Speakers

Convenors

Noah Feldman

Professor Noah Feldman (co-convenor) is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Chair of the Society of Fellows, and founding director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law, all at Harvard University. He specializes in constitutional studies, with particular emphasis on power and ethics, design of innovative governance solutions, law and religion, and the history of legal ideas. Feldman is the author of 10 books, including his latest, To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024). Other works include The Arab Winter: A Tragedy (Princeton University Press, 2020), Divided By God: America’s Church-State Problem and What We Should Do About It (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2005); What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building (Princeton University Press 2004).

Jay Michaelson

Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson (co-convenor) is a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and a field scholar at the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality. He is the author of ten books, including The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth, which won the National Jewish Book Award for scholarship. Dr. Michaelson’s work focuses on the intersection of law and religion, particularly in the contexts of psychedelics, gender, and religious liberty. He holds a JD from Yale, a PhD in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination.

Presenters and Panelists

Kamal Abu-Shamsieh

Dr. Kamal Abu-Shamsieh is a distinguished scholar and expert in spiritual care, with a focus on interfaith dialogue and end-of-life ethics. He holds a master’s degree in Christian-Muslim relations from Hartford Seminary, a certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy, and a Ph.D. in practical theology from the Graduate Theological Union. His research centers on the intersection of ethics and law, particularly using Prophet Muhammad’s dying as a model for end-of-life care. Dr. Abu-Shamsieh is a founding member of the Association of Muslim Chaplains and serves as president of Ziyara Spiritual Care, where he provides chaplaincy training for Muslims worldwide. As an assistant professor of practical theology, he directs the Interreligious Chaplaincy Program at GTU, teaching courses in spiritual care, including a unique focus on psychedelic chaplaincy.

Sughra Ahmed

With over 25 years’ experience at the nexus of academia, policy, and communities, Sughra Ahmed currently specialises in human rights education for young people in England. Working in a range of spiritual capacities, she has spent time in the UK and USA exploring contextual theology and religious expression across communities of faith and belief. Most recently, as Associate Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University, she worked with young people helping them to find meaning and purpose as they moved through their academic lives. She has published works on culture, religion, identity, diversity, and inclusion, studying changing models of integration, engagement, and religious expression in Europe.

Ismail Ali

Ismail Lourido Ali, JD (he/him or they/them) has been personally utilizing psychedelics and other substances in celebratory and spiritual contexts for more half his life, and has been actively participating in the drug policy reform movement for over a decade. As the Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Ismail supports the design, building, and implementation of psychedelic policy reform across the country and world. Ismail co-founded the Psychedelic Bar Association, and currently co-chairs its Board of Directors. Ismail advises, is formally affiliated with, or has served in leadership roles for numerous organizations in the drug policy ecosystem, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Chacruna Institute, the Ayahuasca Defense Fund, and Alchemy Community Therapy Center, and recently co-founded the Central California Psychedelic Summit in his hometown of Fresno.

Laura Appleman

Laura I Appleman is the Van Winkle Melton Professor of Law and University Research Integrity Officer at Willamette University Law School. She teaches criminal procedure, family law, sentencing law & policy, and race & the law. Appleman is a national expert on criminal juries, carceral profits, and eugenics in the criminal system. A 1998 graduate of the Yale Law School, Appleman clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima in Pasadena, CA. From 2000-05, she was a Manhattan criminal public appellate defender, arguing over 50 appeals in the NY appellate courts. Appleman serves on the Public Defenders of Marion County executive board and the Yale Law Alumni Steering Committee, and was elected to the American Law Institute in 2024.

Hena Malik Başak

Hena Malik Başak is dedicated to exploring the healing and spiritual potentials of cannabis and psychedelics. With a passion for drug education, harm reduction, and reform, Hena’s work focuses on trauma-related conditions, particularly the under-researched symptoms of dissociation and derealization. Hena holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Florida, a degree in Arts and Humanities, and a Master’s degree in Psychoactive Pharmaceuticals from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Coming from a Pakistani background and being raised Muslim, Hena is committed to bridging Islamic theology and psychedelics. This dedication inspired the creation of her Islam, Muslims, and Psychedelics series, which highlights and uplifts Muslim leaders in this emerging field. Previously, she served as the Communications Officer at the Chacruna Institute and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). Hena is currently the Social Media Officer for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

Nathaniel Berman

Nathaniel Berman is Brown University’s Rahel Varnhagen Professor Emeritus of International Affairs, Law, Modern Culture, and Religious Studies. Berman’s work is highly interdisciplinary, marshalling the resources of psychoanalysis, literary criticism, cultural studies, and political theory to think about the problem of “alterity” in diverse fields of study. As a scholar of international law, Berman focuses on nationalism, colonialism, self-determination, and ethnic conflict, as well as the law of war. As a scholar of religious studies, Berman focuses on Jewish mysticism, particularly thirteenth century kabbalistic mythology.  

Jeffrey Breau

Jeffrey Breau is Program Lead for Psychedelics and Spirituality at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. His research focuses on contemporary psychedelic churches and psychedelic chaplaincy. He is conducting a multisite ethnography of "novel psychedelic spiritual communities" in the United States, focusing on their beliefs, rituals, and community practices. Jeffrey is an advisor to the Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital Ketamine Integration Chaplaincy program, and he is a Project Affiliated Researcher of PULSE (Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience) at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. He has published on the Hindu origins of the Mystical Experience Questionnaire, psychedelic intention setting rituals, and is co-editor of Psychedelic Intersections: 2024 Conference Anthology.

Rev. Jaime Clark-Soles

Rev. Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles is Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, SMU. She earned her Ph.D. from Yale University and M.Div. from Yale Divinity School. She is the author of Women in the Bible and "Psychedelics, the Bible, and the Divine." She is currently writing Psychedelics and Soul Care: What Christians Need to Know. She is a Field Scholar for the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality and an Affiliated Researcher in the PULSE initiative connected to Harvard Law School. She has served in both congregational and hospice settings. Rev. Clark-Soles is affiliated with the Transforming Chaplaincy Network and has earned the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research through CIIS. She speaks on the topic of psychedelics and religious experience to a wide variety of audiences, which has included the American Academy of Religion, the Cleveland Clinic, the Parliament of the World's Religions, counseling centers, universities, and churches.

Ron Cole-Turner

Ron Cole-Turner is professor emeritus at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where he held the H. Parker Sharp Chair in Theology and Ethics for 25 years. He is a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion, currently serving on the Executive Committee. He is the author and editor of various books, including Transhumanism and Transcendence: Christian Hope in an Age of Technological Enhancement (Georgetown); Design and Destiny: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Human Germline Modification (MIT); and most recently Psychedelics and Christian Faith: Exploring an Unexpected Pathway to Healing and Spirituality (Wipf and Stock, 2025).

Joshua Falcon

Joshua Falcon is a visiting assistant professor of English and lecturer of anthropology with a background in Religious Studies and Philosophy. His research primarily focuses on the philosophical, political, and cultural dimensions of psychedelic drug use in the United States. His works have previously explored psychedelics in relation to biopolitics, decoloniality, subjectivity, and human-environment relations, and his current research continues to explore the variegated uses of psilocybin mushrooms in United States subcultures.

Jessica Felix-Romero

Jessica Felix Romero has over 14 years’ experience in social justice advocacy, organizing, and communications. She has served as a communications expert on a variety of issues including labor rights, immigration, health, environment, peacebuilding, and agriculture. 

Natalie Ginsberg

Natalie Lyla Ginsberg (MSW) is the Global Impact Officer at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, (MAPS), and the co-founder of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit.  Natalie joined MAPS in 2014, founding the Policy & Advocacy department, and serving as its director for 5 years.  At MAPS, Natalie initiated and co-developed MAPS’ Health Equity program, including MAPS' first MDMA Therapy Training for Communities of Color, and co-authored the first study interviewing Palestinians and Israelis who have shared ayahuasca ceremonies.  Before joining MAPS, Natalie worked as a Policy Fellow at the Drug Policy Alliance, where she helped legalize medical cannabis in her home state of New York, and worked to end race-based marijuana arrests.  Natalie was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. She received her B.A. in history from Yale College, and her master’s of social work (M.S.W.) from Columbia University. 

Christian Greer

Dr. J. Christian Greer is a scholar of Religious Studies with a special focus on psychedelic culture. He has held teaching positions at Harvard University, Yale University, and is currently a lecturer at Stanford University. While a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Divinity School, he led a series of seminars which culminated in the creation of the "Harvard Psychedelic Walking Tour," an audio-guide detailing how the Harvard community has shaped the history of psychedelic culture. He is also the co-founder and co-chair of the "Drugs and Religion" program unit at the American Academy of Religion, as well as a co-founder of The Chalice, a monthly lecture series focused on psychedelics in Berkeley, California. Each June, he leads “The Psychedelic Universe: Global Perspectives on Higher Consciousness,” an intensive summer school seminar hosted by the University of Amsterdam’s Graduate School of Social Sciences.

Rabbi Jill Hammer

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, is an author, teacher, midrashist, mystic, poet, essayist, and priestess.  She is committed to an earth-based and wildly mythic view of the world in which nature, ritual, and story connect us to the body of the cosmos and to ourselves.  Rabbi Hammer is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic rabbinical and cantorial seminary in Yonkers, NY.  At AJR, she specializes in ancient and contemporary midrash, mysticism, ritual, and contemporary spirituality.  

Allison Hoots

Allison Hoots, Esq. works as an attorney with unique experience advising in the psychedelics space. She provides legal counsel on contractual, transactional, employment, corporate/business formation, healthcare, constitutional, and intellectual property law at Hoots Law Practice PLLC. Allison is Executive Director of Sacred Plant Alliance, a self-regulating association of psychedelic churches dedicated to legal, safe, and ethical ceremonial relationships with sacrament. Allison is Head Legal Counsel for New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives, working on drug policy reform; she authored a bill introduced as A10375 to legalize psilocybin for adult use in New York. Allison is Law and Drug Policy Reform Advisor for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and was lead author of Chacruna’s “Guide to RFRA & Best Practices for Psychedelic Plant Medicine Churches.”

Ayize Jama-Everett

Ayize Jama-Everett is a therapist, professor, theologian, author, and filmmaker. His artistic work is categorized as Afrofuturism and can be found in a series of novels and graphic novels. Academically, Ayize focuses on the intersection between substance use and culture, particularly the cultures of the African Diaspora. He is the Producer/director of a documentary entitled A Table Of Our Own about the role of Black people in the Psychedelic movement. He serves on the boards of Psychedelics Today, The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, and Access to Doorways, a non-profit dedicated to providing culturally responsive above-ground psychedelic treatment to Queer BIPOC individuals.

Rabbi Zac Kamenetz

Zac is a rabbi and community leader based in Berkeley, CA. As the founder and CEO of Shefa, Zac is leading a movement to integrate safe and supported psychedelic use into the Jewish spiritual tradition, advocating for the healing of individual and inherited traumas, and inspiring a Jewish religious and creative renaissance in the 21st century. He is a qualified instructor of MBSR and is trained in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy through Inbodied Life and the Hakomi Institute of Northern California.

Victoria Litman

Victoria Grace Litman M.Div., J.D., LL.M. is a visiting professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, where she teaches Torts, Cannabis Law, and Psychedelics Law. She is also a Fellow in Psychedelic Law and Spirituality at Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics.

Madison Margolin

Madison Margolin is an author, journalist, editor, consultant, educator, and guide to all things Jewish-Psychedelic. Her work is focused on cannabis, psychedelics, Judaism, and spirituality, but also extends to culture, policy, science, agriculture, technology, and religion-at-large. Her passion centers on transcendence and healing in order to access that which is within and beyond the self. Co-founder of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit and DoubleBlind, a print magazine and digital media startup covering psychedelics and where they intersect with mental health, environmental justice, social equity, and more, Madison also teaches on Judaism and psychedelics, such as with Tzfat’s LiveKabbalah or Psychedelics Today, and offers consulting and guidance for those on the Jewish-psychedelic path.

Mason Marks

Mason Marks, MD, JD is a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Dr. Marks is the Florida Bar Health Law Section Professor at the Florida State University College of Law. At Harvard Law School, he is the senior fellow and lead of the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR), which he co-founded at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics in 2021. Professor Marks is also a visiting fellow at the Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School. An expert on the fast-emerging psychedelics industry, he advises state and federal agencies and lawmakers on the evolving controlled substances landscape. He has presented his research at the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

oriana mayorga

oriana (she/her/ella) is a cis-femme, first-generation, queer Latina with disabilities. Master of divinity, oriana works in New York as a multifaith, bilingual chaplain for individuals experiencing grief, trauma, immediate loss, and illness. oriana has over a decade of involvement in the drug policy movement, primarily helping psychedelic organizations center the needs and dreams of people of color. She is a harm reductionist and doctoral student.

Bryan McCarthy

A 2002 Pitt-Greensburg alumnus, Dr. McCarthy teaches Post-Kantian Philosophy, Eastern Thought, Philosophy of Religion, and Business Ethics. In his scholarship, he focuses on how material things augment or hinder authentic religiosity and spirituality. Currently, this has two prongs: phenomenology of clothing and the religiosity of psychedelic medicine. Dr. McCarthy also recently published "Christianity and Psychedelic Medicine: A Pastoral Approach" and has a number of studies and articles on this topic in progress. 

Tim McMahan King

Tim King is an author, speaker, and Senior Fellow at Clergy for a New Drug Policy. He runs Vagabond Strategies, a digital strategy and communications firm. He previously worked at Sojourners, a faith-based advocacy organization in D.C. for seven years and served as the organization's Chief Strategy Officer.

Elly Moseson

Chaim Elly Moseson is a Post-B.A. Ph.D. student in the Texts and Traditions track at the Graduate Division of Religious Studies. Elly was raised in a Hasidic community in New York and received a traditional religious education at Yeshivas in both New York and Jerusalem. He received a B.A. (magna cum laude) in English Literature with a Minor in Philosophy from Columbia University in 2010. Elly’s dissertation research will focus on the transmission, transcription and publication of the teachings of Israel Baal Shem Tov, traditionally viewed as the founder of Hasidism, and the impact they had on the emerging Hasidic movement in 18th century Eastern Europe.

Sharday Musorinjohn

Sharday C. Mosurinjohn (PhD) is a multidisciplinary scholar working in the areas of religious studies, cultural theory, aesthetic philosophy, and media and technology studies. Her research is about contemporary mind-body experience as spiritual and religious experience. Her first book is The Spiritual Significance of Overload Boredom (2022; McGill-Queen’s University Press). Her new book project looks to explore the concept of Entheogenic Esotericism in a way that reunites the study of religion, magic, and science in the psychedelic turn. 

Adena Phillips

Adena Phillips is the CEO of Rhizome Partners, a strategy and culture consulting firm, a leadership coach for executives, rabbis, and community leaders, and the founder of Kimu, a community for Jewish spiritual integration. 

Rev. Hunt Priest

A priest in The Episcopal Church, the Rev. Hunt Priest was a participant in the Johns Hopkins/New York University Religious Professionals study. His encounters with psilocybin opened him to the healing and consciousness-raising power of sacred plants and fungi and their connection to his own Christian practice. The epiphanies forever changed the trajectory of his work and led him to start Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society. Ligare networks with psychedelic researchers, mental health clinicians, spiritual guides and teachers, healers, philanthropists and people of goodwill, regardless of creed, to co-create a movement of healing and wholeness. Striving for justice and peace among all people, Ligare grounds its work in the Christian contemplative tradition and is committed to seeking and serving Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Fayzan Rab

Fayzan is a Muslim-American, MD candidate, and psychedelic researcher. His passion is bringing together Eastern wisdom with Western science for the advancement of human potential and healing. Fayzan's research and TEDx talk focuses on attitudes Muslims have towards new treatment modalities like psychedelic-assisted therapy with a focus on what would be necessary to bridge these innovations with religious and cultural minorities. Fayzan started his career in Silicon Valley as a product leader at Google and Mindstrong Health. He subsequently served as a political organizer for Muslims in the Bay Area. Beyond his research, Fayzan is an executive coach working primarily with minorities who are looking to improve their leadership and presence. He lives in Atlanta with his fiancée, Shua, and their cat, Bella.

John Rapp

John Rapp is a New York and Washington State lawyer, mediator, teacher, ethicist and activist who educates, advises, connects and protects entheogenic practitioners. He taught in the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School’s first Psychedelic Law and Policy Boot Camp in 2024. He started his career as a NYC Assistant District Attorney, and moved into litigating class actions and major cases. He has been a manager at three of the world’s largest law firms; directed companywide ethics education for a Fortune 50 tech company; and edited a global magazine. In his career as a law teacher, he has personally taught thousands of lawyers and produced hundreds of seminars. He has actively supported the work of the Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants and is a founding member of the Psychedelic Bar Association. He is very active in the Sacred Garden Community Entheist church, and served on its inaugural Ethics Council.

Yosef Rosen

Dr. Yosef Rosen is the Director of Jewish Life & Learning at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland (OR). A recipient of a doctorate in Jewish Studies (UC Berkeley), Yosef works at the intersection of Jewish education and community-building. His current scholarship focuses on the social history of early-modern Ashkenazi magic. His public workshops merge what modern society often keeps separate: the contemporary and the ancient, the academic and the experiential, the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the somatic. He is also an instructor with the Aleph Ordination Program, where he trains future Jewish leaders to cultivate spiritual practices rooted in the history of Jewish mysticism.

Sam Shonkoff

Sam Shonkoff is the Taube Family Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. His scholarship focuses on the history of Jewish spirituality and methods in the study of religion. He coedited Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World (Brandeis University Press), and his recent articles include “Child Mind in Hasidic Spirituality,” “‘We Shall Do and We Shall Understand’: Embodied Theology in Modern Judaism,” “Gender in Martin Buber’s Hasidic Tales,” and “What the Study of Religion Can Teach Us about Psychedelics.” His current book project is tentatively titled Embodied Theology: Reading Buber Reading Hasidism. He has collaborated with the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and served as lead instructor for “Psychedelics and Religion,” a digital learning series featuring scholars from the GTU and UC Berkeley. Shonkoff taught formerly at Oberlin College and holds a PhD from the University of Chicago.

Charles Stang

Charles M. Stang is Professor of Early Christian Thought and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. The CSWR’s “Transcendence and Transformation” initiative includes research and programming on the intersection of psychedelics, religion, and spirituality, including an annual conference, workshops, speaker series, walking tours, and more. The CSWR is part of the wider Harvard Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture, and in that capacity works closely with our partners the Petrie-Flom Center at HLS and the Mahindra Humanities Center.

Elliot Wolfson

Elliot R. Wolfson, a Fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is the Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Distinguished Professor of Religion Emeritus at University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of many publications including most recently The Duplicity of Philosophy’s Shadow: Heidegger, Nazism and the Jewish Other (2018); Heidegger and Kabbalah: Hidden Gnosis and the Path of Poiēsis (2019); Suffering Time: Philosophical, Kabbalistic, and Ḥasidic Reflections on Temporality (2021); and Nocturnal Seeing: Hopelessness of Hope and Philosophical Gnosis in Susan Taubes, Gillian Rose, and Edith Wyschogrod (2025).

Matthew Zorn

Matthew Zorn is a highly respected litigator with considerable experience in the psychedelics and cannabis space. He routinely assists clients in challenges to DEA proposed rules, among other issues.

Symposium Participants

Robert Ansin

Two passions have always driven Massachusetts-born entrepreneur Robert Ansin: to innovate and to give back. After attending three life-changing psilocybin retreats in Jamaica, he was inspired to establish a private charitable foundation, Healing Hearts Changing Minds. Ansin now wants to give others the opportunity to process their own traumas and unpack the roots of their mental health problems―and then go back to their communities to spread the healing. The organization focused its initial funding on future facilitators from the LGBTQIA+ communities; Robert's connection with this community traces back to his childhood in the 1970s when his father, Ron, came out as bisexual. Ron later became a prominent advocate and philanthropist within the gay community. Robert is also the proud father of two children, Indigo and Olly. Robert has gained valuable insights for this work by supporting Indigo on their gender affirmation journey.

Karina Bashir

Karina Bashir is an accomplished attorney and thought leader with a specialized focus on the intersection of law, business ethics, and psychedelics. As counsel with Antithesis Law, PC, she provides guidance on a range of core business and regulatory services. Her legal expertise encompasses international human rights, ESG, best practices, compliance, and internal investigations. Karina’s nearly decade-long experience in human rights informs her perspective that psychedelic legalization should be recognized as a human rights issue, due to its significant healing potential. A leading voice on regulatory matters, she collaborates with the North Star Project to advance safe and equitable access to psychedelics, promoting best practices and enhancing industry accountability. Karina serves on the Board of the Psychedelic Bar Association and is a steward of the Religious Use Committee. A Fulbright and Gates Cambridge Scholar, Karina holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley and an M.Phil. from Cambridge.

I. Glenn Cohen

Glenn is the James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law and Deputy Dean at Harvard Law School and the Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics. He is an election member of the National Academy of Medicine. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books and more than 250 articles or book chapters in leading medical, science, public health, bioethics, and law journals. He is the principal investigator on the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) at Harvard Law School.

Hadar Cohen

Hadar Cohen is an Arab Jewish scholar, mystic and artist whose work focuses on multi-religious spirituality, politics, social issues, and community building. She is the founder of Malchut, a spiritual skill-building school teaching Jewish mysticism and direct experience of God. Hadar is a 10th-generation Jerusalemite with lineage roots also in Syria, Kurdistan, Iraq and Iran.

Andrew Dunn

Andrew is a student and interstitionary at the intersection of human development and social entrepreneurship, currently building School of Wise Innovation to support visionaries in living, working, and creating with greater alignment. Before serving as Innovation Lead at Center for Humane Technology, Andrew spent over 10 years in early stage startup operations, most notably with the pioneering Public Benefit Corporation Siempo while they developed an award-winning open source humane smartphone interface. He's a nomad who weaves across many lands and paths and subcultures, including Judaism and medicinal plants.

Paul Gillis-Smith

Paul Gillis-Smith is a program lead of the Psychedelics and Spirituality program at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. He is an HDS alum (M.Div '24) whose research has focused on the history of psychiatry as it relates to psychedelic medicine and chaplaincy. Paul was the inaugural student chaplain of HDS' ketamine chaplaincy program at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital. He co-produced the Harvard Psychedelic Walking Tour, co-facilitated the CSWR's first reading group on psychedelics and religion, and he co-organizes the CSWR's annual conference on psychedelics.

George H. Grant

Dr. Grant, a psychologist and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, is the Executive Director for Spiritual Health in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University. He is responsible for the education of spiritual health clinicians, the service of spiritual health to patients and staff across Emory Healthcare and a scientific research arm driving evidence-based outcomes. Dr. Grant also serves as Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality.

Dan Grossman

Dan Grossman is Chief Field Building Officer at the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative (PSFC), a non-profit membership organization for philanthropists seeking to advance equitable access to safe psychedelic healing for all who can benefit. In this role, Dan serves as an adviser to PSFC members, conducting research and analysis to help donors maximize the impact of their giving in alignment with their personal goals. Previously, Dan was a Managing Director & Senior Partner in the Health Care Practice Area of Boston Consulting Group, where he advised leaders of global pharmaceutical and medical device companies on development and commercialization of new-to-world therapies in areas of high unmet medical need.

Rabbi Lila Kagedan

Rabbi Lila Kagedan is a clergy person, ethicist, mediator and educator working in academic, pastoral and clinical settings. She is a Shalom Hartman Institute senior rabbinic fellow and a Hadassah Brandeis Institute-Gender, Culture, Religion and Law Research Associate. Kagedan was ordained in 2015 by Yeshivat Maharat where she became the first Orthodox woman to claim the title rabbi and served until recently as the rabbi of the Walnut Street Synagogue in Chelsea, MA. Kagedan, is the Dean of Ethics and Professionalism at New York Medical College School of Medicine where she also holds the Alfred E. Smith institute on Human Values chair. She sits on the ethics committee at Westchester Medical Center as well as Cambridge Health Alliance where she serves as an ethicist and chaplain. She consults nationally and internationally on matters of bioethics as well as bioethics and Jewish law. Kagedan also holds appointments at the New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice and the Touro School of Dental.

David Zvi Kalman

David Zvi Kalman is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a senior advisor at Sinai and Synapses, and the host of Belief in the Future, a podcast about religion and technology. He is the owner of Print-O-Craft Press, a publishing house focused on cutting edge Jewish books. He blogs at Jello Menorah. His current book project, on Jewish futurism, examines the frontiers of Jewish thought, including its intersection with psychedelics.

Roman Palitsky

Roman Palitsky, MDiv, Ph.D. is Director of Research Projects for Emory Spiritual Health and a Research Psychologist for Emory University School of Medicine. His research program investigates the pathways through which culture and health interact by examining the biological, psychological, and social processes that constitute these pathways. In collaboration with Emory Spiritual Health, his research addresses cultural and existential topics in healthcare such as religion, spirituality, and the way people find meaning in suffering, as they relate to health and illness.

David Sauvage

David Sauvage has been exploring the intersection of Judaism, psychedelics and prophecy. He's also in a deep inquiry around how to bring money into sacred spaces with integrity.

Matthew Sacchet

Dr. Matthew D. Sacchet, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Meditation Research Program at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Sacchet and his team study advanced meditation: skills, states, and stages of contemplative practice that unfold with mastery and time. He has authored more than 125 publications, presented more than 150 times at conferences and speaker series and been cited more than 8,000 times. He has received support from numerous foundations and repeat awards from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. His work has been covered by many major media outlets, including CBS, Forbes, Men’s/Women’s Health, NBC, NPR, Scientific American, TIME, Vox, and The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes named him one of its “30 Under 30.” Dr. Sacchet is an Associate Editor of the leading meditation academic journal Mindfulness.

Adam Sher

Adam’s entrance to adulthood was initiated by macrodoses of Psilocybin, LSD, and 5MEO DMT in the context of an academic and experiential immersion in a syncretic Kabbalistic, Sufi, and Gnostic Christian paradigm. From the myco-forests of the Olympic Peninsula, Adam made pilgrimage to the Berkshires, to wash dishes at and eventually direct a Jewish eco-spiritual retreat center that was beloved by Reb Zalman, the psychedelic rebbe who saw Jewish practice as a particular rhizome of human theotropic evolution. These days, Adam conspires with leading innovators in Jewish cultural transformation, offering anti-solutionist strategy to Jewish Studio Project, Ayin Press, and The Shalom Center among others. He also collaborates with renowned postactivist philosopher Bayo Akomolafe on carnivalesque interventions. His librarian wife and two sons, 9 and 6, keep his feet on the ground.

Erica Siegal

Erica Siegal, LCSW is a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, community organizer and harm reduction advocate. She has spent the past 20 years exploring diverse ways to create impactful, connective experiences while increasing community safety and wellness. Erica worked on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy clinical trials from 2014 - 2019 and has spent over a decade providing harm reduction and crisis response services at events and festivals worldwide. In 2019, she founded two organizations, NEST Harm Reduction & Consulting, a California-based mental health practice that provides psychotherapy, outreach, education, and integration services. She recently founded SHINE Collective, a non-profit dedicated to supporting those who have experienced real harm from assault, abuse, neglect, coercion and manipulation within psychedelic communities. Given her years of experience and unique lens on Psychedelia, Erica provides commentary and insight into the risks and potential harms in the mainstreaming of psychedelics into society and culture.

Samantha Rose Stein

Samantha Rose Stein’s artwork is on the home page of this website. Samantha is a truth seeker, and a discerning optimist. She’s developed open source protocols for the digital preservation of history. She’s scaled tech startups to tens of millions of users. She’s predicted the technology globally most likely to shape our future. She is also a painter, and a humanist. Her innovative and critical thinking fuels her pen, and her paintbrush.

Benjamin Summers

Reb Beni is an emergent leader at the intersection between Jewish spiritual leadership and the psychedelic field. He was the first-ever intern for Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support, helping to develop the integration protocols and expand the reach of Shefa in both Israel and the United States. He recently received private ordination from Rabbi Arthur Green and facilitates integration circles and weekly meditation gatherings in the Cambridge area. He loves Torah, soccer, birds, singing and bass music.

Julie Weitz

Julie Weitz is an artist, writer, and educator who creates embodied, collective experiences of repair by engaging with the wounds and resilience of diasporic culture. Her research-based practice brings figures from Yiddish folklore to life, exploring themes of loss and healing through their interactions with culturally significant sites—particularly those where Yiddish culture was nearly eradicated. A Fulbright Scholar, Weitz has served as a guide for Ashkenazi healing pilgrimages to Poland since 2023. She also co-facilitates Jewish psychedelic ceremonies incorporating Acacia and Syrian Rue.