms. He explored traditional forms of education at the University of Minnesota and concluded that this was not the space for him. Instead, he continued to explore the culture of cultivation as an independent study, and used these pursuits to ground his stance as a psychedelic activist.
Currently, He is studying to become a Master Herbalist at the Midwest School of Herbal Studies. He is also writing a book centered on the interpersonal relationships we carry with fungi. How and why developing this union is critical to working with these medicines. What we as healers, travelers, and activists can gain and learn from this medicine outside of the experience they provide. The traits that come with cultivation help us to facilitate a mutual respect and understanding which instills reciprocal agency between humans and medicine. Understanding and respecting the connections as friends, teachers, lovers, and family we facilitate with our medicine is paramount to community based model of psychedelic healing and rejuvenation.
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Carl Hart
Carl L. Hart, PhD, is a neuroscientist and psychologist studying the behavioral and neuropharmacological effects of psychoactive drugs in humans. Specifically, he aims to understand the factors that mediate drug use behaviors to develop more effective treatments for substance-dependent individuals.
Hart is the chair of the department of psychology at Columbia University and a Dirk Ziff professor of psychology and psychiatry. Hart is one of the first tenured African-American professors of science at an Ivy League institution of higher learning. Hart received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Wyoming. He also serves as a research scientist on the Division on Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institution which studies the behavioral and neuropharmological mechanisms of drug-related effects in humans. Hart is a member of the National Advisory Council of Drug Abuse and a board member of the Drug Policy Alliance. He has published a wide variety of scientific literature focusing on dependence, drug-taking behaviors, drug self-administration and the cognitive effects of drug use. Hart’s research focuses on cannabinoids, synthetic “designer” drugs, opioids and stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamines. He has testified before the U.S. Congress in state and federal courts serving as an expert witness on the effects of psychoactive drugs.
Additionally, he serves on multiple national and international committees and boards, lecturing nationally and worldwide. In 2016, the City of Miami officially proclaimed February 1 as Dr. Carl Hart Day, in recognition of his achievements in psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, and substance abuse. Hart was made a Div. 28 fellow for his outstanding contributions to psychopharmacology and substance abuse.
How are we doing on the list so far? I’ve we have missed anyone click the comment button below and let us know.
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Charlotte James
Charlotte Duerr James is an Educator and Medicine Woman of Afro-Caribbean and Germanic lineage. She works to create a world in which everyone is able to live in fearless pursuit of their radical transformation. She uses her skills as an educator, therapeutic coach, and ceremonial facilitator to build and engage a community focused on pursuing collective liberation.
Charlotte has been exploring her own mind and spirit with the support of Sacred Earth Medicines for over 15 years. She has completed a traditional apprenticeship with Kambo, and has supported hundreds of community members in ceremony. She graduated summa cum laude from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Latin American Studies and Anthropology. While studying at JHU, Charlotte interned for the Baltimore City Health Department Needle Exchange Program and served as the first Overdose Prevention Coordinator, organizing city-wide Narcan trainings for 3rd party bystanders.
Charlotte has lived throughout South America and is a multi-lingual Spanish and Portuguese speaker. She is a lifelong student of the Earth, and is actively continuing her training through a 3-year certificate program in Transpersonal Psychology, Psychedelic Medicine, and Indigenous Wisdom with the Awe Foundation where she also serves as a program mentor. She has sat in ceremony with elders and medicine keepers of varying traditions and is committed to her ongoing unlearning and relearning process. Additionally, Charlotte is the founder of the Psychedelic Liberation Training, the only decolonization training program for psychedelic practitioners. Charlotte feels that engaging in one’s personal decolonization work is imperative for being an authentic facilitator practicing in integrity, and in service to collective liberation.
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Colin Wells
Colin Wells is a veteran, advocate, writer, and the founder of Veterans Walk and Talk. VWAT was formed in 2016 as an outdoor peer therapy hiking group, focused on traditional therapies to heal our deepest wounds.
He refers to VWAT and it’s approach as Guerrilla Wellness, doing whatever it takes to help heal the veteran community. He has walked and talked with veterans from California to Maryland and many states in between. There are now multiple VWAT chapters all over the country. Colin is a veteran of Afghanistan having served in the Army Infantry. Through VWAT he gives free psychedelic micro doses and cannabis medicines to its members during the hikes.
Wells is a published writer and has spoken at various levels of government on behalf of veteran wellness.
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Danielle Nova
Danielle Nova is building a conscious global community that provides education into the responsible and intentional use of psychedelics. Danielle counsels individuals through addiction recovery, microdosing, psychedelic integration and spiritual transformation.Transformational guide specializing in psychedelic education, microdosing, addiction, retreat facilitation, integration and journey work.
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Darren Le Baron
Darren Le Baron is a world renowned educator in Ethnomycology and Psychedelic studies. Based in the UK and Jamaica he is also a grassroots community activist and influencer. With a background in Creative Arts, Organic Horticulture and Permaculture, he is the creator of the Shroomshop, a Mushroom Cultivation initiative that engages local communities, schools and business enterprises alike.
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Dave Hodges
Dave Hodges is the Founder of the Church of Ambrosia and Pastor for Zide Door, the Church of Entheogenic Plants in Oakland. He is known for starting the first medical cannabis club in San Jose and his work with High Dose Mushrooms exploring the origins of religion.
There is no list of psychedelics community movers where the folks that look like the guys above and below this comment are the minority! Tell a friend to tell a friend and share this post!
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David Bronner
David Bronner is Cosmic Engagement Officer (CEO) of Dr. Bronner’s, the top-selling natural brand of soap in North America and producer of a range of organic body care and food products. Under David’s leadership Dr. Bronner’s holds the status of the highest scoring B Corp in the world among companies dedicated to positive social and environmental impact over the profit motive. The brand caps Executive pay at five times the lowest paid fully vested position and has grown from $4 million in annual revenue in 1998 to nearly $170 million in 2022. David was born in Los Angeles, California in 1973 and earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard University. An advocate for drug policy and criminal justice reform as well as regenerative organic agriculture and other social justice and environmental causes, David serves on the board of MAPS and the Regenerative Organic Alliance. He lives in Encinitas, California.
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Decriminalize Nature
Their mission is to improve human health and well-being by decriminalizing and expanding access to entheogenic plants and fungi through political and community organizing, education and advocacy. Their vision is for happier, healthier individuals and communities reconnected to nature and entheogenic plant and fungi traditions and practices. Their purpose is to decriminalize entheogenic plants, restore our root connection to nature, and improve human health and well-being.
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Aikutzi Valadez
"Her name is Angelica Valadez, “Aikutzi,” She’s a descendant from, the Wixárkika (Huichol) people of Mexico. She is a Wixarika/Native/ Mexican-American woman of color that resides in California and Mexico, and serve on the board of directors of Decriminalize Nature. The opinions she expresses here are her own, and she does not speak on behalf of the Wixarika people or represent them.
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Danielle Daniels
Danielle was born and raised in Humboldt County and is dedicated to educating the community about the healing powers of psychoactive plants and fungi, along with providing support to community members during their path of healing.
For the last 10 years she has been studying psychedelics, along with personally benefiting through therapeutic exploration. She has experienced profound personal healing and fulfilment by working with psychoactive plants and fungi.
In May of 2021 Danielle received a Master of Arts in Sociology, with a focus on psilocybin mushrooms. Her thesis focused on those who took psilocybin mushrooms long-term, and explored the experience and motivation behind working with this medicine. You can read her thesis here.
After completing her degree she spearheaded the decriminalization movement in Arcata, CA in May 2021. Danielle became the Lead Organizer of Decriminalize Nature Humboldt. On October 6th 2021 psychoactive plants and fungi were decriminalized in Arcata. Danielle stepped down from her Lead position in February 2022, in order to focus her energy on her offering as a microdosing coach. On September 1st of 2023 Danielle stepped back into a lead position for Decriminalize Nature Humboldt, and entheogens were decriminalize in Eureka on October 17th 2023.
With the decriminalization of entheogens in both Arcata and Eureka, she is able to share her knowledge and experience about microdosing with those in the community that need guidance and support.
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Julie Barron
Julie Barron is a pioneer of the Michigan psychedelic community and an activist for decriminalization throughout the U.S. For over 25 years, Julie Barron has extensively researched and trained in the health benefits and use of cannabis and entheogenic plants/fungi.
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Larry Norris
Larry is the Executive Director & Co-Founder of E.R.I.E. (Entheogenic Research Integration & Education) and co-founder of Decriminalize Nature alongside Carlos Plazola. E.R.I.E. is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to sharing entheogenic and transpersonal knowledge in a non-hierarchical, community-based format located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Dennis Walker
Mycopreneur is the leading mushroom publication following the emerging psychedelic industry and the cultural, historical, spiritual and medicinal use of traditional functional mushrooms. The platform has gained international acclaim and mainstream recognition with millions of video views, high profile collaborations, and partnerships with major conferences in the psychedelic space.
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Devon Phillips
Devon is the Creative Strategist for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and Co-Founder of the Harm Reduction organization “More Life”. With his work, Devon develops cultural facing strategies to answer the question “How do we responsibly mainstream psychedelics?“. His background is in Behavioral Neuroscience and Human-Centered Design but has a deep love for art, music, and fashion.
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Detroit Psychedelic Society
Since being established in 2014, The Detroit Psychedelic Society has been known to push the envelope so to speak in moving forward all positive energy as it relates to Psychedelics. It’s this standard of excellence that has provided the impetus for us to grow into the family and community based business we are today.
They believe that information and education always comes first - and that means being responsible as leaders in this growing field of study by offering exceptional products and exceptional services.
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Acacea Lewis
Acacea Sherman-Lewis is a researcher of plant medicine and founder of Divine Master Alchemy, an online class series dedicated to advancing education within the Entheogenic community.
Acacea believes that by understanding how ancient and modern indigenous cultures speak about plant medicine and the available medical research, students can learn how to become more proficient in their work with plant medicine. The background of Divine Master Alchemy was built after Acacea witnessed her and many of her peers in the psychedelic community noticing their own physical and psychological ailments.
Through research and working with entheogens, she discovered a pattern between their diets and the experiences that were taking place inside the Entheogenic journey. After a few years of bringing herbs and plant medicines from around the world and sharing them with her peers, she learned how to derive formulas based on ancient anthropological research, medical research and indigenous views of utilizing herbs and psychedelics for physical healing.
Acacea teaches online classes and is also a lecturer. She is currently working on a project to allow her students to explore collaborative 3d learning environments that contain mapped connections to the history, experiences, cultural and ritual applications, anthropological research and much more about plant medicine. Acacea has been working with Entheogens since she was a teenager and currently focuses on Mixtec and Zapotec Psilocybin Zapotecorum as a tool for conscious exploration.
Acacea was a student of the late Baba Kilindi Iyi and has also trained with various teachers from India, Mexico, the U.K., and several Lakota tribes. Acacea also worked with Taoist and Tibetan systems with her late Wife, Malati Lewis, who practiced Buddhism with the guidance of her elders and the use of the psilocybin mushroom, who initially inspired Divine Master Alchemy through their vacations in the multiverse together. Acacea's background academically is in Astrophysics and Geophysics.
However, her passion for plant medicine has taken priority over the past decade as she uses the tools she learned as a researcher in Variable star physics and paleontology to delve into hidden areas of lost knowledge and brings back relevant details that can help us better understand our role as humans in other dimensions and novel states of consciousness.
Currently, Acacea resides in Oakland and Oaxaca, Mexico part time and is contributing to the conservation effort of indigenous mushroom species in the Sierra Madre region of the cloud forests of Oaxaca.
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Mama Ayana Iyi
Ayana Iyi is a modern day witch with ancient sensibilities, utilizing entheogenic plants in her work as a Psychic and Medium. Ayana has an intimate relationship to spirit going back to early childhood. Sharing many decades of experience working as a healer of immense knowledge and power. Incorporating teaching fungi into her work was the perfect compliment to accessing the ancient worlds of the divine feminine. Many testify to the fullness, depth and passion that Ayana brings to the Psychedelic community.
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Moudou Baqui
Baba Moudou Baqui M. Ed. has been a student of entheogens for two decades as a cultivator, researcher, and advocate. With a particular focus on penetrating the "block" and the so called hard to reach of inner city Detroit offering the red pill approach to alcoholism, depression, and poverty induced limitations. Under the tutelage of "Ahati" (Grandmaster) Kilyndi Iyi, he studied African combative martial arts and culture. He was exposed to knowledge and application, cultivation, and cultural history of entheogenic plants. He has further continued his studies of ancient human history, metacognition, and entheogens via travel on several continents. He has been a returning speaker at Breaking convention and several other platforms throughout the U.K., Germany, Turkey, Africa, and the Americas. His current focus is utilizing the Psychedelic experience as a therapeutic tool for addiction and depression and educating the public on the major benefits of these substances. Moudou also operates as an educational consultant, life coach, and food/land justice advocate.
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Mrs. Vicius
Mrs. Vicius is an intuitive card and energy reader, advocate, speaker, educator and cultivator who focuses on integrating plant medicines in a family setting. After suffering from treatment-resistant depression upon the birth of her 1st child in 2017, she left behind traditional pharmaceuticals in favor of plant medicines.
She has used her social media platform to showcase how to use plant medicines for P.T.S.D., anxiety and depression within a family setting for the last 5 years.
Mrs Vicius believes that there is an undeniable spiritual aspect when using entheogenic plant medicines and that it includes honoring the original stewards, teachers and our ancestral family through methods of healing in conjunction with natural medicines as a part of daily integration.
After fine-tuning her cultivation skills from Detroit's psychedelic Father, Baba Kilindi Iyi, Mrs Vicius founded Decriminalize Nature Hazel Park in 2020 and is an active member of Decriminalize Nature Michigan. The city of Hazel Park decriminalized entheogenic plants and fungi officially on 3/22/22 with the help of her leadership.
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Doorway Therapeutics
Doorway Therapeutics is a talk and psychedelic-assisted therapeutic counseling center based in Oakland, CA. Stepping into work at Doorways means one is no longer alone on their healing journey. Doorway Therapeutics is not just a group of therapists, but reliable community members that know the real struggles people may face as they work to unlock innate strengths and resilience in a world that can often feel overwhelming. The foundation of their philosophy is empathy, authenticity, and applying a decolonial lens to healing. They know all too well the challenges faced by those with marginalized identities and the ways external and internalized colonization impact our day-to-day lives. They create a comforting environment that assures you that your feelings, struggles, and lived realities are seen, heard, and can be met with the utmost care.
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Courtney Watson
The dynamic founder of Doorway Therapeutic Services, Courtney, is not just a highly qualified therapist but a passionate advocate for those she serves. Her love for her work is deeply intertwined with her dedication to serving marginalized communities, particularly Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer Folx, trans/gnc/non-binary/2 spirit Folx, those exploring non-traditional relationships, and sex workers.
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Leticia Brown
Leticia is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Sex Therapist. She works with QTPOC individuals, couples & polycules and specializes in trauma work and a range of sexuality-related issues. Leticia is getting a PhD in Human Sexuality.
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Roz McMillian
Rosalind is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Roz is interested in supporting those concerned about their relationship with alcohol and other drugs. Fully aware of how substance use can be used to deal with pain, grief, and self-medicate. Roz is passionate about helping people explore the roots of their substance use and seek ways to decrease the harm substances are causing in their life.
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DoubleBlind Magazine
DoubleBlind is a biannual print magazine and media company covering timely, untold stories about the expansion of psychedelics around the globe. They listen to everyone, from the indigenous communities, who have preserved these medicines for millennia, to the people in our society who most need healing, but don’t have access to it. And they go everywhere, from the ayahuasca tourism industry in Peru to laboratories at leading universities.
They’re not speaking to the veteran tripper nor evangelizing to the anti-drug square. They are speaking to everyone who is curious about psychedelics. And they are speaking to anyone craving fresh perspectives on some of the most important issues of our time: the depression epidemic, the corporatization of medicine, and the aching that people around the globe feel for spirituality or some other collective sense of meaning. Together, they dive deep below the surface of the daily news cycle through long-form reported features, poetry, visual art, and provocative photo essays offered both online and in print.
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Madison Margolin
Madison is a journalist straddling California, New York, and Israel-Palestine focused on psychedelics, cannabis, and Judaism. I also cover culture, policy, and science. She is passionate and curious about how people can transcend their minds to access something greater than themselves — be it through getting high off acid or God, meditating, creating art, or something somatic. Madison has set out to explore the various ways people nourish their souls.
It is what drives her, and most of my writing. In some way or another, connects back to this theme. Madison is also the co-founder of DoubleBlind Magazine, covering psychedelics and where they intersect with mental health, spirituality, environmental justice, and social equity.
She also co-founded the Jewish Psychedelic Summit and hosts a podcast called Set & Setting on the Be Here Now Network. She has been practicing journalism since 2014 and has been published in outlets like Rolling Stone, Vice, Playboy, High Times, Tablet, and Nylon, among others.
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Monica Cadena
Monica Cadena is an Afro-Xicana California-based plant medicine ally, psychedelic journalist, and digital strategist with work featured in Forbes, Vanity Fair, Self Magazine, and Elle, among others. Monica's passionate about highlighting stories from those at the intersections of healing and social justice activism, drug policy decriminalization efforts across the nation, indigenous sovereignty, and harm reduction.
Monica works with various organizations within the psychedelic and entheogenic space as the former Co-Executive Director of SPORE, The Society for Psychedelic Outreach, Reform and Education, a collaborator with Oakland Hyphae and DoubleBlind Magazine.
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Shelby Hartman
Shelby Hartman is Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of DoubleBlind. Her work has appeared in VICE, Quartz, the Huffington Post, and Rolling Stone, among others. Shelby worked in broadcast news production for CBS News covering presidential elections, protests, natural disasters, and other breaking news. Spurred by a passion for print and investigative reporting, she transitioned to magazine writing, working as an editor at Pasadena Magazine and receiving her Master’s Degree in long-form journalism from Columbia University in 2015. Since then, Shelby has worked as a columnist at LA Weekly and an editor at Herb, the largest cannabis media company, with extensive features on post-traumatic stress disorder in the veteran community, the cannabis industry, the psychedelic research boom, and the popularization of ayahuasca.
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Emily Davis
Multi disciplinary scientist, creator and photographer. Creator of the Community Ag Project, a community-powered tool to connect people with local agriculture related resources: farmers' markets, CSA, community gardening, workshops, educational opportunities and more
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Emily Eaglin
Emily Eaglin (aka Chrysantilus) is a creator, actor, video artist, and filmmaker. Her projects operate within realms of psychedelia, comedy, & music. This year Emily broke ground on developing & directing a new Isolaman Media Pilot, Trippin with Nesh & Lee Lee, starring Comedians Nesh “Just Nesh” Rice & Thee Marilee (Produced by Hannibal Buress). This Pilot was shot in LA March 2021 & is currently in Post-Production.
Emily has created several original short films including Sweeter, Jamie Fulla Grace, & Future Children. Emily has also worked on the production side of projects like Shots Fired (FOX), Swagger (Apple TV), & Bmore Lifestyle (MyTV Baltimore).
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Gabi "Curandeira" Williams
Born in Atlanta and raised in Maryland and Washington, D.C., Gabrielle is a multidisciplinary teacher, medicine woman and holistic healer. Among her greatest influences have been womanist-centered education at Spelman College, her ancestors, being a boy mom and her training in shamanic and ancestral healing in Brazil.
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Hyphae
Oakland Hyphae is the leader in psilocybin mushroom potency testing and research. Curators of the Psilocybin Cup and the Oakland/ National/ California Psychedelic Conferences.
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Carsten Fisher
Carsten Fisher is a behavioral psychologist by training, experienced in working with populations diagnosed with an array of mental health challenges, and is a passionate harm reductionist and educator. Carsten has been a student of psychedelic-assisted healing modalities and integration practices, and his passion is grounded in the service of Black & non-Black persons of color, and LGBTQIA+ communities - prioritizing accessibility & equity, and community-centered harm reduction. Currently, Carsten is the educational architect for Oakland Hyphae & Hyphae Labs.
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Chelsea Candelaria
Chelsea Candelaria, is a scientist and plant medicine and operations consultant with a deep love for her community and culture. Prior to entering the plant medicine space via cannabis Chelsea spent a decade managing environmental and energy programs. She views all things through both a lens of compassion and science. Chelsea has dedicated her career to uplifting her community through economic empowerment and education. She now sits on the board of The Equity Trade Network, working to build an ecosystem for small BIPOC and Justice impacted businesses to thrive. Chelsea believes in the science and healing capabilities of psychedelics, currently she operates as Chief of Staff at Oakland Hyphae.
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Emily Savage
Emily brings a lifetime of experience with Cannabis, and 15 years of experience with psychedelics. She grew up on a Cannabis farm, and first began experimenting with psychedelics as a teenager. After earning a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Penn State, she dedicated five years to Cannabis testing in California; from 2015 to 2020. Since, she has served as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for Hyphae Labs and Oakland Hyphae. She is focused on analytical testing, genetics, community-driven scientific inquiry, the relationship between art and science, and psychedelics and sensuality.
Emily holds a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a minor in Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. Growing up in Cannabis cultivation and holding a personal interest in mycology and entheogens for over 15 years, she dedicated 5 years to Cannabis science.
Throughout her short career, she has published in scientific literature, served on scientific committees, and given scientific presentations to audiences ranging from children to academics. Currently, she spends her days in a genetics laboratory focused on the plant, microbial, and fungal genetics to meet our current environmental challenges.
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Lulu Tsui
A seasoned Experience Designer with 15+ years of experience leading research, strategy, and design for enterprise software, Software as a Service, mobile, and touchscreen technologies. I have deep expertise in fintech, CRM, cannabis, supply chain, order to cash, biomedical, and IVR fields as well as education and non-profit.
Collaborating with business stakeholders, product owners, and development teams, I apply human-centered design methodologies to create digital products and services that are easy to use and adoptable. My clients include Bloomberg LP, Mastercard, IBM Watson, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, John Hopkins University, Roche, Thermo Fisher, E2Open, Contact Solutions, Pearson, and McGraw-Hill.
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Mary Carreon
Mary Carreón is an independent journalist, editor, and co-founder of the Hyphae Leaks podcast. Her work has appeared in Billboard, KCRW/NPR, Insider, DoubleBlind Magazine, The LAnd Magazine, High Times Magazine, OC Weekly, (the OG) LA Weekly, and many other publications.
Mary's written stories on pesticides; nuclear waste; local water politics; cannabis and psychedelics drug policy; the sustainability of cannabis cultivation; hemp "meat" and other alternative meats; the sustainability and conservation of Palo Santo; labor issues in the crystal trade; the collapse of California's cannabis industry; buying drugs on the internet; the emergence of new music genres for the use of psychedelic therapy; the mad honey trade; how the DEA believes it has the power to determine the legitimacy and sincerity of entheogenic religions; and much more.
Mary's work aims to humanize drug culture and delve into the real-world effects of policies and trends affecting accessibility and the environment. As a third-generation Mexican and Guatemalan, she's also dedicated to amplifying Latinx and BIPOC voices, issues, and perspectives.
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Ra Supreme
Born and bred in the vibrant heartbeat of LA, RA Supreme is more than an Astro Analyst; she's your go-to guide for navigating the cosmic dance of life. She has entered the psychedelic space as Director of Events/Ops at Oakland Hyphae.
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Reggie “HNIC” Harris
Reggie brings an unparalleled depth of experience to the intersection of politics, advocacy, and the burgeoning field of psychedelic and medicinal fungi. With over a decade immersed in political campaigns, from local city council races to steering presidential elections, Reggie has a proven track record of effecting change.
On the West Coast, Reggie played a pivotal role in the transformation of Oakland public schools by collaborating with the Black Organizing Project, advocating for the replacement of police with guidance counselors. As the campaign manager for western and southwestern states with Color of Change P.A.C., he successfully turned Nevada blue, leaving an indelible mark on the political landscape.
Beyond politics, Reggie has carved a niche as a consultant in the global mushroom industry, working with the largest cultivators in both the United States and The Netherlands. Notably, he provided key guidance for establishing the largest commercial mushroom farm and cutting-edge testing lab in Jamaica.
In the last two years, Reggie has founded Oakland Hyphae, a pioneering entity that hosted the Psilocybin Cup and The Oakland Psychedelic Conference, positioning itself as the epicenter of impactful psychedelic events in 2021. Co-founding Hyphae Labs, Reggie leads the charge in psychedelic mushroom potency testing, contributing to the industry's advancement.
Expanding his ventures, Reggie founded Hyphae Nootropics, offering a range of adaptogenic medicinal fungi, from Cordyceps to Lion's Mane. In addition, Reggie has ventured into the media landscape with the establishment of Hyphae Leaks, a substack newsletter, and Hyphae Leaks podcast in partnership with Psychedelics Today. Through these platforms, Reggie aims to tackle taboo topics within the psychedelic community, fostering open discussions about subjects that are often overlooked or avoided.
His commitment to supporting "the little guy" and safeguarding legacy plant medicine workers is evident in his advocacy efforts. Reggie actively works towards creating barriers to entry, preventing large corporations from dominating the industry, a concern he witnessed in the cannabis sector.
Drawing on over a decade of domestic experience in the U.S. cannabis industry, Reggie serves on the Advisory Board for Decriminalizing Nature. His unwavering commitment extends to social justice causes, notably in The Movement for Black Lives, and advocating for the abolition of the police state. Reggie's multifaceted journey reflects a relentless pursuit of positive change and a determination to safeguard the integrity of emerging industries while championing underrepresented voices..
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Tomas Garret
Tomas Garret is the founder of Mycozine, a physical zine that maps out the mushroom entrepreneurs, activists, and current events in the United States myco community. He joins us today to talk about his path to building the Mycozine, why it might make sense for people to take a full time job and stack u while they're building their mycopreneurial venture, and how his experience helping to coordinate the influential Oakland Psychedelic and California Psychedelic Conferences have helped guide him towards the current path he's on with Mycozine.
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Izzy Ali
Ismail Lourido Ali, JD (he/him or they/them) has been personally utilizing psychedelics in celebratory and spiritual contexts for over fifteen years, and has been actively participating in the drug policy reform movement since 2013. As the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Ismail advocates to eliminate barriers to psychedelic therapy and research, develops and implements legal and policy strategy, and supports MAPS’ strategy, organizational development, and ethics work. Ismail presently serves on the Board of Directors for Sage Institute in the California bay area.
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Jesse Preciado
Redefining Humanity, Jesse is founder of Let Our People Grow and will always be a servant to the revolution. Transforming pain into peace, he helps others free their mind and reindigenizing their way of life.
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Joe Moore
Joe Moore is the CEO & Co-Founder of Psychedelics Today - the largest and longest running podcast and media operation in psychedelics. Joe earned a B.A. at Plymouth State University in Philosophy and has been studying psychedelics since 2001. After working for 20 years in software, Joe is dedicated to working towards improved drug policy and greater inclusion of psychedelics in culture. In 2016, Joe co-founded Psychedelics Today, a world-leading psychedelic education and media platform. The popular Psychedelics Today podcast has been downloaded over 6-million times, and the Psychedelics Today Psychedelic Education Center has enrolled over 12,000 students in psychedelic training e-learning courses.
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Jordan Jacobs
Scientist in Portland, Oregon specializing in mycology and analytical chemistry.
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Judd Weiss
Community organizer, photographer and product developer, Judd Weiss founded Advanced Mycology, an all-in-one mushroom grow kit whose North Star is a devotion to 3 principles: Efficiency, Quality, and Simplicity.
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Kat Kurner
Kat has had the absolute honor and privilege to work with people at the end of their lives as well as individuals looking to find the way back home to themselves through Soul connection. She is a psychedelic activist working to decriminalize nature and increase awareness of the many benefits of psychedelics if utilized in a safe setting with the right mindset and proper guidance.
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Kyle Buller
Kyle Buller is Co-Founder and Vice President of Education and Training at Psychedelics Today, the most popular psychedelic podcast and training platform on earth. Kyle's interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began at the age of 16 when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. After this near-death experience, Kyle’s life changed dramatically. Kyle subsequently earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology from Burlington College, where he focused on studying the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, Reiki, local medicinal plants and plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has been studying breathwork with Lenny and Elizabeth since October 2010 and is currently finishing up his M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Somatic Psychology.
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Maya Shetreat
Maya Shetreat, MD is a neurologist, herbalist, urban farmer, and author of The Dirt Cure. She has been featured in the New York Times, The Telegraph, NPR, Sky News, The Dr. Oz Show and more. Dr. Maya is the founder of the Terrain Institute, where she teaches earth-based programs for transformational healing, including training programs for psychedelic-assisted approaches. For many years, she works and studies with indigenous communities and healers from around the world, and is a lifelong student of ethnobotany, plant healing, and the sacred.
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Melanie Rose Rodgers
For nearly a decade, Melanie Rose Rodgers has been on the frontline of cannabis and psychedelic advocacy in Colorado. She is a Filipina, Denver-based community organizer and founder of Influential X, a company dedicated to education, advocacy and social responsibility. Instrumental in passing city and state laws to expand access to medical cannabis and decriminalize psilocybin and entheogenic plants in Denver, Washington DC and Colorado, she’s a community leader with a record for increasing civic engagement and amplifying the voices and needs of marginalized and underrepresented communities.
Melanie serves justice-impacted individuals as the co-Founder of Expunge Colorado, through education and access to pro bono record sealing legal services. Motivated and passionate about co-creating a more diverse, inclusive, equitable and welcoming environment locally and beyond, Melanie is co-creating, BIPOC Psychedelic, a new community organization rooted in the heart of Five Points Denver.
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Mikaela de la Myco
Mikaela de la Myco comes from a blended ancestry. Her peoples come from the hills of southern italy, the caribbean and the deserts and mountains of mexico.
In her everyday life, she is a mother, an entheogen educator, a womb care practitioner and acts as a community ceremony facilitator in occupied Kumeyaay & Luiseno territory, also known as San Diego, CA. She passionately serves all people in ancestral healing ways with special focus in serving creatives, families, bleeding people, folks within the birthing continuum and people navigating conscious contraception.
Mikaela organizes quarterly ceremonies so people can journey through the dark amenta to uncover ancestral messages, rewrite trauma wounds and make meaning with mushroom and other earth medicines. Her platform, Mama de la Myco is a creative space at the intersection of medicine woman, psychedelic mother and sacred hoe. Mikaela de la Myco has made the commitment to rematriate entheogens, do ma'at always and prove to the world that psychedelics are for families.
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Nara Delbacka
Nara Dahlbacka is a dedicated professional political operative residing in Lake County, with roots in Oakland and a deep passion for making government work for her clients. With over 15 years of experience in political work,
Nara's expertise encompasses diverse areas such as public affairs, government relations, permit expediting, campaigns, community organizing, complex land use and zoning entitlements, reproductive rights, animal welfare, and healthcare justice. Nara has become known as Milo's 'Queen of Green,' leading the firm's cannabis and drug policy efforts since joining in 2016. Her expertise now covers psychedelic policy as well as cannabis.
A strong advocate for the community, Nara serves in multiple influential roles, including the cannabis industry appointee to the Lake County Cannabis Taskforce, the 49th agricultural association board, Vice Chair and Ex Officio for Asm Cecilia Aguiar-Curry on the Lake County Democratic Central Committee, East Bay Animal PAC board member, and immediate past President of the Cat Town Oakland board, board member for the Lake County Cannabis Alliance, and as a company member of Queer Cat Productions.
Driven by a genuine commitment to her craft, Nara is a certified Ganjier, demonstrating her comprehensive knowledge of the cannabis industry. She thrives on serving the community and leveraging her expertise to make a positive impact in her surroundings.
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Niko Summers
In 2012, while in college, Niko decided to start working with cannabis, mushrooms, and kambô for their therapeutic and neurological benefits. The work he did with them helped tremendously in spiritual, psychological, and physiological healing in ways he never could expect. And in 2019, he made the decision to deepen my passion for holistic medicine. He traveled to Peru and participated in multiple plant medicine ceremonies. It was a very transformative experience.
He enrolled in a professional herbalism program shortly after and began formulating and selling herbal supplements through Soulstice Apothecary. He also opened a mushroom company, Native Mushrooms, where he sells neurotropic supplements for brain health, featuring a variety of mushrooms that have helped manage ADD/HD. He has now incorporated kambô and bufo alvarius ceremonies after extensive mentorship and self-practice.
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Olga Tgozas
Olga Tzogas alongside her community, created & operates Smugtown Mushrooms on traditional and occupied Haudenosaunee land, in the city of so-called Rochester NY.
Her journey with Fungi and plants started over ten years ago. Working with these allies by foraging in both urban & more wild settings, & learning to identify for food and medicine. Olga has been a member of the Rochester Area Mycological Association, CPAMC, WPAMC & the West Virginia Mushroom club.
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Omar Thomas
Omar is the founding advisor of Diaspora Psychedelic Society (DPS) and a member of the Jamaican Diaspora Task Force on Behavioral Health. His Afro-Caribbean upbringing led him to seek out non-traditional answers to his own PTSD and trauma issues in the early 90's. His search eventually took him to Mexico where he underwent 30 days of fasting, isolation, and intensive sacred mushroom work under curandero guidance. He's lived as a permanent resident of Mexico for a number of years developing a deeper connection to the medicine in the context of community. He brings his years of experience In Mexico to bear in guiding the vision for DPS.
Through Diaspora Psychedelic Society, Omar collaborates with a number of organizations to promote more equitable access, Jamaican inclusion, and innovative approaches to psilocybin-supported therapies. In addition to overseeing day-to-day DPS activities, he is the CEO of Jamaican Organics, and sits on the strategic advisory board of Psychedelics Today.
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POC Fungi Community
POC Fungi Community believes community-based learning and going outdoors together in a respectful manner and honoring the land we’re on is of utmost importance. They never want to harvest excessively or “hunt” mushrooms as a sport or for personal collections. Instead, they want to set an intention to begin a relationship with our fungal relatives in a way that is mutually beneficial.
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Mario Ceballos
Growing up in a “border town” , Mario Ceballos has been forced to navigate two different worlds. With family on both sides of the border, they have first hand experiences of the devastating effects of colonization and the re-traumatization of an increasingly militarized border. In an attempt to mitigate appropriation of traditional medicine and to increase access and representation for people of color, Mario created the POC Fungi Community. Mario advocates for all marginalized people and looks to indigenous ways and models for organizing community and cultivating resilience.
Mario Ceballos is a Chicanx from Kumeyaay territory also known as San Diego, CA. Mario is the founder of the POC Fungi Community.
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Raw Sol Collective
A music, events and education collective bringing Afro-centric liberation to the Bay Area. They lead peaceful mushroom foraging hikes, retreats and curate conscious and high vibrational hip hop.
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Brotha Peace
Co-creator of Raw Sol Collective and From the Hood to the Woods, Brotha Peace is a beloved father, artist and community organizer in the Bay Area psychedelic community. He is a multi-dimensional peace advocate spreading joy through music, food and art.
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Mikael Garvey Ali
Mikael Garvey Ali is a global traveling medicine man, a plant based chef, an afro-indigenous leader and an artist. He is the co-founder of Raw Sol Collective and travels frequently to perform in peaceful conferences for liberation.
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Rob Lopez
Rob Lopez is a conscious rap artist, mycology enthusiast, forager, and advocate for human and animal liberation.
Rob’s first passion was rap music, which he started recording when he was 15. Over the years his music has evolved to reflect his awareness and dedication to addressing social issues. When he isn't writing music, you can find Rob hiking, foraging, and cultivating.
Rob cares deeply about helping others and connecting people in the community and he channels his love for the world into the culinary mushrooms that he cultivates.
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Roman Haferd
Robert “Roman” Haferd (he/him) is the Restorative Justice Coordinator for the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, where he has helped build a nationally-recognized restorative justice program inside Washington DC’s Justice Department.
In the psychedelics space, Roman serves as the Director of Community Engagement for the Plant Medicine Coalition, a non-profit hub and advocacy organization that promotes safe, equitable access to psychedelic and plant medicines. In 2020, Roman was a Steering Committee Member of the successful Decriminalize Nature DC campaign to pass Initiative 81, the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act, which made entheogenic substances among the lowest law enforcement priorities in Washington DC. Prior to joining the AG’s office, Roman worked as a Senior Program Associate with the Restorative Justice Project at Impact Justice, an Oakland, California-based research and innovation institute.
Roman has also represented civil rights plaintiffs in cases around the country involving deprivations of Constitutional rights and law enforcement misconduct. He previously worked as a Senior Associate in the Litigation & Controversy Department of international law firm WilmerHale LLP’s Washington, DC office. Roman has a Bachelors of Arts from Bucknell University in Economics and Philosophy, and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.
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She Grows Fungi
Bear is a female mycology activist and citizen scientist. Her work has been to continue working on growing some of the largest mushrooms in some of the largest containers. Her knowledge with 200 quarts tubs has given me a peek into what lab grade mushrooms are capable of.
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Sofia Ramirez Osuna
Ana Sofia Cornelius is one of the co-creators of BIPOC Psychedelic. Born Ana Sofia Ramirez Osuna in Maracay, Venezuela, Ana moved to the U.S. as a child and traveled back and forth between countries well into adulthood. Ana had an upbringing rooted in tradition, spirituality, energy, and community work.
Ana was the favorite of her grandparents and raised to be the family matriarch, the only daughter of her grandmother’s only daughter. Ana has traveled and learned from indigenous medicine people across the Americas for over 40 years. Ana uses this wealth of knowledge paired with her partner’s (Oneida Nation elder) knowledge and expertise and they co-own Primal Wellness LTD, a wellness consulting firm in Denver, CO. Ana received a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in Democracy and Justice Studies (2012) and one year of graduate work in Social Work also at the University of Wisconsin -Green Bay (2013-2014; Phi Kappa Phi).
Ana has been using psychedelic medicines and offering guidance since 1991. Ana has been an advocate and organizer in cannabis and psychedelic spaces across states for over 20 years. Ana is a mother of nine and grandmother of five. Ana loves spending time in nature, crafting, art, yoga, drumming, and ceremony.
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Students for Sensible Drug Policy
In 1998, a few dozen students who had been chatting online became the first cohort of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. They were members of the DARE generation who understood the broad failures of the drug war; they sought each other out to raise their voices against a broken system and start making sense.
Since that time, we’ve expanded our presence to more than 300 campuses in 32 countries and have mobilized tens of thousands of young people to advocate for a more sensible approach to drug laws. Countless policy reforms led or supported by SSDPers now protect people from punishment if they call for help during an overdose, help people education regardless of drug citations, and provide safe access to cannabis for adult or medical use.
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Callie Hoffman
Callie Hoffmann graduated with a degree in Political Science from UC Berkeley and is a JD Candidate at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. Callie was a legal intern at Plant Medicine Law Group, a boutique law firm that works with startups and psychedelic mental health providers. There, she focused on bringing community informed best practices to the growing legal framework for psychedelic-assisted therapy. Callie is president of her university’s SSDP chapter and educates students on opportunities in the cannabis and psychedelic industries, provides networking opportunities with industry professionals, and supported the organization of a naloxone training for her community. Currently, she is a Legal Associate at ReCor Medical, where she works on intellectual property and regulatory compliance issues.
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Jacob Plowden
Jacob Plowden is a graduate of CUNY Baruch College and started in drug policy with Students for Sensible Drug Policy in 2015. He has organized events around understanding harm reduction with a hands-on approach through education about the economic effects of the War on Drugs.
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Mohawk Greene
Phoenix AKA Mohawk "The Rebel Educationist" (they/them: formerly known as Mohawk the Educator) is a black, trans educator and technologist, who leverages vast multimedia and platforms to do advocacy and outreach for people who use drugs.
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Steven Huang
Steven Huang is MAPS’ first Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Officer, leading teams across the organization to address the psychedelic ecosystem’s inequality challenges, as well as its opportunity to provide for collective liberation. Steven has designed and implemented JEDI strategies for organizations across diverse industries, geographies and sizes.
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Sunumi Brown
Her lineage is of American Indian - Muskogee descent, with ancestry in the Caribbean - Panama & Jamaica and Sicily.
Sunumi Is the founder of Village Of Mothers an organization supporting BIPOC mothers in liberation. She is widely known for her work in liberation practices, sustainability practices and mycology, emphasizing entheogenic education for families. She aims to expand the education on trauma informed integrations, entheogenic preparation, and psilocybin use during pregnancy.
She enjoys teaching expansive lessons about this work through one of her highlight workshop: infusing adaptogenic mushrooms and psilocybin into a unique foodplay sensory experience. This workshop focuses on intentionality of consumption as a whole, utilizing intimacy as a bridge to honoring the very sexy and sensual process of eating.
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A Table of Our Own
Our goal is to create a documentary about a gathering of Black luminaries that do work in the psychedelic space. We’ll join 35 key members from all around the country in a safe place and give participants the chance to share their strengths, experience, hopes, and challenges within the psychedelic space.
The goal is to highlight those doing great work and to expand the reach of these important ways of healing to more Black people. We also wish to de-stigmatize these substances so that they’re no longer seen as “White people stuff” and more as the natural balms and salves to Black people’s psyches that we’ve been using for millennia.
The documentary will cover not only the conference but the current state of Black people in the psychedelic space as a whole.
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Ayize Jama-Everett
Ayize Jama-Everett calls the Bay Area his home despite being born in New York City. He holds a Master’s in Divinity, a Master’s in Clinical Psychology, and a Master’s in Fine Arts, Creative Writing. Jama-Everett has worked as a bartender, a translator, a drug and alcohol counselor, a stand-up comedian, a script doctor, a ghostwriter, a high school dean, a college professor, and for a brief time, a distiller of spirits.
In 2009, Jama-Everett self-published The Liminal People, which was later picked up and distributed by Small Beer Press. He’s written two more books in the series, The Liminal War (2015) and The Entropy of Bones (2015). The fourth and final installment in The Liminal Series is forthcoming from Small Beer Press. Jama-Everett has also written a graphic novel entitled Box of Bones with two-time Eisner Award winner John Jennings. Box of Bones is published by Rosarium Press and more installments are forthcoming.
His work has been written of favorably in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and received starred reviews in Kirkus. Jama Everett was the featured Honored Guest at the 2017 FOGcon and been a featured panelist at Bookriot.
His books defy easy categorization but hold to what he considers the “veracity of fiction’s ability to expose the human condition.” In his novels, the reader will find science fiction, romance, action, spirituality, and philosophical questions with uncomfortable answers.
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Evan Shwartz
Evan, an accomplished multimedia producer, navigates the crossroads of compelling storytelling and diverse project creation. His portfolio is rich with engaging narratives such as the thought-provoking "Death Inc" with its majority-Black cast, its Spanish language counterpart "PUM", and the award winning dark comedy "Confessions of a Well-meaning Man." Central to his body of work is "A Table of Our Own," a project that highlights his dedication to crafting significant content. In addition to his creative pursuits, Evan ardently advocates for the thoughtful and safe usage of psychoactive substances in personal, professional, and medical settings. With over a decade of industry experience, Evan continues to leave a distinctive mark on multimedia production, captivating audiences with his compelling projects.
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Kufikiri Imara
Kufikiri Imara was born and raised on Huichin territory of the Ohlone people (Oakland, California). He grew up in a version of “The Town” very different from the one we see today. It was a place with a broader and more embodied sense of community. He grew up in a family and community environment that strongly emphasized social awareness and responsibility. His personal healing/spiritual journey led him to such moments as volunteering with the Green Earth Poets Society in NYC, bringing poetry to incarcerated African-American youth. He is one of the early members of the Entheogen Integration Circle, a support group in NYC with a focus on marginalized communities within the psychedelic community.
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Tony Alvarez
Tony Alvarez of Shroomy Walkabouts has been an avid forager of plant medicine for 20 + years now. He has turned his passions into a safe space for the community to heal and find themselves while simultaneously connecting with other like-minded people.
He's creating a ripple effect of self-knowledge, self-healing, and oneness with everything in our world. Shroomy walkabouts' mission is to foster a lifestyle of education on local fungi and plants that are edible and medicinal while holding space for individual and group healing, "arriving into each moment ceremoniously".
Tony's work inspires free spirits and free thinkers to go out in the world, challenge societal norms, and spread love and light wherever they go. His goal is to help them foster and develop their groups and create a ripple effect of change in the world.
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Travis Tyler Fluck
Curator of Consciousness, leader of the Denver Psilocybin Initiative, and co-founder of the Denver Mushroom Cooperative, Travis Tyler Fluck Travis is one of the most devoted and influential figures working in the psilocybin mushroom space today, and he joins me to talk about the status quo of mushrooms in Colorado under the current legislative framework there.
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Urban Indigenous Collective
Driving the inclusion of Urban Natives by indigenizing existing infrastructures and ensuring cultural proliferation. Driving the inclusion of Urban Natives by indigenizing existing infrastructures and ensuring cultural humility in health and wellness services to build more equitable, inclusive, and prosperous communities.
UIC supports access to culturally-tailored health and wellness services for self-identified Indigenous peoples in Lenapehoking and the greater NYC area (NY, NJ, CT, PA) through community-based participatory research, advocacy, community programming, and direct services. UIC envisions a world where the rights of Indigenous Peoples and sovereignty are acknowledged and respected with cultural humility. We will model continuous consent and free prior and informed consent and consultation as protocol in each of our programming areas.
Working holistically with traditional knowledge keepers and western medicine will enhance the overall mental and physical well-being of our urban Indigenous Community. We see a world where Urban Natives are visible in all spaces and will have access to culturally appropriate resources to support, heal, and live healthy lives.
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Ariel Richer
Ariel Richer is a Co-founder and Co-director at Urban Indigenous Collective. She is Afro-Indigenous and white; descendant of the Carib Indians, the Indigenous people of Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. Ariel is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, College of Social Work. Ariel earned both a Master’s Degree and a PhD in Social Work at Columbia University School of Social Work, and has been a Licensed Master Social Worker for 8 years. Her research focus is on intimate partner violence and increasing access to relevant services for Black and Indigenous women who experience structural stigma related to drug use, involvement in the criminal-legal system, sexuality, and racism. Her work is grounded in principles of community-based participatory research, as she works collaboratively with Black and Indigenous communities.
Previously, she worked as an Impact Evaluator at the Administration for Native Americans where she worked directly with community-based organizations developing logic models, evaluation plans, data collection tools, and processes. She is fiercely committed to addressing gender-based issues at large, especially gender-based violence, and has over nine years of experience within domestic violence organizations, sexual assault resource centers, and economic enhancement programs serving survivors of trafficking and domestic violence.
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Sutton King
Sutton King, MPH, Nāēqtaw-Pianakiw (comes first woman), is Afro-Indigenous and a descendent of the Menominee and Oneida Nations of Wisconsin. She is a graduate of CMSV and NYU School of Global Public Health. She holds a bachelors in Psychology, a minor in Sociology and a masters in Public Health. She is an internationally recognized Indigenous rights activist, public speaker, published researcher and social entrepreneur dedicated to developing and scaling innovative solutions to improve Indigenous health equity across sectors. Her focus centers access and benefit sharing and culturally appropriate methodologies within technology, healthcare and business.
Sutton is the co-founder and President of Urban Indigenous Collective, an Indigenous lead public health NGO supporting access to culturally-tailored health and wellness services for self-identified Indigenous peoples in Lenapehoking (NYC) and the greater NYC area (NY, NJ, CT, PA) through community-based participatory research, advocacy, community programming, and direct services. As a survivor, she leads UIC’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Trans and Two-Spirit People (MMWIGT2S)NYC+ program working to fill a gap in research, advocacy, and education to the public about the MMIWGT2S crisis and epidemic. She is the Co-Founder of ShockTalk, a culturally tailored telemental health platform that facilitates culturally appropriate patient-provider relationships for Indigenous communities through AI technology and social media. She joins the Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund as a Program Manager of Engagement and Benefit Sharing sitting on the operations committee. She facilitates a relationship between the Psychedelic Space and Indigenous traditional cultures that centers Indigenous sovereignty.
She advises organizations ranging from startup companies to philanthropies and nonprofits on Indigenous programming, community based participatory research, stakeholder models and access and benefit sharing through social impact investment and giving.
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Wilhemina De Castro
Honoring the entire person, Wilhelmina provides a safe space for you to explore the root of your pain, the situations that perpetuate your challenges and solutions that will help you achieve your ultimate goals. Wilhelmina has worked with hundreds of people in California and all over the world in meeting their therapeutic goals. Her work specializes in the ares of anxiety, depression, trauma and life transitions. She has significant experience in working with BIPOC, the LGBTQIA_ community and poly/non-monogamous people.
Wilhelmina is trained in KAP (Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy) through PRATI (Psychedelic Research and Training Institute) and MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy through MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies).
In addition to teaching Masters level courses in Psychology, Human Behavior and Social Innovation, Wilhelmina is Co Faculty and Scholarship Program lead for PRATI (Psychedelic Research and Training Institute) and DEI leader for the Integrative Psychiatry Institute (IPI) as well as a therapist on Compass Pathways Clinical Trial for Psilocybin and Treatment Resistant Depression.
website :: instagram
William Padillia-Brown
William received his Permaculture Design Certificate through Susquehanna Permaculture & N.G.O.Z.I. in Harrisburg, PA, in 2014 and has since led over 100 classes and workshops in person and online, covering a vast array of topics spanning permaculture, including mycology, foraging, medicine making, phycology, molecular biology, additive manufacturing, working with insects, gardening, urban farming, and animal husbandry.
William has also completed The Wild Land Immersion with Wilson Alvarez in Lancaster, PA, Mushroom Cultivation & MycoRemediation courses with Fungi for the People in Eugene, OR, the Regenerative Urban Sustainability Training at the Radix Center in Albany, NY with Scott Kellog, Stacy Pettigrew, and Heather Flores, The Nanopore Introduction Workshop at the New York Genomics Center, and the Algal Culturing Techniques Course at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in BoothBay, ME.
patreon :: youtube :: instagram
Willy Myco
Mycologist, organic chemist, influencer, YouTube creator and psychedelic activist. Willy is the founder of the psychedelic group & movement Trip Team Family and one of the more notable figures in the psychedelic community.
Being the personality of the YouTube channel Willy's World, Willy specializes in Creating videos educating viewers on the psychedelic science, culture, cultivation or synthesis of psychedelics in a simple step-by-step video.
website :: instagram
Xochitl Ashe
Xochitl (So-chil) Kusikuy Ashe has been a teacher and guide in one-and-one mentorships, workshops, and ceremonies both in the U.S and internationally for the las 27 years. At 16 years old she became the first female of five generations of men to be initiated into the healing traditions of her Peruvian ancestral lineage. She is a Medicine Woman in the Peruvian Andean tradition and has worked with sacred plant medicines since the time of her initiation. For the past 23 years she apprenticed under her Godfather, a Mazatec Medicine Man of the ancient tradition of healing with the "Nti-si tho" "Santitos" or Psilocybin mushrooms.
She is a professionally trained herbalist, IFS Therapy Practitioner (Internal Family Systems) and specializes in the ceremonial use of Cacao and Psilocybin Mushrooms. In her practice, Xochitl focuses on the healing of generational trauma and the ways in which that trauma impairs our ability to thrive, create wealth, and have a positive impact on the world.
Founder of Magical Medicine Journeys, an Indigenous women owned retreat company, that offers legal Mazatec Psilocybin Mushroom Retreats in Mexico. Xochitl’s mission is to honor the traditional indigenous knowledge and ceremony of sacred plant medicine and provide the most authentic and powerful life changing experiences. She is faculty at Esalen Institute, The Microdosing Institute and the Shift Network.
linktree :: instagram
Yarelix Estrada
Yarelix Estrada is a first-generation Latina, drug policy and harm reduction researcher, community outreach worker for overdose prevention, and psychedelic community organizer. In NYC, Yarelix is an organizer with the New York City Psychedelic Society where she works to help build a connection of psychedelic New Yorkers that is grounded in inclusivity, evidenced-based research, and community. She organizes events that are for people of color only to provide a safe space for conversations specific to their community. Yarelix currently works as a City Research Scientist with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducting community-based substance use harm reduction outreach and research. She received her bachelor’s degree and Master of Science in Public Health in Health Policy at the Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, respectively.
website :: instagram
Zen Frankie
Zen Frankie is a Vegan Chef, Meditation Teacher Herbalist, Multi Instrumentalist, and Mycologist who began prepping and cooking vegan food and studying sound out of desire to heal himself of Crohns disease.
Wow, thank you so much for the diversity and equity of this list! With so many existing and new actors in the field, it’s hard to keep track of them!
As seen in the comments, it would be nice to talk more about actors outside the US!
I would love to add to this list Psychedelics Integration
website: https://www.psychedelics-integration.com/
Instagram: https://www.psychedelics-integration.com/
There are a community of diverse and inclusive coaches & therapists, specialised in psychedelic integration & preparation. The coaches are from different countries, backgrounds, roots & beliefs. More than that, the platform offers support with education through blog posts and substance guides. I love their Instagram cannel, where you can find a lot of content related to harm reduction, like "what is legal LSD" or the difference between Psychedelic, Psychoactive & Psychotropic subtsances.
The co-founders created this place after realising that support is often missing before and/or after a psychedelic experience. While more and more retreats and interests appear, it can be difficult to find someone to help you go through it and get the most out of the experience.
I love the transparency, accessibility and integrity of this community.
Thank you for sharing and spreading visibility for a number of people who likely do not get enough credit in this space.
REACH Washington is a grassroots coalition of folks in WA State drafting a ballot initiative to decriminalize a handful of psychedelics in an ethical and responsible way, prioritizing the underground communities that have been providing access - this is in no way commercial or "legalization".
www.reachwa.org
The Psychedelic Medicine Alliance of Washington (PMAW) formerly Decriminalize Nature Seattle - has been operating the past 3 years. We passed a psychedelic decrim resolution in October 2021 and have been working on legislative paths for decrim in WA state as well as mentoring and helping other people decrim in their areas.
As far as people shout outs, Kody Zalewski has been holding it down with me at PMAW for years, Erin Reading of Port Townsend Psychedelic Society has been working really diligently and with her heart for years creating a healthy psychedelic community in her area. SGT Lauren "LoLo" Feringa operates Hippie and a Veteran Foundation, helping Vets utilize alternative therapies for PTSD and mental health, and myself, I have been supporting decrim and community organizing in my area since 2020 as well.
www.pmaw.org
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