Journalist and Author, #1 New York Times Best-Seller, "How To Change Your Mind"

Michael Pollan

For more than thirty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds. Pollan is the author of eight books, six of which have been New York Times bestsellers; three of them (including his latest, How to Change Your Mind) were immediate #1 New York Times bestsellers. Previous books include Cooked (2013), Food Rules (2009), In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008) and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), which was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by both the New York Times and the Washington Post. How to Change Your Mind was named one of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2018. In 2020 he published a new audio book titled Caffeine, available from Audible. In 2021, he will publish a book titled This is Your Mind on Plants.

Mycologist, Researcher, Author and Entrepreneur

Paul Stamets

Paul Stamets is the author of seven books. He is an Invention Ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was inducted into The Explorer’s Club in 2020. He has received numerous awards, including the National Mycologist Award (2014) from the North American Mycological Association (NAMA), and the Gordon & Tina Wasson Award (2015) from the Mycological Society of America (MSA). His work has entered the mainstream of popular culture. In the new Star Trek: Discovery series on CBS, the Science Officer is portrayed by an Astromycologist…. a Lt. Paul Stamets. Paul’s work with mycelium became a central theme of this series.

Founder and Director, CIIS Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research

Dr. Janis Phelps, Ph.D.

Janis received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Connecticut. She has been a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies for the past 21 years.  She is the former dean of the School of Consciousness and Transformation at CIIS.  She is now the Director of the CIIS Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research. As the Center’s founder, she developed the first academically accredited, professional certificate training program for legal psychedelic-assisted therapy and research. The Center also provides harm reduction workshops, webinars on psychedelic research and public educational programs.  A licensed clinical psychologist and LMFT, she has held faculty positions in the East-West Psychology and Clinical Psychology doctoral programs.  Dr. Phelps teaches graduate courses in quantitative and qualitative research methods, mindfulness, Buddhism and psychotherapy, spiritual counseling, and principles of healing. Janis serves on the board of the Holos Institute and maintains a private practice.

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Albert Garcia-Romeu, Ph.D.

Albert Garcia-Romeu, Ph.D. is a member of the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Guest Researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program. His research examines the effects of psychedelics in humans, with a focus on psilocybin as an aid in the treatment of addiction. He received his doctorate in psychology in 2012 from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA, where he studied self-transcendence and meditation, and their relationship to mental health. His current research interests include clinical applications of psychedelics, mindfulness, and altered states of consciousness and their underlying psychological mechanisms. He additionally studies real-world drug use patterns and impacts on public health, and the role of spirituality in mental health and addiction. He is a founding member of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research and the International Society for Research on Psychedelics. 

Founder and Executive Director, MAPS

Dr. Rick Doblin

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master’s thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife, dog, and empty rooms from three children, one of whom is in college and two have graduated.

Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Dr. Anthony Bossis

Dr. Bossis is a clinical psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. He is Director of Palliative Care Research, Co-Principal Investigator, and a session guide for the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Project, a FDA-approved clinical trial investigating the efficacy of a psilocybin-generated mystical experience upon existential and psycho-spiritual distress in persons with cancer.

Author, Teacher, Counselor, Co-Founder, Center for Consciousness Medicine

Françoise Bourzat

Françoise Bourzat has been bridging the divide between western psychology and indigenous wisdom in collaboration with healers in Huaulta de Jiminez, Mexico for the past 30 years. She is a co-founder of the Center for Consciousness Medicine, which trains people to become guides in a holistic method of psychedelic-assisted therapy. She is also the co-author of Consciousness Medicine, published by North Atlantic Books.

Françoise served on the advisory board for the Oregon Prop 109 initiative and is currently collaborating with the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in an FDA-approved research study on psilocybin-assisted therapy for Covid-related grief.

She has a Master of Arts in Somatic Psychology and is trained in the Hakomi Method. Françoise has taught at CIIS in San Francisco, is a counselor, and runs online courses and lectures in various institutions.

President of the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the Humaita River (ASPIRH)

Tuwe Huni Kuin

Tuwe Huni Kuin is an indigenous youth leader, a spokesperson for his peoples and their issues domestically and internationally, and is also a film maker who is currently documenting an emerging issue on the border between Peru and Brazil – peoples in voluntary isolation are forced to leave their lands and are approaching the territories of the Kaxinawa peoples of the Western Amazon.

Psychiatrist and Author

Dr. Julie Holland

Julie Holland is a psychiatrist specializing in psychopharmacology, with a private practice in New York City. Dr. Holland also provides expert testimony and forensic consultation on a range of drug-related behavior and phenomena, with a focus on PCP and MDMA.

Pharmacologist and Medicinal Chemist

Dr. David E Nichols

David E. Nichols, PhD is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.  He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy and was the Robert C. and Charlotte P. Anderson Distinguished Chair in Pharmacology, where he carried out teaching and research for 38 years prior to his retirement in 2012.

He devoted his entire professional career to the study of psychedelics and was one of only a few investigators able to research psychedelics after they were scheduled and is considered the world’s leading expert on the chemistry of psychedelics. In 1993 he founded the Heffter Research Institute and served as its president for more than 25 years, which funded the first rigorous scientific studies of psychedelics in humans after nearly a 40 year moratorium, and the groundbreaking Phase I and II studies of psilocybin for the treatment of depression, as well as substance use disorders.

Dr. Nichols synthesized the DMT used by Dr. Rick Strassman in his human studies, the MDMA that MAPS used for their Phase I and II clinical trials for PTSD, and the psilocybin used by several investigators for human clinical studies including the Phase I and II trials conducted at Johns Hopkins University by Roland Griffiths and his colleagues. Dr. Nichols, although officially retired, remains active in the field through consulting collaborations with several academic and pharmaceutical organizations and continues to publish scientific papers.

Professor and Canada Research Chair in the History of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan

Dr. Erika Dyck

Erika Dyck is a Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, and a Canada Research Chair in the History of Medicine. She is the author of Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD from Clinic to Campus (Johns Hopkins, 2008; University of Manitoba Press, 2011), Managing Madness: The Weyburn Mental Hospital and Transformations of Psychiatric Care in Canada (2017) and the co-editor of Culture’s Catalyst: Encounters with Peyote and the Native American Church in Canada (2016) and Psychedelic Prophets: The Letters of Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond (2018).

Consultant Psychiatrist; Psychedelic Therapist and Researcher; Chief Medical Officer at Awakn Life Sciences

Dr Ben Sessa MBBS (MD) BSc MRCPsych

Dr Ben Sessa MD is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist who has worked with young people and adults in the field of addictions and trauma-related psychiatry for over 25 years. For the last 15 years Ben has been at the forefront of psychedelic research in the UK through his affiliations with Bristol University and Imperial College London, under the auspices of Professor David Nutt. He has taken part as a study doctor and as a healthy subject both receiving and / or administering MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, DMT and ketamine in multiple UK research  studies. He worked for a year at one of the first UK-based medical cannabis prescribing clinics. Ben is the Chief Medical Officer at Awakn Life Sciences, a new start-up company opening Europe’s first psychedelic medical clinic, which will be providing psychedelic therapies, therapist training courses and conducting independent research. Ben is the co-founder and former president of Europe’s largest psychedelic conference, Breaking Convention.

CEO of Boom Bay Integrative Healing and Board Member, CPA

Jazmin Pirozek HBA, MSc

Jazmin Pirozek, HBA, MSc practices and teaches traditional and contemporary methods regarding the Boreal and Amazon forests plants. Currently, Jazmin is a consultant combining scientific and traditional methods, focussing on remediating chronic illnesses for the people of Northern Ontario, Canada. Jazmin has applied concepts of Nishnawbe Aski Nation Health Transformation perspectives in her work to combine Traditional and Contemporary Health practices to create better access to Integrative medicine for all.

Jazmin is an advisor with Science North, Ontario’s Science Education Centre and has written and narrated their planetarium production “Under the Same Stars: Minwaadiziwin.” She was invited to the UK for Breaking Convention 2019 and the Psychedelic Psychotherapy Forum 2020 to speak about the historical and current uses of traditional psychedelic medicines and their effective treatment of chronic mental health illnesses. Jazmin founded Boom Bay Integrative Healing and Learning Centre on Beautiful Lake of the Woods, Kenora, Ontario, set to continue construction into 2021.

Founder, KRIYA Institute

Raquel Bennett, Psy.D.

Raquel Bennett, Psy.D. is a psychologist and ketamine specialist from Berkeley, California. She primarily works with people who are living with severe depression, bipolar disorder, and/or suicidal ideation. Dr. Bennett is fascinated by the antidepressant and anti-suicidal properties of ketamine, and has been studying them since 2002. She also has a long-standing interest in the psychedelic and mystical properties of ketamine, and the potential for this medicine to be used for spiritual exploration. Dr. Bennett is the founder of KRIYA Institute and KRIYA Conference, which are both devoted to the use of ketamine in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Chief Medical Officer, ATMA Journey Centers

Dr. Ravi Bains

Dr. Bains earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology prior to studying medicine at the University of Manitoba, his home province. He completed a psychiatric residency at Dalhousie University where he went on to complete a fellowship in ISTDP ( Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy). Subsequent to graduating in 2006, he has practiced as an inpatient psychiatrist, as well as a psychotherapist. Dr. Bains has gone on to do both inpatient and outpatient work, as well as practice as a psychotherapist.

Founding Board Member of Canadian Psychedelic Association

Dr. Pamela Kryskow

Dr. Pamela Kryskow is a medical doctor with a strong interest in chronic pain, mental health and psychedelic medicine. She is a clinical instructor at UBC and adjunct professor at VIU. She is one of the founding board members of the Canadian Psychedelic Association. Dr Kryskow is actively involved in research related to psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, COVID, mental wellness and neurogenesis. She is co-investigator on the largest microdosing study Microdose.me which is ongoing with 12000+ enrolled participants. She is the medical lead on the Roots To Thrive Ketamine Assisted Therapy program that treats health care providers and first responders with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and addiction. In real life she loves hiking in the forest, ocean kayaking, growing kale and daydreaming in the hammock.

Medical Director, Kuya Institute

Dr. Dan Engle

Dr. Dan Engle specializes in Psychiatry and Neurology, with a clinical practice that combines aspects of regenerative medicine, orthomolecular psychiatry, integrative spirituality and peak performance methods.

Currently, he is Medical Director of Kuya Institute for Transformational Medicine and consultant to Onnit Labs in Austin Texas, the True Rest Float Centers in Phoenix Arizona as well as several international healing centers using indigenous plant medicines of the Peruvian Amazon River basin.

His programs include Freedom From Meds, a comprehensive and integrative tool kit for successful transition from psychiatric medications, the Concussion Repair Manual, facilitating the return to optimal function after concussion and traumatic brain injury, BOLD – Brain Optimization and Lifestyle Design – a coaching program for maximizing brain health and cognitive performance, and Full Spectrum Medicine, a research, education and advocacy platform pioneering the future psychiatric healing centers using consciousness expansion tools for root-cause healing and total life transformation.

Imam and Plant Medicine Supporter in Vancouver, B.C.

Fawad Kalsi

Devout Muslim, family man and proud father of three beautiful children. Fawadhad a life transforming experience in March 2017 when he was radically healed by the mystical healing power of Iboga at Liberty Root run by Trevor Millar. He believes Iboga is divine and sacred. As someone who never used drugs recreationally, this miracle cure came after living with chronic pancreatitis for 5+ years resulting in heavy dependence on opioids; complete failure and only solution provided by the mainstream medical system. 

Since being cured, his priority is to share his experience, create awareness within his community and support the movement of sacred plant medicine.

Opounga, "the Wind"

Mama Aline

Mama Aline was born in 1977 in Mouila, Gabon. Apart from her academic studies, she has been interested in traditional Gabonese medicine from her early childhood. She was introduced to Bwiti by healings from her spiritual mother before being properly initiated, and later went through Elombo, Mboumba Yano, Mabouni and Elogho initiations before becoming a spiritual mother herself.

Co-Founder/Director, The Sentinel Retreat Centre

Gillian Maxwell

Gillian has over two decades of experience in harm reduction and drug policy reform, is a board member for MAPS Canada and a founding board member of CPA, (Canadian Psychedelic Association).  She is the co-founder and director of The Sentinel Treatment and Wellness Centre in the West Kootenays of British Columbia. 

Founder and Chair, TheraPsil

Dr. Bruce Tobin

Dr. Tobin received his doctorate from University of Washington in 1983, specializing in philosophy of psychology. He has been in private practice psychotherapy for 35 years, specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression and emotional trauma. He taught clinical skills for 25 years at University of Victoria, where he was Adjunct Assistant Professor and a member of the Graduate Faculty. He worked under contract with Health Canada for 20 years providing psychological services to First Nations communities in the Victoria area. He is interested in the interface between psychology and spirituality, and the role that altered states of consciousness play in enhancing clinical processes.

Board Member, Canadian Psychedelic Association

Trevor Millar

Trevor Millar is a social-entrepreneur who has played a key role in advancing the psychedelic movement for nearly a decade. He has the unique perspective of having operated a business where he legally administered psychedelics to over 200 people within Canada, mostly for substance use disorder. Since May 2018 he has been on the board of directors for the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Canada, where he acted as Chair of the Board for over two years. MAPS is a non-profit organization and a leader in supporting scientific research into psychedelics. He is also currently a board member and co-founder of the Canadian Psychedelic Association.  From 2012 to 2017, Trevor was active as the founder and President of Liberty Root Therapy Inc., a business dedicated to healing and transformation by legally providing the plant medicine ibogaine to people mostly with opiate use disorder. Trevor was featured in the award-winning documentary about using magic mushrooms and Iboga to treat addiction, anxiety and depression called DOSED, which was released in 2019. He is currently the Chief Psychedelic Officer of NeonMind Biosciences Inc., a corporation dedicated to developing and commercializing products that contain legal medicinal mushrooms and those that may contain psychedelic compounds. Trevor is also on the Advisory Board of Nature Spirit Labs Inc.

Master Plant Medicine Healer

Maestro Cesar Maynas Bardales

Cesar Maynas Bardales a.k.a. Soimetsa (meaning ‘Beautiful and Well-Done Work) is a Shipibo-Konibo Onaya (medicine man) with 25 years of experience in the treatment of human malaises with medicinal plants and, in particular, the master plant Oni (Ayahuasca).

President and CEO, Mind Cure Health

Kelsey Ramsden

Kelsey Ramsden is the President and CEO of Canadian public psychedelics company Mind Cure Health Inc. She has spent her life building and scaling businesses in novel and exciting ways. She was named one of Canada’s 100 most powerful women, won Canada’s #1 female entrepreneur two years in a row, and proudly serves as a Richard Branson Centre Mentor.  Kelsey also serves on the Entrepreneurship Council for the University of Western Ontario, where she is also a faculty member teaching Design Thinking. An accomplished keynote speaker and bestselling author, Kelsey holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Psychotherapist and Author

Bruce Sanguin

Bruce Sanguin has been a Clinical Fellow with the Canadian Association of Marriage and Family Therapists for 25 years. He currently lives in Victoria, BC where he practices as a psychotherapist.  He is the author of seven books, the latest of which, Dismantled: How Love and Psychedelics Broke a Clergyman Apart and Put Him Back Together, describes his own healing journey using psychedelics in the context of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.  As well as practicing psychotherapy, Bruce is a keynote speaker at psychedelic conferences, with an active interest in the integration of spirituality and psychology.

Founder and CEO of Design House Collective

Treya Klassen

Blending deep expertise in personal transformation and communication with C-level business acumen as well as extensive knowledge of design, Treya Klassen delivers a powerful approach to engineering movements that make a difference in the world. 

As the founder and CEO of Design House Collective, she leads a team of creative strategists, artists, business philosophers, and filmmakers who design brands that transform reality and cause breakthrough results. In the last several years, her team has received dozens of awards for excellence in product innovation, brand storytelling, and design. She has helped many well-known companies and brands create trust, build followings and cause social change.

Registered Nurse and Doctor of Nursing Practice

Stephanie Hope

Stephanie Hope is a Registered Nurse and Doctor of Nursing Practice. She has practiced since 2011 in the areas of acute care oncology, hospice, and health coaching and received a Doctorate of Nursing Practice in 2019 from the University of Minnesota in the specialty of Integrative Health and Healing. Stephanie worked as a study guide for NYU’s Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, helping to guide patients through psychedelic experiences with psilocybin to address existential distress. She has published articles on psychedelics and nursing in the Journal of Holistic Nursing and the American Journal of Nursing (in press) and currently provides an introductory course for nurses on sacred medicine and psychedelic therapy. She has studied indigenous wisdom traditions for the past ten years under the guidance of her teacher and currently lives and practices within a spiritual community in upstate New York.

Psychologist and Psychedelic Researcher

Dr. Alex Belser

Dr. Alex Belser is a psychedelic researcher and psychologist at Yale University. For the last 20 years, he has been a leader in the psychedelic research community, having served as an investigator on a number of clinical trials of psilocybin and MDMA to treat depression, anxiety, substance use, OCD, PTSD, and end-of-life distress. He is the founding President of Nautilus Sanctuary, the first non-profit center for psychedelic medicine on the east coast. He serves as the Chief Clinical Officer of Adelia Therapeutics, a Cybin company and the third largest publicly traded psychedelic life sciences company. Dr. Belser’s research has been featured on the front page of the New York Times, in the Atlantic, the New Yorker, The Guardian, and in Michael Pollan’s book, How to Change Your Mind.  Dr. Belser has authored over a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters and has given over fifty lectures, presentations, and Grand Rounds about psychedelic medicine. At Yale, Dr. Belser is investigating psychedelic treatments for OCD and depression. He worked as a therapist on studies of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of severe PTSD.  Dr. Belser studied at Georgetown University, the University of Cambridge, Columbia University, New York University, and Yale University.  Dr. Belser trained at Bellevue Hospital, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, and New York Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University.

Respected Bwiti Nganga

Christian “Ghepepe” Mokambo

Christian is  of Tsogo ethnicity, is 38 years old, and was born into the Bwete having grown up in a village that practised in the Missokko tradition.  He practises the rites of  Miobe, Ngonde and Dissumba.  His combo is Ghepepe, which means oxygen or air, which is the source of life.  He says the the Bwete has taught him many things about people, life and healing.  Within the tradition, he is a very well respected healer and counsellor, helping to support people in solving personal problems and interpersonal disputes.  He is considered as a ‘Wise Man’ within his wider community. In preparing to working with Iboga or Ibogaine as a healing modality, he views the preparatory purification process as being vitally important in preparation for the work.  This includes plant baths, smoke baths and vomitivos to clean and purify the physical, energetic and emotional bodies before ingesting any form of the wood.  He feels honored to be invited to the conference, and is excited to share more of his culture.

Medical Director and member of Clinical Advisory Council of Numinus

Dr. Devon Christie

Devon is the medical director and member of the Clinical Advisory Council for Numinus Wellness Inc. She is a family physician with a focused practice in Multidisciplinary Pain Management and is a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor with an emphasis in Relational Somatic Therapy for trauma resolution. She is also a teacher in the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research post-graduate program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).

Trained to deliver MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD under MAPS USA and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, she is certified in Functional Medicine, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Interpersonal Mindfulness, and Kundalini Yoga. Equally, she is a recognized speaker and expert on the potential of incorporating psychedelic-assisted therapies in an integrated healthcare model.

Board Member of Canadian Psychedelic Association and Business / Life Coach

Sonia Stringer

Sonia Stringer is a business / life coach and professional speaker who has been involved in transformational work for over 25 years.  She started her career working with peak performance expert Anthony Robbins, before launching her own coaching/training company that serves hundreds of thousands of clients globally.  Sonia has been a passionate advocate regarding the transformational use of psychedelics and plant medicines since 1998. 

Sonia has a strong background in growing and nurturing networks and online communities. Her current focus is to serve and scale the membership of the Canadian Psychedelic Association into a powerful, engaged community that provides members educational and networking opportunities, and the opportunity to impact lives by supporting the therapeutic use of psychedelics and plant medicines in Canada.        

Clinical Psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology, UBC

Zach Walsh, Ph.D.

Zach Walsh, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, a Research Affiliate with the BC Centre on Substance Use, and an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, where he directs the Therapeutic, Recreational, and Problematic Substance Use lab.  He has published and presented widely on topics related to psychedelics, cannabis, mental health and psychotherapy. He is the lead investigator for several ongoing studies of the therapeutic use of cannabis including a clinical trial of cannabis for PTSD, and has worked clinically on trials of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Zach’s clinical focus is on the application of “third wave” mindfulness-based behavior therapies to address trauma, relationship conflict, and problematic substance use. 

Philosopher, Counsellor, Founder and CEO of Innerland Institute

Tania Fierro

Tania is a philosopher, speaker, counsellor, facilitator, Olympic athlete, and transformation specialist. Tania founded Innerland in 2003 and has been offering clients a deeply compassionate, razor-sharp awareness to get to the crux of what gets in the way of a situation. Tania is a Certified Counsellor by the American Philosophical Practitioners Association in New York. She has served as the Human Rights Director at Tibet House Mexico and The Institute for The Work of Byron Katie.

Tania co-designed a strong, consistent and successful inquiry process called IBC™ (Inquiry Based Coaching) that she applies supporting individuals, organizations and high profile corporations. She also designed and offers Immersions that involve the teaching and practice of this method combined with other modalities. Hundreds of people have gone through her trainings, in North America and Europe allowing for deep undoing of repetitive, stressful patterns that cause suffering and blocks in our lives. As a result people step into their alignment, creative and natural power in their own unique way.

Additionally throughout her life, she has fully immersed in several eastern transformational traditions such as Plant Medicine, Mahamudra, Dzogchen, and Advaita as well as a former avid dancer.

Research Therapist with MAPS

Dr. Hayden Rubensohn

Dr. Hayden Rubensohn completed medical training at the University of Calgary in 2012. He began his residency training in Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, but transferred to Internal Medicine program 2014. He completed 4 years of Internal Medicine training, followed by 2 years of subspecialty training in Palliative Medicine.

Dr. Rubensohn is a research therapist with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) since 2014 and has been involved in Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials using MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD in Vancouver.

Dr. Rubensohn’s hope is to ultimately study psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in palliative populations to address existential distress and psychospiritual suffering.

Senior Faculty with The Haven Institute

Linda Nicholls

Linda Nicholls is an elder, serving as a guide in transformational circle work for more than 35 years in North America and internationally. She is a member of the Canadian Psychedelic Association because she is keenly interested in working therapeutically with psychedelics. 

Linda has worked intimately with people of all ages and cultures with a focus on: body and energy training; breathwork; shadow work; communication; sexuality; grieving; boundaries; alternatives to depression; renewing relationships; and guiding young people into adulthood. She is Senior Faculty with The Haven Institute on Gabriola Island, BC, Canada.

Registered Nurse, Addiction Nursing Fellow with BC Centre on Substance Abuse

Benny Bloomfield

Benny Bloomfield is a Registered Nurse, an Addiction Nursing Fellow with the BC Centre on Substance Use, and the Coordinator of an Assertive Community Treatment Team with Fraser Health Authority. Benny is the co-founder of the Fraser Valley Psychedelic Society, and is building a team to bring the Roots to Thrive Resiliency and Ketamine Assisted Therapy Program to BC’s Lower Mainland. Benny was a patient partner in the first cohort of Roots to Thrive, which he describes as the most healing experience of his life.

Adjunct Clinical Affiliate, University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing, Austin, Texas

Saundra Jain, MA, PsyD, LPC

Rinzai Zen Osho (priest and teacher)

Eshu Karl Martin, Osho RCH

Eshu Karl Martin, Osho RCH is a Rinzai Zen Osho (priest and teacher) and is past Abbot of Zenwest Buddhist Society. Eshu currently maintains a clinical hypnotherapy and trancework practice at Monarch Trancework, is the Spiritual Health Coordinator at Victoria Hospice, and is a practitioner of ancestral animism.

His lifelong commitment to the positive transformation made possible by non-ordinary states of consciousness has shaped the experiential development of a skillset that bridges diverse worlds from the spiritual and ceremonial to the scientific and biomedical.

Eshu is an advocate for the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge keepers and traditional ways of working with psychedelic medicines as new models within “the system” are developed; and believes that cultural safety, trauma informed practice, and harm reduction are fundamental to making these healing therapies more widely accessible.

Canada's first patient to undergo legal psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy

Thomas Hartle

Thomas Hartle is a 53 year old husband, father, and IT professional who has been dealing with stage 4 colon cancer for the past 5 years. Faced with the typical outcome of stage 4 cancer, Thomas faced a debilitating amount of anxiety over his future and that of his family. The anxiety prompted him to explore new potential options for his treatment resistant condition.In August of 2020, Thomas became the first Canadian to legally receive psilocybin assisted psychotherapy. Since that time, he has experienced a substantial improvement in both his emotional wellbeing, and in his overall ability to once again enjoy the time he has with his family. He is currently advocating the use of this therapy while undergoing his regular cancer treatment regime.

CEO EntheoNation, Host of The Plant Spirit Summit

Lorna Liana

Lorna Liana is a media entrepreneur and full-stack internet marketer, whose hybrid career spanning high tech, social enterprise, and psychedelics inspires her to help visionary brands communicate & grow with integrity while engaging in reciprocity. 

Lorna is currently the CEO of EntheoNation, a media company covering psychedelics, modern shamanism, and visionary culture. She is also the Founder of The Plant Spirit School, an online school offering workshops, programs, and 1-to-1 mentoring to individuals and professionals in the psychedelic and plant medicine sector. Browse EntheoNation’s Online Courses here. https://members.entheonation.com/

As a full-stack internet marketer, Lorna helps psychedelic brands, startups, retreat companies, guides, integration coaches and therapists grow their business with integrity through:

• Content strategy that engages, educates & inspires
• Online marketing that attracts customers & clients
• The creation of values-aligned reciprocity programs

Over the last 20 years, Lorna’s activist work in indigenous rights and cultural preservation has brought her to:

• The highlands of Chiapas as a human rights observer in an indigenous Zapatista community, documenting the Mexican government’s campaign of low-intensity warfare against indigenous highlight communities.

• To indigenous communities in the lowlands of the Ecuadorian Amazon, to bear witness to the largest oil spill on the planet and biggest environmental lawsuit in history

• To India, Nepal, and Tibet, to distribute aid to Tibetan communities in exile, people who fled persecution by the Chinese Communist government

• A multitude of indigenous communities in restricted territories of Acre Brazil, as a guest of Huni Kuin, Yawanawá, Ashaninka, Kuntanawa, and Puyanawa tribes

Lorna grew up in the former British colony of Hong Kong, and is deeply familiar with the impact of colonization upon subjugated peoples, having lived it herself. Over 18 years of working intentionally with psychedelics for healing and personal growth, Lorna has come to understand the extent to which racial trauma pervades communities of color, especially black, brown, and indigenous communities in white-dominated, colonized countries, plus the promise of psychedelic medicine to heal this trauma. For this reason, she is committed to using her privilege to center indigenous perspectives and advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the psychedelic sector.

Chief Clinician and CEO, Wayfound

Dr. Megan McElheran, R.Psych.

Megan is a Clinical Psychologist with Wayfound. She completed graduate training at the Stanford University Clinical Psychology Consortium, during which she obtained specialized training in the treatment of PTSD through the National Center for PTSD in Menlo Park, CA. Megan has been in practice in Calgary since 2008.

Educator and Integration Coach

Christopher Gunlock, M.H.S

Christopher is an educator and integration coach, specializing in psychedelic integration and chronic metabolic illness through his platform Open Mind Integration. He’s also the executive director of the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota where he’s working to help build community around psychedelics. He has a Masters in Health Sciences in Integrative Medicine at The George Washington University and B.S. in Mathematics at The Maharishi University of Management. When he’s not working, he enjoys making electronic music and making cute animal memes about psychedelics.

Founder and Principal, Kydder Management Group Inc.

Michael Kydd

Michael is the Founder and Principal of Kydder Management Group Inc., a public affairs firm committed to innovation and bunker-busting ideas in emergent sectors across the world. Relentless and highly strategic in his approach, Michael has brought his exceptional experience in all aspects of communications and regulatory affairs to professional sports, gaming, politics, government, digital health technology, cannabis and the psychedelics sector.

He is a dedicated mental health advocate, a cancer survivor, has spoken at international conferences on reputation management and economics, provided weekly political communications commentary on major media outlets across Canada, worked with high profile clients in the U.S and Canada, instructed at the university level, and counseled multiple stakeholder groups and businesses on building strategies to inform government and shape public opinion. He holds degrees in Psychology and Public Relations, and a Professional Crisis Management certificate through the Institute for Crisis Management.

Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, Midland, Texas

Rakesh Jain, MD, MPH

Rakesh Jain, MD, MPH, attended medical school at the University of Calcutta in India. He then attended graduate school at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, where he was awarded a “National Institute/Center for Disease Control Competitive Traineeship”. He graduated from the School of Public Health in 1987 with a Masters of Public Health degree. He served a three-year residency in Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He followed that by obtaining further specialty training, by undergoing a two-year fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Research Psychiatry at the University of Texas Mental Sciences Institute, in Houston.

Executive Director, San Francisco Psychedelic Society

Danielle Negrin

Danielle Negrin is Executive Director of the San Francisco Psychedelic Society, founder of Psychedelic Recovery, on the advisory board for Project New Day and was on the founding team of Decriminalize Nature Oakland. She specializes in building conscious communities, providing education into the use and science of psychedelics, addiction recovery services and integration. Danielle is dedicated to exploring mental health, trauma recovery, personal development and overcoming substance abuse through integrative techniques with psychoactive substances. The intention of her work is to help people and communities through sacred intentional practice, to ultimately make this a better world for us all to live in. Connect with her work at psychedelicsocietysf.org

Emergency Physician and Associate Clinical Professor, UBC Dept. of Emergency Medicine

Ian Mitchell

Ian Mitchell is an Emergency Physician working in Kamloops, BC and an Associate Clinical Professor at the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine. He has worked at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is interested in harm reduction and was the physician lead for the first emergency department distribution of Take Home Naloxone kits in Canada. He is a cannabis clinician and researcher, and was the qualified investigator in an RCT of cannabis for PTSD. He has been using ketamine as part of his emergency practice for 25 years and is on the board of directors for the Ketamine Assisted Therapy Association of Canada (katacanada.org).

Master of Counselling Psychology, graduate of Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Program at Harvard

Ailey Jolie

Ailey holds a Masters of Counselling Psychology and is a graduate of the Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Program at Harvard Medical School. She has completed training in Sex Therapy at the University of Guelph and Eating Disorders at the Faculty of Medicine at the University College of London. She has trained to deliver both MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD (MAPS USA) and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, in a research setting. She has completed the requirements to be a certified Focusing Oriented Therapist, Compassionate Inquiry Practitioner and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. Her education and life experience lead to a specialized clinical focus on trauma integration, female sexuality, and body reclamation. She is also the author of ‘My Body, My Story’.

Counsellor, Founding Member, Canadian Psychedelic Association

Salimeh Tabrizi, M.Ed

Salimeh Tabrizi, M.Ed is a clinical counsellor, success coach, intuitive energy worker and plant medicine advocate who supports individuals in and out of ceremonies. As a founding member of the Canadian Psychedelic Association and the founder of the Cannabis Hemp Conference and Expo, the largest and most comprehensive Cannabis conference in Canada, she is inspired by the co-evolutionary process between humans and Entheogenic plants such as Cannabis, Ayahuasca, Psilocybin and San Pedro. She feels grateful to be part of the collective as humanity faces a pivotal point of ascension and has a chance and choice to step into complete self-healing, empowerment and responsibility for Earth stewardship and protection.

Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Field Trip Psychedelics Inc.

Ronan Levy

An entrepreneur and a visionary, Ronan is Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Field Trip Psychedelics Inc. Concurrent with his work at Field Trip, he is a partner at Grassfed Ventures, a venture capital and advisory firm focused on the cannabis and biotech industries and a Member of the Board of Directors for Trait Biosciences Inc., a leading biotech company in the hemp and cannabis industries. Prior to his current roles, Ronan co-founded Canadian Cannabis Clinics and CanvasRx Inc., the latter of which was acquired by Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) in 2016, after which he served as Senior Vice President, Business and Corporate Affairs for Aurora. Ronan started his career as a lawyer practicing corporate and securities law at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, but he’s feeling much better now. He holds a Juris Doctor and a Bachelor of Commerce degree, both from the University of Toronto.

Cannabis Facilitator, Co-Host of Cannabis Health Radio

Corrie Yelland

Corrie was diagnosed in July of 2011 with Anal Cancer and given 2-4 months to live if she did not do radiation. The doctor told her that she had a “death wish”, and that I was going to die and walked out. Since then, Corrie started to make and take Cannabis Oil. She waited a year to go back to the doctor, and was told she was cancer free.  Subsequent biopsies confirmed no trace of cancer. She said all along that if this worked, she would spend the rest of her life telling people about this, which is what she does. She receives thousands of emails and speaks with hundreds of people a week from around the world. She has played a part in saving well over 1,000 lives worldwide and those are just the ones she is aware of as many people don’t follow up, and then she will hear through the grapevine they are cancer free. The youngest person she has had the pleasure of seeing through to cancer free was 2 months old. The eldest was 86. As well as continuing to do this work, 12-14 hours a day,  7 days a week, she also co-hosted a podcast, with Ian Jessop, called Cannabis Health Radio 5 days a week, interviewing patients who have used cannabis to cure or assist in their various health conditions, as well as experts in the field.

Member of Parliament, Beaches-East York

Nathaniel (Nate) Erskine-Smith

Nathaniel (Nate) Erskine-Smith is the Member of Parliament for Beaches-East York.

He sits on the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.

He also sits on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) as past president. In his role as President, he has represented Canada at parliamentary conferences around the world.

His speeches in the House of Commons and interventions at committee can be found here.

Nate regularly attends events around Beaches-East York, volunteers his time in support of local charitable activities, and visits local schools to talk to young Canadians about the importance of participating in the democratic process.

Nate became the M.P. on October 19, 2015, after a successful grassroots open nomination in December 2014.

In June 2016, CBC News’ Aaron Wherry wrote about the importance of independence in the House of Commons, and Nate’s relatively independent streak.

In July 2016, Althia Raj from the Huffington Post wrote a longer profile piece in which Nate explained his voting record, and general philosophy on free votes.

And in September 2016, the Star’s Susan Delacourt wrote about his work in parliament, and the idealism he brings to the job.

Nate has strong roots in Beaches-East York, where he was raised and has lived most of his life. Nate attended Bowmore and Malvern, grew up playing baseball at Ted Reeve and Stan Wadlow, and his parents Sara Erskine and Lawrence Smith are well respected local teachers. Nate lives in the riding with his wife Amy, a chef and nutrition professor at George Brown College, and the director of the supper club program at Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto. They have two sons, Mackinlay, born in 2016, and Crawford, born in 2019.

Before politics, Nate was a lawyer at a commercial litigation firm downtown Toronto. He supplemented his practice with volunteer legal work for a range of clients and causes, which included fighting public interest matters in court, and research for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

He obtained his B.A. (Politics) and J.D. (Law) from Queen’s University, where he pitched for the varsity baseball team. After working at a large Bay Street law firm and being called to the bar, Nate obtained his B.C.L. (Master of Laws), with distinction, from the University of Oxford where he studied political philosophy and constitutional law, and pitched for both the University and City baseball teams.

Adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, School of Public and Population Health

Mark Haden

Mark Haden is an Adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, School of Public and Population Health.
As the past Executive Director of MAPS Canada (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), he has published on the issue of drug control policy and psychedelics in the following Journals: Canadian Journal of Public Health, International Journal of Drug Policy, Encyclopaedia of Public Health, Harm Reduction Journal, Open Medicine, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, and the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Mark teaches in the UBC school of medicine (Population and Public Health), obtained an MSW from UBC and worked for the Addiction Services for 28 years in counselling and supervisory roles. He has provided public education on drugs and drug policy for over 30 years and works with the Health Officers Council of British Columbia on their position papers on the issue of a regulated market for all currently illegal drugs.

He has presented in conferences and training events in many countries and was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for drug policy reform work in 2013.

Event and Media Producer, Writer, Connector and Advisor

Mike Margolies

Mike Margolies is a psychedelic community catalyst and conversation creator. He is the Founder of Psychedelic Seminars (psychsems.com), an educational conversation series, and co-founder of the CryptoPsychedelic Summit. Mike started the Baltimore Psychedelic Society and has sparked and mentored similar groups around the world from San Francisco to DC to Portugal. He has contributed to a number of other projects as an event and media producer, writer, connector, and advisor.

Research & Operations Manager at Maya PBC

Jessica Cadoch, M.A

Jessica has recently completed her master’s degree in Medical Anthropology at McGill University, is the former Executive Director of the Montreal Psychedelic Society, and is the Research & Operations Manager at Maya PBC. Her master’s research explores the implications involved in a shifting paradigm around psychedelic substances. She pays particular attention to the ethics involved in integrating this new approach to managing mental illness into conventional and dominant ones, particularly in looking at twelve-step-based models of recovery from addiction. Beyond her research interests, Jessica contributes significantly to the psychedelic community through on-the-ground initiatives such as the psychedelic society, and other collectives that are still in the works. 

Health Professional-Investigator

Dr. Shannon Dames

Shannon serves as a Health Professional Investigator with a focus on resilience development and medicine-assisted therapies.   As a byproduct of her doctoral work that focused on the core factors that promote human flourishing, she is now spearheading the ongoing development of Roots to Thrive (RTT), a resilience focused community of practice and the integration of psychedelic-assisted therapies (RTT-KaT).

Executive Director of the Canadian Psychedelic Association

Cory Firth

Cory is a former media agency founder and human impact entrepreneur with 10+ years of experience in communications, brand strategy, business design, functional health and human optimization. As a plant medicine advocate for over 15 years, Cory is passionate about supporting the CPA in its efforts to advance the decriminalization and legalization movement in Canada. Cory joins the CPA in pursuit of expanding alliances with local, national and international partners with the intention to unite the psychedelic community nationwide and to nurture a foundation for safe, ethical and responsible use of plant medicines in Canada.

Cory has committed his career to a vision of the future where mental health and disease are viewed as holistic, collective experiences and the shame and stigmatization of our communities are replaced with compassion and connection. A future where Canada inspires the world with its ability to accept, support and provide opportunities for all of its people to reunite with our innate abilities to heal, overcome and actualize our full potential.

CEO, Microdose Psychedelic Insights

Patrick Moher

Patrick Moher is an industrious entrepreneur working in Psychedelics, currently the CEO at Microdose Psychedelic Insights. As a passionate and unapologetic environmentalist, his relentless work ethic has directly translated to previous success in his photography career, as well as founding Ethical Image and Goodwood Accessories, co-founding UCannAcademy & and becoming a partner at ADCANN.

Patrick is focused on helping companies combine creativity, CSR, and sustainable profits. He has a dynamic ability to unite individuals across social and corporate spectrums to create unique business solutions. His dedication to community service has seen him actively collaborate with many volunteer organizations, photograph 100’s of events/portraits/weddings, & sponsor the planting of over 20,000 trees (and counting).

Physician, Writer, Teacher, Psychedelic Facilitation Instructor

Dr. Erica Zelfand

Dr. Erica Zelfand is a licensed family physician specializing in functional medicine and integrative mental health. Blending conventional pharmaceutical medicine with nutrition, herbal medicine, counseling, psycho-spiritual work, and other therapies gleaned from her international travels, Dr. Z’s philosophy of healing aims to nourish the whole person. She is also a medical writer teacher, psychedelic facilitation instructor, and the mastermind behind The Science of Psychedelics (https://scienceofpsychedelics.com), an online training for healthcare providers and empowered individuals alike.

President of the Psychedelic Medicine Association, Host of the Plant Medicine Podcast, Founder of Plant Medicine.org

Lynn Marie Morski, MD, JD

Lynn Marie Morski, MD, JD is the president of the Psychedelic Medicine Association, host of the Plant Medicine Podcast, the founder of Plant Medicine.org, and the medical director for Way of Leaf.com. 
Dr. Morski received her medical degree from Saint Louis University School of Medicine, did her family medicine residency at Mayo Clinic, and completed a sports medicine fellowship at the University of Arizona. She received her law degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law and is a member of the California Bar. 
Following fellowship, she spent nine years as a physician at the Veterans Administration. Her biggest frustration during her years working for the federal government at the VA was that she was unable to discuss the benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy she knew could help the veterans she was serving. After leaving the VA in 2019, she made it her mission to help educate her fellow physicians on the plant medicines and entheogens that could bring life-changing relief to their patients.
In furtherance of this mission, she started the Plant Medicine Podcast and Plant Medicine.org in 2019, and she and her team founded the Psychedelic Medicine Association in 2020 to formally educate healthcare professionals on psychedelic medicines.

Board-Certified Physician in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Sunil Aggarwal, MD, PhD, FAAPMR

Sunil Aggarwal, MD, PhD, FAAPMR is a Board-Certified Physician in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is the Past Chair of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) Integrative Medicine Special Interest Group, an inaugural member of the Safe Use of Psychedelic Assisted Therapies Forum and was recently named as a Top 20 Emerging Leader by the AAHPM. He is an Affiliate Assistant Clinical Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, and an Affiliate Clinical Faculty with Bastyr University.  He completed his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Washington (Global Health Pathway) and Residency and Fellowship at Virginia Mason Medical Center, NYU Langone Health, and the NIH Clinical Center. He is a Co-founder, Co-director and practitioner at the Advanced Integrative Medical Science (AIMS) Institute in Seattle, WA, a multispecialty teaching clinic and research institute offering cutting edge care in oncology, psychiatry, neurology, rehabilitation, pain, and palliative care.  He also serves as an Associate Hospice Medicine Director and On-Call Palliative Physician for MultiCare Health System.

Panelist, Psychedelic Transformation Stories

Tanis Rose Oldenburger

I have struggled with substance use disorder since I was a teenager, on top of that I have multiple concurrent mental health diagnoses that have exacerbated my addictions. Over the last decade I have struggled to stay alive, my physical and mental wellbeing having been crippled due to severe opioid use disorder at the height of the fentanyl crisis.The intervention of traditional residential treatment centres has saved my life in several occasions, and the tools I learned in these settings are invaluable however I experienced frustration and judgement in the environment created by main stream addiction services.I came to understand that due to my unique character that in order to succeed in my recovery and I’ll have to save my own life, I needed to find a treatment path that was as authentic as my personality and my values.I am beyond blessed to have the family support that I do have as I truly believe this has been a key factor in keeping me alive and inevitably getting me clean and sober. Then, through my authentic curiosity, I was able to find the Canadian Psychedelic Association and network with both treatment and integration powerhouses; Trevor and Salimeh. The support and guidance I have received through my journey with plant medicine and the spiritual modalities I have been introduced to by these two has been an absolutely life-changing transformation and true rebirth that has had a profound positive effect on not only my life but on the lives of my family and loved ones as well.

Chief Strategy Officer & Founder at Numinus

Stacey Wallin

Stacey is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Numinus Wellness (TSX-V: NUMI), a company that empowers people to heal and be well through the development and delivery of innovative mental health care and access to safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies. Stacey Wallin is also the Founder and Executive Director of CAIN (the Canadian Accelerator Incubator Network Association), an non-profit society made up of 130+ influential Canadian accelerators and incubators who create one voice for the innovation ecosystem through collaboration, education, and connection and represent Canada coast to coast (all 10 provinces, plus the Yukon). Prior to Numinus, Stacey was the Director of Venture Programs for the BC Tech Association, leading a team with a mandate of solving the largest ecosystem and policy-related challenges facing growth and scale stage technology companies through designing scale accelerators and other solutions. Stacey was also the former founder and CEO of LifeBooster, a tech startup now helping Fortune 100 clients detect and proactively respond to workplace injury risks, and started her career in the investment banking industry as a licensed investment professional. Stacey is passionate about solving the world’s largest problems through social impact innovation and community mobilization while leveraging her background in founding and growing companies and in the non-profit, policy and ecosystem development, and investment banking spaces. 

Founder and Coach, Waves Peer Coaching

Peter Gulka

For more than 15 years, Peter has worked to enable charities to achieve their fundraising goals through improving processes and technology. As an employee, consultant, or friend, Peter has worked with over 100 organizations across Canada and the United States with the shared vision of improving the lives of people in need. His personal experiences with psychedelics, psychotherapy, mindfulness meditation and other modalities have been a core part of his recovery from past trauma. He seeks to nurture and give back to the community that has been so supportive to him, and to that end has signed the NorthStar Ethics Pledge.

Founder, Kingston Psychedelic Society

Rich Tyo

Rich Tyo is a psychotherapist, psychedelic advocate, musician, and father. He has 14 years of experience in the front line mental health and addictions field. He has trained in various modalities of psychedelic therapy and does psychedelic harm reduction and integration groups. He founded the Kingston Psychedelic Society in 2015. He has presented internationally on shadow work, micro-dosing, and somatic trauma resolution.

Science Comedy Writer, Co-Founder of Hello SciCom

Sarah Rose Siskind

Sarah Rose Siskind is a science comedy writer based in New York City. She’s the co-founder of Hello SciCom, a company that combines science communication and comedy to help STEM Professionals get their message across. Sarah is also a psychedelic standup comedian (which means she’s only funny when you’re on psychedelics) and her show Drug Test was written up in The New Yorker. She has a regular column about Psychedelics in Psychology Today.

Program Director, ATMA Journey Centers Inc.

Natalie Harder

Natalie has a deep passion for creating spaces for people to feel safe and open for personal transformation.  Her experiences as an on-air radio personality, years as an on-air television journalist producing and directing a weekly show as well as contributing to a daily live program for a national television station, allowed her to witness literally hundreds of peoples individual stories.  In addition to these public roles, she managed multiple television station locations, designed and oversaw studio expansions, managed a program for artists and musicians with an international humanitarian organization, after which she started and ran her own successful company focussed on personal health and wellness for 6 years.  She is thrilled to bring her skill set and experience to ATMA as this fits into the very centre of her passion.

Co-CEO and Co-Founder, ATMA Journey Centers Inc.

David Harder

David has worked full-time for the past 5 years in researching, advocating and moving the work of non-ordinary state therapy and psychedelic medicine forward in Canada. He co-founded and led Catalyst Presents, a Psychedelic Research Conference, and SYNTAC Institute, a Canadian non-profit dedicated to bringing psychedelic-assisted therapy to Canadians which was successful in achieving one of Canada’s first modern legal exemptions to undertake psychedelic-assisted work. With a Master’s degree in religious studies and having been both a college professor and international humanitarian relief worker, David has always dedicated himself to the service of others. He brings a deep experience and reverence for psychedelic medicine and believes that it will play a key role in bringing healing to humanity.

Founder, Speak.AI

Tyler Bryden

Tyler Bryden is a passionate entrepreneur, speaker, psychedelics advocate and avid learner that builds technology, techniques and communities to help individuals and teams reach their full potential personally and professionally.

A graduate of Western University and Fanshawe College, Tyler studied interactive media and the effects of accelerating technology in people’s lives and businesses.

After graduating, Tyler started his first company SixFive in 2015 to help businesses and nonprofits amplify their story and drive support, leads, and sales through marketing, workshop facilitation, and technology implementations.

Seeing gaps in his own personal and professional life, as well as his clients at SixFive, Tyler incorporated a second company called Speak Ai.  Speak Ai’s mission is to harness this information from language to improve awareness, well-being and productivity.

To achieve that, Tyler and the team develop novel technology and techniques to capture, extract and share insights from conversations, content, webpages, journals, notes, research, media and more.

Tyler personally supports MAPS Canada, the Canadian Psychedelic Association and other organizations in the space. He also started the Forest City Psychedelic Community in London, Ontario to bring together people to inform, inspire and heal.

Founder, The LUCID Project

Aaron Labbé

I’m an award-winning artist, engineer and entrepreneur from Toronto, Canada, specializing in the convergence of science and creativity. I am passionate about creating disruptive experiences and solutions through various mediums, including sound, music, interactive media and computational design, with patents in audio engineering, machine learning and psychoacoustics.

My works have been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Wallifornia MusicTech Festival, Sonar+D Festival, the Ontario Science Centre, the Phi Centre, Nuit Blanche TO, and various other spaces across North America and Europe.

In 2016, I started the LUCID project, which has since grown into a tech startup working at the intersection of music, machine learning and mental health, where I serve as the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.

Founder, SOMA Breathwork

Niraj Naik

Niraj Naik is ex-pharmacist turned holistic health expert, founder of international school of breathwork Soma Breath. After working for several years as a community pharmacist, he found himself a patient of stress-related depression and ulcerative colitis, where conventional treatments no longer worked. So he embarked on a journey of profound self-healing and re-education.

Known internationally as the ‘Renegade Pharmacist’, Niraj is dedicated to educating others on topics of holistic health, breathwork, yoga, meditation, and more.

Niraj has created many other brands related to health and healing, and has featured in articles from multiple news outlets across the world such as Yoga Magazine, Forbes, The Guardian, and Huffpost.

Psychiatry Resident, Stanford Hospital

Dr. Gianni Glick

Gianni Glick is a psychiatry resident at Stanford Hospital with a long-standing interest in psychedelic-assisted treatments.  He created the Stanford Psychedelic Science Group and taught “Intro to Psychedelic Medicine” at the university and medical school for the last two years.  He is part of a growing movement of trainees from across the country conspiring to legitimize thoughtful exploration of psychedelic-assisted therapies for the treatment of human suffering.

Bwiti Technician and Assistant Interpreter

Joëlle Studer

Originally from Switzerland, Joelle came to Gabon to support Ebando and Tatayo in every aspect of his work. Fascinated by ethnobotany and the Bwiti tradition, she wants to help communicate and to better inform the world about this beautiful tradition. She speaks French, English, Thai and German.

Founder, Ebando Association for Nature, Culture and Future

Tatayo

Tatayo first came to Gabon in 1971 at the age of 21 and became a Gabonese citizen and settled in Libreville. He was the first white person to be initiated into the Bwiti Fang tradition in Gabon in 1979, and was later initiated into the Misokko traditions in 1994. Some would say that Tatayo has since “opened the door” to westerners in Gabon, and has served as a guide for numerous expeditions and missions including National Geographic, the BBC, and many others. He co-founded his first Gabonese NGO in 1981, which has since lead to the creation of Ebando in 1999, and is recognized as a healer and a Nima, someone who has freed and detached himself. Having initiated more than 350 banzis (initiates), he has supported hundreds of local people, or, he has indirectly supported thousands of local people, leaving a substantial positive footprint along the way. More information can be found at www.ebando.org.

Medical Doctor, Consultant

Dr. Julia Mirer MD

Dr. Julia Mirer MD is a consultant in the emerging field of psychedelic medicine, serving as a bridge between eastern and western practices, committed to merging the two in order to help create a new paradigm for integrative health and wellness. She was on the road to a career in Pediatrics, but seeing the pitfalls of the current healthcare system, decided to shift gears to explore transformative medicine where she has found her calling in advocacy and education.

Director, Global Drug Policy Program, Open Society Foundations, New York

Dr. Kasia Malinowska

Kasia Malinowska is the director of the Global Drug Policy Program at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which promotes drug policies rooted in human rights, social justice, and public health. She previously led the OSF’s International Harm Reduction Development program, which supports the health and human rights of people who use drugs.

Malinowska publishes regularly on drug policy as it relates to women, social justice, health, human rights, civil society, and governance. Her academic publications include works in the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, and the International Journal on Drug Policy. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on “HIV among Drug Users in Poland: The Paradoxes of an Epidemic.”  Her extensive policy knowledge provides guidance to the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

Malinowska holds an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and a DrPH from Columbia University.

Councillor, City of Vancouver

Pete Fry

Pete Fry sits on Vancouver City council and has lived in Vancouver since immigrating to Canada as a child, He has a background in community development, advocacy, and communications. A first-term councillor, he is committed to a more open government, collaborative community engagement, and a thriving and resilient city comprised of complete and equitable communities. 

In his professional life, Councillor Fry has worked with hundreds of local small businesses, arts and non-profits; volunteered his skills to support AIDS-relief, food security, animal welfare, cultural groups, and fighting climate change; served as a frequent public speaker on issues of land use, housing, heritage, and community.

Inspector Phil Heard, Organized Crime, Vancouver Police Department

Phil Heard

Inspector Phil Heard has been a member of the Vancouver Police Department for 20 years. He is currently the Inspector of the Vancouver Police Department’s Organized Crime Section.

Phil is currently the Vancouver Police Department’s representative on the Working Group that seeks to obtain an exemption from Health Canada to decriminalize the personal possession of drugs in Vancouver.  

Phil is an accredited Team Commander in major investigations in British Columbia. He served for five years in the Homicide Unit where he led files to convictions for all levels of culpable homicide.  Prior to this, Phil served in the Sex Crimes Unit where he led several high profile cases to conviction and was a member of the Forensic Interview Team.

Phil holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Master of Business Administration from the University of British Columbia.