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Chacruna Institute
Latest posts by Chacruna Institute (see all)

People of color have been critical in advancing psychedelic healing in science, policy, and the community yet they are often relegated to behind the scenes invisible positions. Chacruna recognizes that people of color make difference in these vital areas. We have composed a list that represents only a fraction of many dedicated people of color whose voices are often unheard due to stigma and exclusion. These accomplished individuals are available for media interviews, speaking engagements, conferences, lectures and so forth. Do check back in as we will be updating this list regularly and on a rotating basis.

Kwasi Adusei is a psychiatric doctor of nursing practice and the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York. While managing the Psychedelic Society, he led the development of the Sanctuary Project, a grassroots psychedelic harm reduction program modeled after the Zendo Project. Additionally, he organized events like the Global Psychedelic Month of Service and the Global Psychedelic Earth Day Cleanup. He is also on the Psychedelics Today advisory board and a trainee in the MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy training for people of color. 

Area: Community, Harm Reduction, Psychiatry

Selected Publications:

Popular Press:

Links:
psychonautsoftheworld.com

Contact: [email protected]

Ismail Lourido Ali is Policy & Advocacy Counsel for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), where he supports the development and implementation of strategies to create legal access to psychedelic substances in medical, sacramental, and personal contexts. Ismail is licensed to practice law in the state of California, and presently sits on Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants. Ismail has previously served as Chair of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) Board of Directors, and has worked for the ACLU of Northern California’s Criminal Justice & Drug Policy Project, as well as for the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where he received his J.D. 

Area: Advocacy, Community

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations: 

Popular Press:

Links:
www.maps.org
www.ssdp.org
http://ayahuascadefense.com/

Contact: [email protected], [email protected]

Camille Barton

Camille Barton is an artist, writer, and cultural somatics educator, working at the intersections of wellness, drug policy, and transformative justice. Camille is the director of the Collective Liberation Project and the creator of a trauma informed approach to diversity and decolonization work that centers the body and lived experience. Camille works as an advisor for MAPS, ensuring that MDMA psychotherapy will be accessible to communities of color, most harmed by the war on drugs. They work closely with Release in the UK on drug policy reform, and in 2018 co-produced RE:GENERATE, an arts festival on drug policy, racial justice and liberation. Camille was the project manager of the Psychedelic Medicine and Cultural Trauma Workshop, hosted by MAPS as a precursor to the first MDMA Psychotherapy training for therapists of color in 2019. Camille has written for Vice, Talking Drugs, the MAPS Bulletin, and DoubleBlind on drug policy & racial justice. They have presented on these issues at conferences including Psychedelic Science (2007), The International Drug Policy Reform Conference (2017 & 2019), and Harm Reduction International (2019).

Area: Harm reduction, racial justice, access and inclusion.

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Links: www.camillebarton.co.uk

Contact: [email protected]

Chor Boogie, a.k.a. Joaquin Lamar Hailey, is a critically acclaimed spraypaint artist. His visionary murals and art exhibitions have appeared all over the globe at museums, galleries, and public events. Chor also serves as a consultant and facilitator for interactive art installations, creativity workshops, and flow state exploration. In 2017, he was awarded the role of lead artist in an NEA grant with the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, to mentor a group of underserved high school art students through a professional-level mural project. In 2014, Chor experienced a profound soul healing within a traditional Bwiti ceremony using the medicine of his ancestors, iboga, a powerful visionary sacred plant medicine from Africa. He then traveled to Africa to experience the traditional Bwiti initiation, rite of passage, and immersive healer training. Chor integrates traditional African imagery and elements of his iboga visions in select contemporary works, visually transmitting the very heart of the medicine and the Bwiti culture of healing. Chor is passionate about including the voices of indigenous relations and teachers in the global psychedelic renaissance. 

Area: Arts, Community, Spirituality 

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Links:
www.chorboogie.com

Contact: [email protected]

NiCole T. Buchanan, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University and Clinical Director and Founder of Alliance Psychological Associates, PLLC. She serves on the inaugural Board of Directors of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association and the Board of Directors and the Racial Equity and Access Committee for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicine. Dr. Buchanan has trained with MAPS’ MDMA-assisted therapy, the CIIS’ Certificate for Psychedelic Research and Therapy, and the Polaris Insight Center’s Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy training. She is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, four separate divisions of the American Psychological Association, and has received numerous national and international awards for her research, teaching, clinical work, and professional service. She is an accomplished speaker, writer, and scholar, with more than one hundred journal articles, book chapters, and research reports focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion, workplace behaviors and their impact on organizational climate, employee well-being, and professional development. Her work has been highlighted in hundreds of media outlets including CBS News, the Huffington Post, and Essence Magazine and she has been a featured speaker for several programs including TEDx and National Public Radio (NPR).

Area: Psychology

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations:

  • Buchanan, N. T., Settles, I. H., & Dotson, K. (2018, July). Epistemic exclusion: Academic hazing of faculty of color. Paper presented at the biannual meeting of APA’s Society for the Psychological Study of Culture Ethnicity and Race (Div. 45), Austin, TX. https://youtu.be/jY0owXj2WEw
  • Buchanan, N. T. (2017, April). Excising a virus of the mind: Individual and institutional responsibility for reducing implicit bias. Invited presentation for TEDxMSU at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. https://youtu.be/b5UUBPA1-FU
  • Buchanan, N. T. (2016, January). Bias and its role in social inequity. Invited presentation for the symposium, Sharper Focus, Wider Lenson The Nature of Inequality, Michigan State University Honor’s College. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6zxPCGI64A

Links:
https://drnicoletbuchanan.com/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/nicole-t-buchanan-alliance-psychological-associates-pllc-east-lansing-mi/179963
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nicole_Buchanan

Contact: [email protected]

Interview in Chacruna logo
Victor Alfonso Cabral

Victor Alfonso Cabral is a collaborative and strategic leader who is committed to making an impact on historical inequalities in his community and across the United States. Victor serves as the Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs for Fluence Training, a company that provides evidence-based training in psychedelic-assisted therapy and psychedelic harm reduction and integration services (PHRI) to clinicians across the world. Before joining Fluence, Victor served as Deputy Director for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of Advocacy and Reform where he co-led the implementation of the Trauma-Informed Pennsylvania Plan, helped establish the first Racial Day of Healing in Pennsylvania history, and developed free trauma trainings for Pennsylvanians in collaboration with internationally recognized experts. He has expertise in policy and advocacy, BIPOC mental health, racial and communal trauma, and psychedelic medicine. Victor is Licensed Social Worker and practicing psychotherapist in Pennsylvania with training in Internal Family Systems, psychedelic-assisted therapy and psychedelic harm reduction and integration. He is listed on Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s list of “40 Under 40 Outstanding BIPOC Leaders in Drug Policy in the United States” for his work in psychedelic policy and received the 2022 Emerging Social Work Leader Award from the National Association of Social Workers.

Area: Community Activist, Social Work, Policy & Advocacy, Creative Strategy

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-a-cabral-msw-lsw-cctp-i-25455170/

www.PictureAColorfulWorld.com

www.fluencetraining.com

Contact: Personal: Victor@CabralConsulting. US/Professional: [email protected]

Marca Cassity has over twenty years of experience in the healing arts, working with renowned therapists, spiritual teachers, artists, academics, and medicine people from around the world. After completing a BSN at the University of Oklahoma and working as an emergency room nurse for several years, their journey as a therapist began overcoming their own trauma and cultivating resilience as a two spirit, queer, mixed-race Native American who grew up on the Osage reservation of Oklahoma. In addition to a depth of personal work, and study of trauma-focused therapies, Marca has found healing in Peyote ceremony of the Native American Church, and for the last eighteen years has been deeply involved with ayahuasca healing and integration work. Their clinical training was at the Native American Health Center of San Francisco, with additional training at the Indian Country Child Trauma Center at the University of Oklahoma studying under Dr. Dolores Bigfoot. A critically acclaimed songwriter Marca delivers inspired folk rock spirit songs with Native nuances, that speak to overcoming hardship through resilience, in connection to nature, humor, love, compassion, spirituality, and heritage. Marca works as a therapist in private practice in Portland, Oregon. They sit on the advisory board on diversity for the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and are completing training in MDMA assisted therapy. 

Area: Counseling & community

Popular Press:

Links:
www.cassitycounseling.com

Contact: [email protected]

Terence Ching is a US-based Chinese Singaporean currently completing his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Connecticut (UConn). As a function of his clinical and research training, as well as his personal lived experiences, Terence has academic and clinical interests in the intersections between obsessive-compulsive and related disorders; anxiety disorders; stress, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder; cultural diversity based in race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, etc.; and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Terence has also assumed a co-therapist role in a prior MAPS-sponsored trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD, in which he infused the research process with culturally-informed recruitment and assessment procedures. Terence is currently working on his doctoral dissertation, with an emphasis on examining possible differences in efficacy of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD between White participants and participants of color across MAPS-sponsored study sites. Terence will also supplement his dissertation scope with a mixed-methods case study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in a participant of color, with the goal of uncovering novel mechanisms of therapeutic change via qualitative analysis.

Area: Psychology

Selected Publications:

  • Ching, T. H. W., Lee, S. Y., Chen, J., So, R. P., & Williams, M. T. (2018). A model of intersectional stress and trauma in Asian American sexual and gender minorities. Psychology of Violence, 8(6), 657– 668. doi:10.1037/vio0000204 
  • Ching, T. H. W. (in press). Intersectional insights from an MDMA-assisted psychotherapy training trial: An open letter to racial/ethnic and sexual/gender minorities. Journal of Psychedelic Studies.

Selected Presentations:

  • Ching, T. H. W., Williams, M. T., Kisicki, M. D., Reed, S. J., & George, J. R. (2017, November). MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant PTSD: MAPS-sponsored Phase 2 findings & cultural considerations for Phase 3 trials.Poster presented at the 2017 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Convention, San Diego, CA. 
  • Williams, M. T., Reed, S. J., Ching, T. H. W., George, J. R., & Wetterneck, C. T. [discussant] (2018, November). Psychedelic therapy for people of color. Panel presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Washington, DC
  • Ching, T. H. W. (2019, August). MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for participants of color with PTSD: Does it work?  Presentation at the MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Training for Therapists of Color, Louisville, KY.

Links:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Terence_Ching
https://today.uconn.edu/2018/05/mdma-opens-door-ptsd-patients-work-trauma/

Contact: [email protected]

Dawn D. Davis calls herself a Newe, an enrolled member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. She is an Indigenous researcher who has spent over a decade focusing on the declining populations of peyote (Lophophora williamsii) in southwestern Texas. She brings unique insight to the field by sharing her Indigenous perspective and her knowledge as a member of the Native American Church (NAC). Her research includes inquiry into sustainable practices of peyote and examining peyote populations in North America using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to determine the existing and potential habitat. Dawn’s work offers recommendations for policy and environmental practices by peyotists and members of the NAC. Her research has been shared among Indigenous, academic, ethnobotanical, and psychedelic audiences nationally and internationally. Dawn is also knowledgeable on water policy within the state of Idaho, particularly as it applies to Federal Indian Water Rights.  Additionally, she is Co-Editor of the Journal of Native Sciences, an online publication focused on Indigenous research, where individuals can share, access information, and humbly offer strategies for issues facing Indigenous, Aborigine, American Indian, and First Nations peoples. She is also the CEO of BigTree Environmental LLC, which provides a wide variety of environmental, anthropological, and social science services. 

Area: Conservation and community

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations:

  • Davis, D. D. (2017, April). Conservation strategies for sustainability of the peyote gardens: What is the indigenous approach? Oral Presentation at Psychedelic Science 2017 Conference, Oakland, CA.   

Popular Press:

Links:
https://www.bigtreellc.org/
https://www.nativesciences.com/about.html
https://www.facebook.com/indigenousresearcher

Contact: [email protected]

Belinda Eriacho is a from the Diné (Navajo) and Ashwii (Zuni Pueblo) lineages.  He maternal clan is Honágháahnii (One-Walks-Around) and was born for the Naasht’ézhí (Zuni Pueblo) people.  Her maternal grandparents clan are Dibe lizhiní (Black Sheep) and her paternal grandparents are Naasht’ézhí (Zuni Pueblo). She is the child of the Mula:kwe (Macaw Parrot) on parental side. Belinda was born and raised on the Navajo reservation.  She holds degrees in Health Sciences, Public Health, and in Technology. As an adult Belinda journeyed through her own inner and physical healing. She then recognized her gifts as a healer and her true calling.

Area: Native American education and healing; Community

Selected Presentations:

  • Eriacho, B. (2019, August). Native American Legacy: Intergenerational Trauma. Presentation at the MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Training for Therapists of Color, Louisville, KY.
  • Eriacho, B. (2019, February).  Native American herbalism: Diné perspective. Presentation at the 2019 Psychedelic Conference in Tempe, AZ.
  • Eriacho, B., & Slim, D. (2018) Diné philosophy, The cycles of life and the role in healing. Presentation at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, AZ.
  • Eriacho, B. (in press). Considerations for psychedelic therapists when working with Native American people and communities. Journal of Psychedelic Studies.  

Popular Press:

Links:  
www.kaalogii.com

Contact: [email protected]

Dr. Sonya Faber graduated with a Masters in Neurobiology from Brown University after completing her undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania. She continued her graduate studies at New York University earning a PhD in molecular genetics with a thesis concentration in signal transduction. Over the course of the last 15 years, she has had the opportunity and privilege to contribute equally to both academic research institutes and commercial pharmaceutical development. She has worked in clinical operations for companies including, IQVIA, Covance and Sanofi-Aventis. Her interests lie in creating innovative solutions for projects which could benefit both patients and the scientific community, in part by connecting with top scientists, industry and regulatory agencies.In her academic roles, she assessed novel ideas and supported scientists in making these commercially viable while contributing to several original grants and research papers and patents. Her interest in protocol design, medical writing and project management, which she utilized in both pharma and biotech firms, included pre-clinical and clinical activities for phase II and III trials across multiple indications. She has a special interest in training the next generation of clinical researchers and has designed courses to teach scientific writing and Good Clinical Practice. Dr. Faber is member of the Board Directors of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and serves on Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee. Her engagement on Chacruna is on a volunteer basis and is based on her personal interest in the science of psychedelics, which has long been an interest of hers before taking her current position at Angelini Pharma. In the past two years, she has started an international collaboration with researchers at the University of Ottawa in Canada on several projects in the area of mental health disparities and social justice. She also served on the steering committee for the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association.

Selected Publications:

  • Smith, D.T., Faber, S.C., Buchanan, N.T., Foster, D., & Green, L. (2022). The Need for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy in the Black Community and the Burdens of Its Provision. Front Psychiatry 12:774736. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.774736.
  • Jahn, Z. W., Lopez, J., de la Salle, S., Faber, S., & Williams, M. T. (2021). Racial/Ethnic differences in prevalence for hallucinogen use by age cohort: Findings from the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 5(2), 69-82. https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2021.00166.
  • Nepton. A., Farahani, H., Williams, M., & Faber, S. (under review). Genetic and epigenetic regulation of serotonergic pathway genes and the role of ketamine.

Selected Presentations:

  • Faber, S. C. & Smith, D. (2022, May 29). The Need for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy in the Black Community and the Burdens of its Provision Burdens of Provision. From Research to Reality (R2R) Global Summit on Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and Medicine, Toronto, ON, Canada.
  • Faber, S. C. & Williams, M. T. (2022, August 10). Microaggressions in Research Spaces. IDEA Seminar. Max Planck Institute. Munich, Germany.
  • Faber, S. C. (2022, September 22-24). The Importance of Cultural Competency and Anti-Racist Education for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy — Understanding Aversive Racism. [Invited speaker] Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR), Haarlem/Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Links:
www.sonyafaber.com

Contact: [email protected]

Dr. Charles Flores LPCC, LAADC-S, CEO of Vital Puma Integral Recovery, is a California licensed and nationally certified psychotherapist, and a state and internationally certified advanced drug and alcohol counselor who has practiced in multiple settings in the field of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders for over 25 years. He has directed several multi-million dollar substance abuse and mental health treatment programs in the Bay Area. He is currently the Psychedelics and Addictions Fellow for the CIIS Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research. He is also professor of Chemical Dependency Studies at California State University, East Bay and has taught psychology at John F. Kennedy University and several other universities for the past 15 years. Dr. Flores is a Board Director of the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals, where he serves on the Executive and Legislative Committees. Originally hailing from the South Bronx, Dr. Flores obtained his BA from Vassar College in International Studies and Philosophy, his MS in Counseling Psychology at Fordham University, and gained additional training and certifications in Family Counseling in Iona College, the Ackerman Institute, Gestalt Associates, Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, Sophia University, and his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Integral Studies in multicultural, humanistic, and spiritual psychology. He has published and presented on the topic of Integral Psychology and somatic psychology in conferences in the US, Europe, and India. Dr. Flores has had a long-standing passion for harm-reduction Recovery from substance mis-use, and the use of technology and meditation and other spiritual practice to support individual and societal change. He is excited about the prospects for the use of psychedelic therapies for Recovery in this “psychedelic renaissance”, and directing these therapies to the underserved and traumatized populations that most need them.

Area: Psychotherapy, Addictions, Consciousness Studies

Selected Publications:

  • Flores, C, (2010). Appropriation in integral theory. In S. Esbjorn-Hargens, (Ed.), Integral theory in action: Applied, theoretical, and constructive perspectives on the AQAL model. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
  • Flores, C., & Gleig, A. (2014). Remembering Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: The forgotten lineage of integral yoga. In M. Singleton & and E. Goldberg (Eds.), Gurus of modern yoga. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press.

Popular Press:

Links:
www.vitalpuma.com

Contact: [email protected]

Osiris García Cerqueda

Osiris García Cerqueda is an Indigenous Mazatec historian and sociologist from Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, Mexico. He is Chacruna’s IRI Program Coordinator. From a very young age, he has dedicated himself to the study of the history of his community and the practice of the ancestral ritual with psilocybin mushrooms, of which Maria Sabina was renowned. In recent years, reciprocity and restorative justice are the basis of his work of conducting a needs assessment in his community and developing activities to strengthen the Mazatec bioculture. He is the author of the book Huautla tierra de magia, de hongos y hippies [Huautla land of magic, mushrooms, and hippies] (2014) and the independent magazine, Mirador Mazateco (2010–2015). He has conducted comparative studies of Latin American indigenist policies to understand the history of native peoples globally and locally and their current reality. In the last year, he has participated in international events (MAPS Psychedelic Science, 2023; Parliament of World Religions 2023; Horizons PBC, 2023), sharing his knowledge of Mazatec culture and rituals with psilocybin mushrooms. Osiris seeks to raise awareness about the impact of the Global North on the Mazatec people in this new wave of the psychedelic renaissance. His path is guided by his ancestors and Mazatec deities.

Area: History and Mazatec Community

Selected Publications:

  • García Cerqueda, Osiris. (2014). Huautla: Tierra De Magia, De Hongos… Y Hippies. 1960 – 1975. Benemérita Universidad Autónoma De Puebla.
  • García Cerqueda, O. (2023) Comercialización y gestación del “mercado de lo sagrado” en la sierra mazateca de Oaxaca. Algunas consideraciones históricas. Elementos 131, 65-69

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Contact: [email protected]

Jamilah R. George, M.Div., a Detroit native, singer, dancer, and actress obtained her bachelor’s from the University of Michigan, completed her master’s training at Yale University, and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, PTSD and the psychological effects of discrimination and racial trauma on people of color, the neurological underpinnings of these disorders, and the potential promise of psychedelic medicine as a means to healing. Recently, Jamilah was a MAPS-sponsored phase 2 MDMA-assisted psychotherapy co-therapist whose site focused on treatment-resistant PTSD among people of color and was the only site with this focus. Jamilah’s passion for social justice and equality issues fuels her work as she advocates for the mental and holistic wellbeing of socially disenfranchised groups, including women, people of color, impoverished domestic and international communities, and the intersections thereof. Jamilah is a member of Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee.

Area: Psychology

Selected Publications:

  • George, J. R., Michaels, T. I., Sevelius, J., & Williams, M. T.  (2019). The psychedelic renaissance and the limitations of a White-dominant medical framework: A call for indigenous and minority inclusion. Journal of Psychedelic Studies. doi: 10.1556/2054.2019.015
  • Williams, M. T., George, J., & Printz, D. (in press). Behavioral health service delivery with African Americans. In L. Benuto, F. R. Gonzalez, & J. Singer (Eds.), Handbook for cultural factors in behavioral health: A guide for the helping professional. New York City, NY: Springer

Selected Presentations:

  • George, J. R. (2019, August). Let justice roll down: Relinquishing psychedelic healing for people of color. Presented at the Psychedelic Medicine & Cultural Trauma Community Workshop. Louisville, KY.
  • George, J. R. (2019, February). Healing racial trauma with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy: A call to expand the psychedelic narrative. Presented at the Arizona Psychedelic Conference, Tempe, AZ.
  • Williams, M. T., Wetterneck, C. T., Reed, S., Siu, W., Ching, T. & George, J. R. (2018, November). Psychedelic therapy for PTSD in people of color. Panel presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Washington, DC.

Popular Press:

Contact: [email protected]

Ifetayo Harvey

Ifetayo Harvey is the founder of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective (POCPC) which educates and builds community with people of color that are interested in psychedelics and ending the war on drugs. Ifetayo is a member of the Federal Policy Guidelines for Psychedelics Working Group led by Healing Equity and Liberation. She was also a member of the Research to Reality: Global Summit on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Medicine Advisory Committee. Ifetayo’s experience growing up with her father in prison brought her to drug policy reform work in 2013 as an intern at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and then joining them full-time in 2016. In 2013, Ifetayo was the opening plenary speaker at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Denver, Colorado. Ifetayo comes from a family of seven children raised by her mother in Charleston, South Carolina. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College in history and African studies, where the college awarded her Outstanding Student Leader of the Year in 2014. Ifetayo values courage and vulnerability. Friends of Ifetayo know her for her hobbies like soapmaking, fitness, sewing, singing, and playing her euphonium. She currently lives in New York City with her cat, Blanca.

Area: Advocacy and Policy

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Links:

www.pocpc.org

www.ifetayo.me

Contact: [email protected]

Mellody Hayes is a physician-writer who trained in Sociology at Harvard College before training as a physician and anesthesiologist at UCSF.  Known for her heart-centered, powerful public speaking, her writing, speaking, coaching, and work in palliative care serves to encourage us to develop a better relationship to human suffering, be it anxiety, depression, pain, or end of life crisis.  She believes that each person has a story of possibility, even in the presence of great pain, to be uncovered that is part of their personal medicine.

Area: Medicine and Community

Selected Presentations:

  • Hayes, M. (2019). Poetics of healing. Listening to Listening Colloquium Panelist. San Francisco, CA, 2009.
  • Hayes, M. (2019). The nocturnist [Live storytelling]. Brava Theater. San Francisco, CA. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/14cFTX-lZmJeF_kLAM_8xh2LbNwZ-FTkx/view?usp=drivesdk
  • Hayes, M. (2019, March). Oakland Decriminalize Nature Rally [Keynote speaker]. San Francisco, CA.

Links:
mellodyhayes.com

Contact: [email protected]

Kufikiri Hiari Imara was born and raised in Oakland, California. He grew up in an Oakland very different than the one we see today; it was an Oakland with a broader and more embodied sense of community. He grew up the youngest in a household with parents who are both Bay Area natives, both of them born in San Francisco. In addition, both his parents, growing up, were active in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of San Francisco of the 1960s & 70s. So, he grew up in a home and a community environment that strongly emphasized social awareness and social responsibility. Play that forward to an older, wiser individual who unfolded his path through a love of the arts, and his own personal healing spiritual journey. That path led him to volunteer to work with Green Earth Poets Society, 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. He is currently involved with the Sacred Garden Community’s facilitators workshop to deepen his work as a ceremonial facilitator working with ethnically diverse communities. One of the reasons he got involved with the Decriminalize Nature Oakland (DNO) initiative is access. And, as head of the DNO committee focused on Outreach, Education, & Access, he wants to see broad access when it comes to the opportunity to profoundly change one’s life for the better through working with entheogens. Paying special attention to Oakland’s ethnically diverse and marginalized communities, he is actively working with individuals and organizations doing the work in these communities for a better tomorrow. He stays actively engaged with the offices of Oakland City Council members to see a better Oakland for all. Access has always been his message, and was the focus of his talk when he spoke at the CIIS/Chacruna Symposium, Cultural and Political Perspectives on Psychedelic Science, in August of 2018 in San Francisco. He also gave a talk hosted by the San Francisco Psychedelic Society, in March of 2019. He continues to work towards accessible choices for ethnically diverse and marginalized communities in their quest to heal themselves. 

Area: Arts, Advocacy and Community

Selected Publications:

  • Imara, K. (2018). The psychedelic renaissance will be decided by access. Chacruna.net Retrieved from https://chacruna.net/the-psychedelic-renaissance-will-be-decided-by-access/

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Contact (Instagram):  @kufikirihiariimara

Christine Diindiisi McCleave

Christine Diindiisi McCleave, enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwe Nation, is the past CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition where she worked with the United States Department of the Interior to investigate Indian Boarding Schools. She is currently a doctoral student in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Center for Cross-Cultural Studies with a concentration on Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Her research is focused on Indigenous use of entheogenic plant medicines for healing.

With a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies and a Master of Arts in Leadership, she conducted her master’s thesis on Native American spirituality and Christianity and the spectrum of Native spiritual practices today including peyote religion.

As a nonprofit executive, she pioneered an unprecedented national research scope, spoke at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, and helped write a bill for a truth and healing commission in the U.S. As an independent consultant, she was part of the Truth and Reconciliation Workgroup for the City of Minneapolis, has conducted primary source research for the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and facilitated program development for the Association on American Indian Affairs. She has also worked with the Native community in Denver around the Natural Medicine Health Act and with the Psychedelic Medicine Task Force in Minnesota. Overall, her work continues to concentrate on the intersection of cultural, political, and spiritual agency for global Indigenous Rights and the healing of historical trauma as a generational survivor of genocidal U.S. Indian Boarding Schools.

In 2023, she was listed as one of the 75 most influential, innovative, and disruptive women in Psychedelics by DoubleBlind magazine. She is currently a member of the board for the Minnesota Council of Churches and the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis, MN with her family.

Area: Multidisciplinary

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Link:

https://christinemccleave.com/

Contact: https://christinemccleave.com/contact

Joseph McCowan

Joseph McCowan, Psy.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, currently working in Los Angeles as a co-therapist in the MAPS sponsored Phase 3 clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. He is an alumni of MAPS’ MDMA Therapy Training for Communities of Color, held in August 2019. Joseph is deeply passionate about furthering education and awareness of the healing benefits of psychedelics for communities of color and in working to improve mental health outcomes for historically underserved communities. Additionally, Joseph works as a therapist, educator, and clinical supervisor with the non-profit St. Joseph Center in Venice, California, which provides mental health and housing resources to homeless individuals and families across Los Angeles County. There, he provides individual and group supervision, along with ongoing training and education in trauma-informed care, harm reduction, and cultural humility. Joseph received his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his doctorate in clinical psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Joseph is a member of Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee.

Area: Psychology, Psychedelic Therapy

Selected Publications

Selected Presentations

  • McCowan Joseph, Wright, Drea, James, Charlotte, Adusei, Kwasi, Valdez, Heather, & Taus, Lauren. (August 2020). Transformative Justice and Psychedelics: Harm Reduction, Anti-Racism, Ancestral Healing and Spiritual Bypassing. KDome Microdome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5nXIO6r-aI.

Contact: [email protected]

Candace Oglesby

Candace Oglesby is the program director for Fluence Trainings Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) certificate program and a licensed professional counselor (LCPC) in the state of Maryland. Candace began her career as a psychedelic assisted therapist in 2020, when she sat on her first study as a clinical trial therapist, which studied the effects of psilocybin in cancer and TRD patients. Since then, she has gained training in Ketamine, MDMA, and 5- MeO- DMT assisted therapies. In addition, Candace is the founder and owner of Jurnee Mental Health Consulting, LLC, a consulting business that provides support to individuals and businesses looking to deepen their understanding of mental health while also providing support and resources to marginalized communities. Candace also serves as a DEI mental health consultant, trainer, speaker, and mentor within the psychedelic community. When Candace is not acting as psychotherapist, consultant, trainer, and mentor, she is spending time with her husband, family, and friends. Candace believes that cutting edge therapies and techniques should be made available to everyone despite race, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status.

Area: Racial trauma/trauma-informed therapy, psychedelic assisted therapy, and grief

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations:

  • Oglesby, C. (2023, October 7). Healing Racial Trauma: Supporting our clients, liberating ourselves and understanding how and why racial trauma lives inside all of us [PowerPoint presentation].
  • Oglesby, C., & Hunter, T. (2023, September 8). IFS, Psychedelics, and Anti-oppression [PowerPoint presentation].
  • Oglesby, C., & Lewis, D. (2022, March 16). Candid Conversations with Candace & Dori: Psychedelics, Privilege, and the Shadow [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/webinars/events/3fadb839-69e8-42be-99f6-88e8316145a9

Popular Press:

Link:

www.jurneewithcandace.com

Email: [email protected]

Marcela Ot’alora G. was born and raised in Colombia, and currently living in Boulder, Colorado. She has an MA in Transpersonal Psychology from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and an MFA in Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Marcela began her career as an Installation artist and teacher and after completing her training as a psychotherapist, she started a private practice working primarily with trauma with diverse populations. Her interest and focus on trauma has led her to understand the healing process as an intimate re-connection with one’s innate essence through love, integrity, acceptance, and honoring of the human spirit.  In addition to working with trauma and PTSD, she has dedicated her professional life to teaching, and research.  She uses art as a vehicle for deepening connection to self and the world and since 1999 has worked for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) as a co-therapist and a principal investigator in various studies using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD and as part of therapist’s training. Additionally, she is a trainer and supervisor for therapists working on MAPS studies. She is deeply grateful for home, loved ones, making art, and the privilege to stop and smell the flowers.

Area: Psychotherapy & Research

Selected Publications:

  • Ot’alora, M., Grigsby, J., Poulter, B., Van Derveer, J. W., Giron, S. G., Jerome, L. … & Doblin, R. (2018). 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder: A randomized phase 2 controlled trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 32(12), 1295–1307.
  • Ot’alora, M. (2018). Between two worlds. Psychotherapy Networker.42(5) . Retrieved from https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/article/2309/between-two-worlds

Select Presentations:

  • Ferriss, T., & Ot’alora, M. (2019, November). Becoming a psychedelic therapist [Live podcast interview]. Interview conducted at Psychedelic Science Summit, Austin, TX.

Popular Press:

Link: 
https://maps.org

Email: [email protected]

Tony Moss - a black man with dreadlocks wearing a white, v-neck t-shirt poses with his hands crossed in front of him. He has a slight smile on his face.

Tony Moss is a recording artist, producer, and creative director at I.AM.LIFE MUSIC, where his focus is music as medicine and it’s contributions to traditional and contemporary ceremonial, psycho-spiritual, and related therapeutic uses. Intentional use of music in those spaces is like magic: a powerful technology not fully understood but potent in its abilities to heal and transform. Like all of his work, informed and inspired by over 25 years of experience working with plant medicine, the music that he create is a synthesis of interests in art, spirituality, and science, motivated by a commitment to the elevation and expansion of human consciousness. 

Area: Medicine Music

Links:

https://linktr.ee/tonymoss

Email: [email protected]

Nicholas Powers is a literature professor, poet and journalist. He has written about politics, psychedelics and the counter-culture. His book “The Ground Below Zero; 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street” was published by Upset Press in 2014. 

Area: Literature & Poetry

Selected Publications:

Select Presentations:

Popular Press:

Links:
https://indypendent.org/authors/nicholas-powers/

Contact: [email protected]

Sara Reed, MS, MFT, is a Marriage and Family Therapist at Behavioral Wellness Clinic in Tolland, Connecticut and a Study Therapist for the Psilocybin-assisted Psychotherapy for Major Depression study at Yale University. She is also a member of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Advisory Board. Sara also served as a Sub-Investigator and Study Coordinator for MAPS’ Phase 2 MDMA Clinical Study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She is a member of Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee.

Area: Psychotherapy 

Selected Publications: 

Selected Presentations:

  • Siu, W., & Reed, S. (2018, April). MDMA-assisted psychotherapy: “Our experiences as subjects in an FDA-approved clinical trial.” Sponsored by UConn Students for Sensible Drug Policy, University of Connecticut.
  • Reed, S. (2018, November). Ego dissolution, racial wounds, and the female body: A journey home. Women and Psychedelics Conference, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA.
  • Williams, M. T., Wetterneck, C. T., Reed, S., Siu, W., Ching, T. & George, J. (2018, November). Psychedelic therapy for PTSD in people of color. Panel presentation for 34th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Washington, DC.

Popular Press:

Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXkFnnj_F3w&t=157s

Contact: [email protected]

Marlena Robbins is Diné (Navajo) from the Yeii Dine’e Táchii’nii (Giant Red Running into Water People) clan. She holds a master’s in American Indian studies – Indigenous rights and social justice. Her thesis, titled Art as a Spiritual Expression for Indigenous Well-being, focused on advocating for art within the fields of Indigenous mental health and community wellness. She has developed and implemented expressive arts programming for Community Bridges, Inc., a substance abuse and behavioral health nonprofit. She has served as the assistant director and grant writer of Cultural Coalition, Inc., an arts and culture nonprofit. She is a doctoral student at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health – Interdisciplinary Studies, focusing on the advancement of sacred plant medicines in tribal nations. She is an Indigenous science student fellow of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). Her qualitative research title, Multigenerational Perspectives of Psilocybin Mushrooms in Tribal and Urban Indigenous Communities of the North and Southwest United States, will inform the protocols of psychedelic-assisted therapy from multigenerational Indigenous perspectives on psilocybin mushrooms. She is a graduate student researcher for the BCSP’s Certificate Program in Psychedelic Facilitation. She serves as Indigenous and Community Affairs Officer at the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines.

Area: Public Health

Selected Presentations:

Contact: marlena@bryce-montgomery

Amber Senter, a black, smiling woman with short hair wears a white collared shirt with blue flowers and alligators on it.

Amber E. Senter is a visionary entrepreneur with over two decades of expertise in marketing and project management. As the Founder and CEO of MAKR House, a storytelling cannabis house of brands, Amber leads fundraising efforts, manages the supply chain, navigates government relations, develops strategic plans, creates innovative products, and executes effective marketing campaigns. Amber’s former experiences include her work as Chief Operations Officer of an Oakland dispensary, where she was responsible for creating and implementing procedures that improved sales and increased profitability. During her tenure, she obtained Oakland’s first onsite consumption permit.

Amber’s unwavering commitment to serve did not end with her time in the US Coast Guard. In addition to her thriving business ventures, she is the Co-Founder, Chair of the Board, and Executive Director of Supernova Women, an organization formed in 2015 dedicated to empowering people of color to become self-sufficient shareholders in the cannabis industry.

Through her work with Supernova Women and MAKR House, Amber is working tirelessly to address the harm inflicted on Black and Brown communities by the failed War on Drugs and to lower barriers of entry for these communities in the legal cannabis market. With initiatives such as the creation of the first social equity program in Oakland and the country’s first social equity workforce development program for cannabis, Amber is a driving force for positive change in the industry. Additionally, MAKR House’s EquityWorks! Incubator serves as a model for the future, offering the first shared social equity cannabis manufacturing facility in the country that helps to break down barriers and level the playing field.

Amber is a sought-after leader in the growing cannabis industry, recognized for her trusted voice and extensive knowledge of the medical and adult-use base. She serves as a mentor and coach to new entrepreneurs in the field, inspiring them with her passion and drive.

Area: Entrepreneurship

Selected Publications:

Popular Press:

Links:

http://landraceoriginscoffee.com/

Contact: TaJanna Mallory: [email protected]

Interview in Chacruna logo

Sensei Kevon Simpson is an ordained Minister, multidisciplinary artist, international Two Spirit Medicine Man, a Shotokan Karate black belt, and founder of the Entheogen Integration Circle (NYC). He is from a lineage of Jamaican spiritual healers, and in the spirit of Sankofa he calls upon his Taíno and Akan ancestry often. He is also initiated through ‘dieta’ into the path of curanderismo, the ancient sacred healing plant medicine shamanism of the Amazon Rainforest, and Andes. During his extended stays in Pucallpa, Iquitos, and Chavín de Huantar, Perú, he learned the techniques of guiding ceremonies from fellow indigenous keepers of the Earth, with the intent of bringing the experience back to marginalized communities. He has traveled as far as Taiwan, Jamaica, Canada, and even Japan within his path as a medicine guide and high dose solo sitter. Known as one of the leaders of the underground psychedelic renaissance, clinical psychotherapists often come to him for advice with their clients. Since 2018 he has graced Chacruna’s stage twice as a speaker and panelist at their psychedelics and science conferences. In 2019 he opened the world renowned HORIZONS psychedelic conference as the ritual voice of spirit. He is a Reiki Master, who also has over 15 years of guiding meditation experience, and often combines the practices of mindfulness with poetry, dance, and sound healing, in order to lift people out of their wounds, and into their divine purpose. Kevon’s whole life changed in 2017 when he became public with his HIV status, and has since been an advocate to help lower the stigma through articles, appearances, and more. In his spare time you can find him practicing medicine songs and icaros, playing his handpan, or doing live feeds of spiritual upliftment under his social media handle Medicine Sensei, or by following the hashtag #planetocatch. He currently serves on Chacruna’s Women, Gender Diversity, and Sexual Minorities Working Group.

Area: Shamanism & Arts

Selected Publications:

  • Simpson, K. A. (2012). Trick or treat: A guide or success for LGBTQ community. New York, NY: Author. Trick or Treat 
  • Simpson, K. A. (2013). Grammatology: A blending of science, spirit, and poetry. New York City, NY: Author. 

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Links:
https://kevonsimpson.com
www.patreon.com/medicinesensei 

Contact: [email protected]

Licia Sky, BFA, LMT, is a Boston based somatic educator, writer, artist, singer-songwriter, and bodyworker who works with traumatized individuals and trains mental health professionals to use mindful meditation in movement, theater exercises, writing and voice as tools for attunement, healing and connection. She is a regular instructor in trauma healing workshops at Kripalu, and Esalen. In the course of over 25 years of bodywork practice, she developed her methods of vocalizing for embodiment in physical and emotional healing when she began using her voice with her bodywork clients by vocalizing and toning – to help them release the constriction from repressed vocal expression. She found that breathing, toning and vocalizing led to profound beneficial changes of physical and emotional state. She has been teaching workshops on these subjects around the US, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Egypt, Israel, and New Zealand. 

Selected Presentations:

Popular Press:

Links:
liciasky.com 

Contact: [email protected] or her Angela Lin: [email protected]

Darron T. Smith is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at the University of Memphis. He is a physician assistant and US army veteran with over twenty years of healthcare-related experience as a PA educator and mental health treatment provider in psychiatry. Dr. Smith has trained with MAPS’ MDMA-assisted therapy. His research and scholarship examine US-based systems of racial oppression and systemic inequality found in all societal domains, including healthcare, the family (transracial adoption), healthcare disparities, religion, sport, culture, and politics. Dr. Smith’s current research and practice intertwine the study of applied neuroscience, race-based trauma, and mental illness by looking at the impact of EEG biofeedback versus MDMA-assisted psychotherapy on brainwave activity in individuals with racial trauma (PTSD) using EEG technology. He is featured in the CBS Sports Documentary, The Black 14: Wyoming Football 1969, and the Loki Mulholland film on transracial adoption, Black, White & Us: Love is Not Enough. He is the author of When Race, Religion & Sports Collide: Black Athletes at BYU and Beyond. Dr. Smith is a board member of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association. He also serves as a curriculum advisor for the Alma Institute, an Oregon-based Psilocybin training facility. He serves on Chacruna’s Board and is part of the Racial Equity and Access Committee.

Selected Publications:

Chacruna Institute. (2021). Is Psychedelic Medicine the Antidote to Anti-Black White Racism in the US?. https://chacruna.net/psychedelic_medicine_treating_ptsd_racism/.

Selected Presentations:

Chacruna Institute (2021). Debunking Racist Myths in the Psychedelic Community. https://chacruna.net/debunking-racist-myths-in-the-psychedelic-community/

Contact: [email protected]

Stephanie Michael Stewart

Stephanie Michael Stewart, M.D. is a holistic psychiatrist who brings a spiritual, environmental, and social justice perspective to her work.

After serving as Chief Resident of Psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dr. Stewart led LA County’s West Central Wellness Center where she developed innovative programs for communities of color that integrated evidence-based psychiatric treatments with complementary therapies. She then founded Worldwide Wellness, where she expanded her approach to incorporate travel, immersion in nature, Indigenous wisdom, and, more recently, ketamine-assisted therapy.

Dr. Stewart is currently developing a psychedelic-assisted therapy training program for psychiatric residents at historically black colleges and universities.

Dr. Stewart holds a BS in Biology from Spelman College and an MD from Morehouse School of Medicine. She is a psychedelic advisor to multiple organizations in the US and Canada and is a member of Chacruna’s Board of Directors and Racial Equity and Access Committee. She is of Black, White, and Native American descent.

Area: Holistic Psychiatry and Ecological Medicine

Selected Presentations:

  • Chacruna Institute. (2023, October 20). Multiracial Identity and Psychedelics: Imagined Futures; A Conversation with Stephanie Michael Stewart, Joseph McCowan, Arun Saldanha and Lola Osunkoya [Video]. Crowdcast. https://www.crowdcast.io/e/imagined-futures/register

Popular Press:

Links

https://www.worldwidewellness.io/about

LinkedIn Profile

Contact: [email protected]

Interview in Chacruna logo

Cristie Strongman, M.A., is Director of Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee. She is a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, in the program of counseling psychology with a concentration on diversity, and multicultural, bilingual competencies. She holds two master’s degrees from Columbia University, with a third on the way. The first one is from Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in regional studies of Latin America and the Caribbean (2018), where her research focused on the mimesis of indigenous rituals in urban landscapes by contemporary shamans. Her second master’s is from Columbia’s Teachers College in mental health counseling (2019), and her third is in counseling psychology, expected in 2020. Her bachelor of arts degree is in sociology from Hunter College, City University of New York (2016), where she studied the sociology of drugs in the USA. She is a trainee of the MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy training for communities of color and a night attendant for the MAPS phase 3, FDA approved, clinical trials on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in New York City. Cristie is a classically trained opera singer who enjoys performing compositions that employ unique tunings and instrumentation, including homemade instruments, as she did in several performances in Carnegie Hall. Cristie is originally from Colón, Panamá in Central America. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her orange cat Gustav.

Area: Psychology & Community

Selected Presentations:

  • Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Multicultural Considerations. 2019 American Psychological Association. Psilocybin FDA Breakthrough Status-Psychedelic Health Literacy, Ethical, and Multicultural Topics, Chicago, IL. August 10, 2019.
  • Decolonizing Psychedelics for Latinx and Afro Caribbeans. Symposium Cultural and Political Perspectives in Psychedelic Science. CIIS/ Chacruna Institute. San Francisco, August 18-19, 2018. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMSJHhfoeQM/ (Video: 17:48)

Popular Press:

Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristiestrongman/

Contact: [email protected] and [email protected]

Joe Tafur, M.D., is a Colombian-American family physician originally from Phoenix, Arizona. After completing his family medicine training at UCLA, Dr. Tafur spent two years in academic research at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry in a lab focused on mind-body medicine. After his research fellowship, over a period of six years, he lived and worked in the Peruvian Amazon at the traditional healing center Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. There he worked closely with master Shipibo shaman Ricardo Amaringo and trained in ayahuasca shamanism. In his new book “The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine,” through a series of stories, Dr. Tafur shares his unique experience and integrative medical theories. The book strives to illuminate the intersection between biology, emotion and spirituality. He is Co-founder of Modern Spirit, a nonprofit dedicated to demonstrating the value of spiritual healing in modern healthcare.

Area: Medicine & Ayahuasca Shamanism

Selected Publications

  • Tafur, J. (2017). The fellowship of the river: A medical doctor’s exploration into traditional Amazonian plant medicine. Phoenix, AZ: Espiritu Books. 

Selected Presentations

Popular Press

Links:
modernspirit.org
drjoetafur.com

Contact: [email protected]

Kaylie Tejeda

Kaylie Tejeda is a Latinx, queer certified registered nurse anesthesiologist (CRNA). Born and raised in New York, she more recently finds herself calling California’s Central Valley home, where she practices and teaches anesthesia. She also just started a non-profit to provide housing, compassionate transpersonal care and community for houseless individuals. She has been in the healthcare field going on 9 years and recently began her PhD at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she is studying Integral and Transpersonal Psychology. Kaylie serves as the moderator of the Psychedelic Social Justice Collective (PSJC) discord server and is a member of the Intercollegiate Psychedelic Network’s Social Policy & Impact Spore. Her passions, while diverse, are predominately centered on social justice advocacy, with an emphasis on justice, ethics, and equity in the psychedelic field and healthcare at large, rewriting societal narratives, and participating in initiatives that support communities historically, and currently, plagued by systemic inequities.

Area: Anesthesia, Transpersonal Psychology

Selected Presentations

  • Chacruna Institute. (2020). Ketamine Therapy: Promoting Access and Cultural Responsibility. https://chacruna.net/ketamine-therapy-access-responsibility-2/.
  • Tejeda, Kaylie. (2020, September 2016). How Experiences of Race can Influence Psychedelic Experiences. In Intercollegiate Psychedelic Network Journal Club [Zoom Presentation].

Contact: [email protected]

Gita Vaid

Gita Vaid, MD is a board certified psychiatrist and psychoanalyst practicing ketamine assisted psychotherapy in New York City. She is a co-founder of the Center for Natural Intelligence, a multidisciplinary laboratory dedicated to the exploration and research of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies. Dr. Vaid completed her residency training at NYU Medical Center, psychoanalytic training at the Pscyhoanalytic Association of New York. She trained as a fellow in clinical psychopharmacology and neurophysiology at New York Medical College and completed a research fellowship at NYU Medical Center. Dr. Vaid is a MAPS trained psychedelic psychotherapist and is on faculty at The Ketamine Training Center.

Area: Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis

Link: https://www.cni.nyc/

Contact: [email protected]

1Drea Pennington Wasio

Dr. 1Drea Pennington Wasio, formerly known as Andrea Pennington, is an American integrative physician, Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Facilitator, and creator of The Cornerstone Process for Conscious Evolution and The Attunement Meditation. She is founder of the holistic health company and media platform, In8Vitality, which integrates ancient wisdom with modern neuroscience and conscious media. With over two decades of medical practice specialized in trauma recovery, addiction medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, Dr. 1Drea has provided medical services, workshops, and retreats to help thousands of people build resilience, reclaim vitality after burnout, recover from Adverse Childhood Experiences and nurture real self love in order to thrive in all areas of life.

She has written or contributed to 18 books, and is the bestselling author of The Top 10 Traits of Highly Resilient People, The Real Self Love Handbook, Sacred Medicine: Exploring the Psychedelic Hero’s Journey, and The Orgasm Prescription for Women. She is also an international speaker with over 4 million views of her TED talks, hosts the Conscious Evolution Podcast, and has a vast career in global media and documentary filmmaking.

Area: Integrative Medicine, Trauma Recovery

Selected Publications:

Selected Presentations

Popular Press:

Pennington, D. (2019). The Real Self Love Handbook: A Proven 5-Step Process to Liberate Your Authentic Self, Build Resilience and Live an Epic Life. Make Your Mark Global. 

Pennington, D. (2023). The Top 10 Traits of Highly Resilient People: Real Life Stories of Resilience Show You How to Build a Stress Resistant Personality. Make Your Mark Global.

Wasio, D., Westwood, G. & Vlada, I. (2023). Sacred Medicine: Exploring The Psychedelic Hero’s Journey. Make Your Mark Global.

Links:

https://1drea.com

https://consciousevolution.live

Email: [email protected]

Courtney Watson - Black woman with long braids and white print shirt sits posed with her hand under her chin

Courtney Watson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and AASECT Certified Sex therapist. She is the founder and director of two companies: 1) Doorway Therapeutic Services, a ketamine clinic in Oakland, CA focused on addressing the mental health needs of Black, Indigenous & People of Color, Queer folks, Trans, Gender Non-conforming, Non-binary and Two Spirit individuals. 2) Access 2 Doorways, a 501c3 non profit focused on raising money for QT/BIPOC clients to receive legal psychedelic treatment and QT/BIPOC practitioners to complete psychedelic assisted therapy training programs. Courtney has received training from the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research at CIIS, MAPS and Polaris Insight Center to provide psychedelic-assisted therapy with a variety of medicines. She is an emerging leader in the field advocating for access for folks with multiple marginalized identities and stresses the importance of BIPOC and Queer providers offering these services.

Area: Psychedelic Therapy, Ketamine, Racial Justice, Access and Inclusion, Community

Selected Publications:

  • Belser, A., Cavnar, C., & Labate, B. (Eds.). (In Press). A Consensual Discourse Dialogue. In Queering psychedelics: From oppression to liberation in psychedelic medicine. Synergetic Pr.

Popular Press:

Presentations

Links:
www.doorwaytherapeutics.com/ketamine 
www.access2doorways.com/pledge

Contact: [email protected]

Dr. Monnica Williams is a board-certified clinical psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut. She completed her undergraduate studies at MIT and UCLA. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Virginia. Her clinical work and research focus on African American mental health, culture, trauma, and OCD. She was the PI for a MAPS-sponsored Phase 2 study of MDMA for PTSD, with a focus on culturally-informed treatment for people of color. She has also received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Psychological Foundation (APF) for her research. Dr. Williams has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, with a focus on psychopathology and cultural differences. She has leadership roles in several international professional organizations, serves on the editorial board of two scientific journals, is an associate editor of two journals, and is currently a guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Psychedelic Studies, on the topic of Diversity, Equity, and Access. Her work has been featured in several major media outlets, including NPR, The Washington Post, and the New York Times. Monnica is a member of Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee.

Dr. Williams is available for media interviews, symposia, keynote lectures, and plenary talks.

Area: Psychology

Selected Publications:

  • Michaels, T. I., Purdon, J., Collins, A. & Williams, M. T. (2018). Inclusion of people of color in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: A review of the literature. BMC Psychiatry, 18(245), 1-9. doi: 10.1186/s12888-018-1824-6.
  • Williams, M. T., & Leins, C. (2016). Race-based trauma: The challenge and promise of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Bulletin, 26(1), 32-37.
  • Williams, M. T., Reed, S., & Aggarwal, R. (in press). Culturally-informed research design issues in a study for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Psychedelic Studies. doi: 10.1556/2054.2019.016

Selected Presentations:

  • Williams, M. T. (2018, October 6). Race-Based trauma: The challenge and promise of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.Paper presented at Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics, New York City, NY.

Popular press:

  • Sullivan, K. (2018, October 1). Black Americans Are Being Left Out of Psychedelics Research. Vice Tonic.
  • Bain, K. (2018, June 26). Psychedelics are going mainstream, because the mainstream needs them. Vice.

Links:
http://monnicawilliams.com
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/culturally-speaking
http://www.mentalhealthdisparities.org/psychedelic-medicine.php

Contact: http://monnicawilliams.com/contact.php

Art by Karina Alvarez.

Disclaimer:

This page will be constantly updated, with entries removed if they become out of date. If you are a author, speaker, or researcher of color and want to be listed, please contact us. Your application will be reviewed by Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee. We are including those with expertise and excellence in Chacruna’s areas of interest. Some indications of  qualification may include the completion of graduate work; papers published in journals, books, or popular websites; public presentations in academic conferences or psychedelic events. Other evidence of accomplishment that does not fit into traditional structures will be reviewed and considered on a case by case basis. Please send your application with the materials above, and one paragraph with your biography, papers, and links to public presentations to: Cristie Strongman at: [email protected]


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Psychonautic Judaism: The Psychedelic Renaissance and the Future of Judaism

Chacruna Institute -
Wednesday, June 9th, 2021 from 12-1:30pm PST REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT HERE There is growing enthusiasm in Jewish communities about possible ancient use and modern applications of plant medicine in Jewish spiritual development.  Psychedelic Judaism introduce new potential modes of  healing...
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