Our Pharmaceutical Psychoactive Investigations students explore the discovery, development, and clinical application of psychoactive drugs as therapeutic agents.
PPI MS Student Directory
Jesus Anchondo
Credentials: BA
Jesus is President of Discussing Research On Psychoactive Substances (DROPS) student organization. He is looking forward to join a lab and pursue a PhD in neuroscience to understand the molecular changes that occurs when psilocybin, mescaline or Salvinorin A is administered. He is interested to learn methods to synthesize compounds or find alternative methods to produce these substances in E.Coli
Elani Rae Barber
Credentials: BS
Elani is a Postproduction Operations Manager at Cannabis Nation Inc. She is interested in expanding her knowledge on the medicinal and therapeutic properties of psychoactive plant medicines and seeking out clinical research opportunities, or opportunities within a therapeutic setting, to engage in research firsthand. She is also passionate about spreading awareness of these potential health benefits and plan to seek out public speaking opportunities on the topic following graduation.
Lauren Blue
Credentials: PharmD
Lauren is currently a Pharmacist at Walgreens Pharmacy. Lauren’s professional goal is to be an integral part of the success of clinical trials that research the effects of psychedelic guided therapy, perhaps psilocybin, on people with treatment-resistant depression. Lauren wants to help bring this groundbreaking therapy to those people who need it the most. Lauren’s role may be in project management, the regulatory aspect, or an area of medicinal therapy is relatively novel and growing exponentially by the year!
Perry Boyd
Credentials: BS
Perry’s interests began years ago when she heard about psilocybin therapy as treatment for mental disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Perry is presently open to exploring any and all realms of psychedelic therapy, but would feel most fulfilled working within a clinical setting.
Juan Cabrera
Credentials: MD
Dr. Cabrera is a General and Geriatric Psychiatrist. As a general psychiatrist, Dr. Cabrera’s goal is to learn how psychedelic medicine can be used for treatment resistant depression and other mood disorders. As a geriatric psychiatrist, Dr. Cabrera wants to explore the efficacy of these medicines with patients with end-of-life anxiety, cognitive disorders and traumatic brain injury. As a certified performance coach, Dr. Cabrera is curious in the utility of psychedelics with persons in pursuit of self-actualization.
Melissa Cutts
Credentials: MS
Melissa is a Dispensary Agent is interested in using what she knows to help people achieve more fulfilling lives.
Kian Feiner
Credentials: BS, MS
Kian believes the impact of psychedelic experiences is influenced by what happens before & after the journey, not just during. Through arii, Kian hopes to ensure equitable access to psychedelic support services at every stage of this journey.
Beverly Fergus
Credentials: BS
Beverly’s professional goal is educating people on the potential of psychedelics for mental healthcare.
Michelle Galen
Credentials: MD
Dr. Galen is a Physician and Clinical Research Investigator at Deaconess Health System. As a Clinical Research Investigator, with a background in Family Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Galen is excited to be part of the Multidisciplinary Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation Program. Dr. Galen is looking forward to being on the forefront in development of emerging treatments for her current areas of research, including autism spectrum disorder, migraine headaches, and mood disorders; as well as other diverse pharmacotherapies. Through her Public Health work, she hopes to continue to work with policy makers addressing mental health issues as they relate to public health.
Kristin Kempson
Credentials: BSN, RN
Kristin is currently an RN at Ro. Her goal is to deepen her understanding of psilocybin’s (and other psychoactive substances) effects on the body and its therapeutic potential in society.
Kayla Kinsman
Credentials: MS
Kayla is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) at the VA. Kayla is interested in psychedelic therapy for treatment of various psychiatric diagnoses, as well as herbal and holistic healing remedies.
Johnny Lugo
Credentials: BS
Johnny wants to learn more about psychoactive drugs, so he can be better prepared to go into pharmaceutical research. Johnny really wants to work with Ibogaine in the future and explore its potential of being used as a treatment for substance use disorders.
Natasha Marilu Sanchez
Credentials: BS
Natasha is a Production Associate at Lin-Zhi International. Natasha’s professional interests and goals related to her program of study are to polish her investigative skills and take part in pharmacuetical research.
Deepika McConnell
Credentials: PharmD
Deepika worked as a neurocritical care pharmacist caring for patients with neurologic diseases for most of her career. Her interest in psychedelic medicine stems from their ability to promote neuroplasticity. Deepika is drawn towards continuing her work in clinical practice with a goal to make treatment accessible to all patients.
Emily Mendoza
Credentials: BA
Emily would love to be a part of a research study that is focused on the use of psychoactive medicine as an alternative for the treatment of mental health and drug addictions.
Sarah Minto-Sparks
Credentials: BS
Sarah is fascinated by psychopharmacology and psychedelic applications for mental health. Sarah is looking to expand upon her undergraduate neuroscience degree and learn about psychoactive drugs in depth, meet like-minded peers, connect with mentors, and ultimately find their place as a scientist in this field!
Andrea Miranda
Credentials: BS
Andrea is a Clinical Research Coordinator Associate at Stanford University. She wants to learn more about the history and current use of psychedelics and cannabinoids so that she can pursue a career in psychedelic clinical research in the future. Andrea wants to have a robust understanding of the regulatory and scientific concepts regarding psychedelic research so that she can ultimately contribute to creating protocols that are likely to get approved. Her long-term goal is to help develop treatments that will help patients in the mental health field, while advocating for respect of the indigenous knowledge and history that introduced us to psychedelics.
Tessa Mullin
Credentials: BA
Tessa is currently a Research Assistant at Rush Medical University in Chicago, IL. Tessa’s goal is to help shape the way we approach mental health, making it a more holistic view as opposed to one avenue of treatment.
Nicholas Panico
Credentials: BS
Nicholas is a Medical Writer at Symbio Research LLC. He’d like to gain the necessary scientific background to do clinical research work in the psychedelic space, particularly for mental health.
Bri Pomonis
Credentials: BS
Bri is a Researcher 3 at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Bri is interested in research and developing therapeutic frameworks for using psychedelics in eating disorder/addiction recovery, and how psychedelics can be used to expand the concept of “self” beyond the physical body. Bri is passionate about drug education for young people and harm reduction. Bri also loves exploring the relationship between music and drugs, and how recreationally/socially-used drugs influence how we experience, perceive, and feel about music/the setting.
Shea Ruhly
Credentials: BS
Shea is a pharmacy intern at Walgreens. As a recent graduate of UW-Madison, she is continuing her education in the PPI MS program to further advance her knowledge in the area of psychedelic therapies for mental health care. She believes this field is the future of treatment of these conditions, and wants to apply this evolving research to her future career in medicine. Shea’s goal is to attend medical school and implement these advances in her treatment of patients in a clinical setting.
Rana Sebak
Credentials: BA
Rana currently works in the pharmaceutical industry as a Trial Manager, and would like to take on a more scientific role in the industry, where Rana gets to contribute to writing and developing clinical trial protocols and clinical study reports, analyzing data, determining dosing for upcoming cohorts, and providing the scientific expertise necessary to design and deliver clinical studies and programs.
Mary Sluder
Credentials: BS, MPA, MSES
Mary is a Environmental Health Policy Analyst at ICF. She aims to expand her skills in human health modeling and deepen her understanding of the potential adverse and therapeutic effects of chemicals to better support evidence-based rule-making and regulatory decision-making.
Carter Smith
Credentials: BA, CPhT
Carter is a Senior OR Pharmacy Technician with the University of Kentucky. Carter is interested in expanding the oceanic boundlessness of research in the psychedelic realm and becoming an advocate for these medicines. As such, his career goals evolve and change routinely. He is interested in rock climbing, growing plants, and playing with cats.
Skyler Smith
Credentials: BA
Skyler hopes to ultimately become a physician associate so that he can work with clinical applications of psychedelic treatments, with the PPI program providing a strong background to do so. A major mission he has is to always keep accessibility at the forefront of what he does. The end goal is to eventually open a clinic in Colorado focusing on functional medicine and psychedelic treatments for patients who may have complicated and/or chronic health issues.
Maddy Tolland
Credentials: BS
Maddy is a Lab Technician/Technical Support at Sage Science. Over the past five years, Maddy has gained experience in the mental health industry as a residential counselor, laboratory and research skills in the medical laboratory field, as well as cannabis extraction and development at a biotech company. Maddy’s goal is to open her own clinic by 2030, with the mission to provide therapeutic experiences and products through the use of psychoactive medicine. Maddy plans to combine her knowledge of medicinal plants with her science background and passion for mental health treatment in a way that allows people to confront their trauma in a new, mind-expanding way.
Owen Wheeler
Credentials: BA
Owen is a Marketing Intern for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. His primary professional interests have to do with exploring robust social and governmental forms of infrastructure for use of psychedelics outside of the biomedicalization paradigm. Through mixed methods research and public education, Owen hopes to empower groups and individuals to safely make use of these substances through more accessible avenues than can be afforded by fully medicalized pathways to access.
Stephanie Wong
Credentials: BS
Stephanie is a New Product Integration Manager at Haus Labs. Stephanie is committed to advancing innovation, equity, and diversity in healthcare and mental health. Passionate about ethical, evidence-based research, she aims to advocate for public policy reform to support inclusive mental health access and innovations like harm reduction, addiction medicine, and psychoactive therapies. Her goal is to bridge the gap between scientific progress and general public understanding, fostering a more inclusive approach to mental health and public health.
Alexandra Yokomizo
Credentials: BS
Alexandra is a Research Assistant at Touro University Nevada. In her current position, she is conducting research on the endocannabinoid system and cannabinoids using dSTORM microscopy. Upon completing her degree, she aims to continue and expand her research in Madison, Wisconsin, with a focus on exploring the role of the endocannabinoid system in various physiological processes. Additionally, during her undergraduate studies, she gained experience as a cannabis cultivator, and she is particularly interested in cannabis breeding for medicinal and research purposes, with an emphasis on genomics.
PPI Capstone Student Directory
Abigail Bowring
Credentials: BS
Abigail is a Lab Manager at Texas A&M School of Medicine. This application cycle, she is pursuing a research intensive doctoral program with an emphasis on psychedelic therapeutics for treatment resistant mental health. The Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation Program is a unique formal educational opportunity that will enrich her foundational knowledge and broaden her perspective as work towards becoming an independent researcher.
Alexandra Enders
Credentials: BS, BA
Alexandra ia a Research Analyst at Charles River Laboratories. She would like to continue in preclinical work. Specifically, assisting with understanding underlying cellular mechanisms for psychoactive drugs.
Martín Guerrero
Credentials: MBA, CFA
Building upon a diverse business background, Martín aims to apply insights gained from the PPI program to advance commercialization efforts and foster innovative public and private payer frameworks within the psychedelic-assisted therapy landscape. He is currently working alongside the Collaborative for the Economics of Psychedelics to broaden access to cost-effectiveness models for these treatments.
Tim Hughes
Credentials: BS
Tim is a stay at home father and his professional focus is on exploring the therapeutic potential of psychoactive substances, particularly natural psychedelics and plant medicines. He is fascinated by how these substances interact with consciousness in humans and across species. He is driven to understand how animals’ interactions with psychoactives might reveal adaptive behaviors or evolutionary insights. Tim also believes in challenging the misconceptions about these medicines. For him, it’s about advocating for a more open-minded, science-based perspective that recognizes the value of nature’s gifts. His goal is to contribute to a world where psychoactive substances are understood for their healing potential and accessible to all who can benefit.
Sarah Palmer Prindable
Credentials: BA
Sarah is a yoga, meditation and reiki teacher at Rogue Yoga in Chicago. Her goal is to gain a deep understanding of the current psychedelic pharmaceutical landscape, both to better educate her clients and to gain credentials that can serve to bolster trust.
Zoe Talman
Credentials: BS
Zoe is interested in developing skills and making connections to pursue a career in the exciting field of psychedelics.
Additional PPI MS Students
- Aaron Lisle
- Al Bugazia
- Alex Moreno
- Andrew Zolp
- Ariel Shaw
- Christina Sargent
- Christopher Cramer
- Dakota Smith
- David Cox
- Dylan Shaefer
- Edward Shaughnessy
- Isabel Bermudez
- Isabella Rebuk
- Jose Apodaca
- Joseph Sanchez
- Kathy Phillips
- Lauren Sweezey
- Laurie Cossar
- Luna Crowley
- Marlee Richardson
- Marlon Delos Reyes
- Maya Trivedi
- Nikki Greene
- Nicole King
- Renzo Costa
- Shannon Finnigan
- Tess Durham
- T McCullough
- Travus Maloney
- Zachary Wright
Additional PPI Capstone Students
- Alexander Gekas
- Erin Rennebohm Sistare
- Jacob Hawkes
- Kaia Sword
- Max Salazar