Dr. Cody J. Wenthur is a translational investigator in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Translational Medicine at UW–Madison, serves as the founding director of the MS Program in Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation, and as the chair of education and outreach for the Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances. His work is focused on improving our understanding of the basis for beneficial and detrimental effects of psychedelics, opioids, cannabinoids, and other neuroplasticity-inducing approaches in the context of novel therapeutic approaches for promoting and maintaining mental health. His research program has received grant and fellowship support from NIGMS, NIDA, NIMH, independent foundations, industrial partners, and philanthropic funds. The resulting findings have been published in leading journals such as Nature and PNAS, have yielded the development of first-in-class tool compounds, have generated new techniques for the investigation of polypharmacologic effects of complex psychoactive mixtures, and supported improved understanding of extrapharmacolgic factors that impact psychoactive drug effects.

Rick Strassman, M.D., author of “DMT: The Spirit Molecule,” and co-author of “Inner Paths to Outer Space,” lives in Gallup, New Mexico, and is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. A native of Los Angeles, his undergraduate studies occurred at Pomona College and Stanford University, medical training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, psychiatry residency at UC Davis, and psychopharmacology fellowship at UC San Diego. He performed the first new human research with hallucinogenic drugs in the U.S. in a generation. In “DMT and The Soul of Prophecy” (Inner Traditions), and has developed a new top-down model of religious/prophetic experience, “theoneurology.” This new model provides a theistic complement to that of the reigning materialistic bottom-up neurotheology. His website is www.rickstrassman.com

Dr. Kwasi Adusei is a service-oriented, curious Ghanaian native passionate about the intersections of community, well-being, and technology. He has a vision for a future driven by inner and outer restoration and how they converge to alter the maladaptive systems of our current world. He is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, co-founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York, and led the development of a grassroots psychedelic harm reduction organization called the Sanctuary Project. As an educator and community organizer, he is informed by his experience with the war on drugs and community mental health, both as a patient and a clinician. He serves on the boards of Reconsider, the Source Research Foundation, the Psychedelic Medicine Association, and the Psychedelic Research And Training Institute, and is part of the Diversity Working Group for MAPS and an adjunct at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Ruth Gaviria is an award-winning leader known for creating and establishing brand and marketing for publicly traded brands and nonprofit organizations. She is considered an expert in brand development, the role of marketing in a changing organization and understanding the consumer voice. Gaviria launched her own brand and marketing consultancy in 2019 and currently works with on tech start-ups, nonprofits, real estate, media and entertainment brands. Previously, Gaviria was Entercom’s (now Audacy) first ever CMO, establishing the practice, and overseeing of all marketing and communications functions including corporate marketing, brand development, ad sales marketing and research, and corporate communications and public relations. Before joining Entercom, Gaviria was Executive Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Univision Communications, where she was responsible for structuring the marketing organization. She began her career in brand management, holding positions at Procter & Gamble, Miller Brewing Company, Colgate Palmolive, and Time Inc. Currently, Gaviria serves on the board of Reconsider and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Neşe Devenot, PhD is a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for Research in Sensing, an Affiliate Scholar at The Ohio State University’s Center for Psychedelic Drug Research & Education, and a Research Fellow with Psymposia. She previously completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Bioethics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and she received her Ph.D in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Her scholarship examines bioethical approaches to psychedelic medicine, and she conducts research on the function of metaphor and other literary devices in narrative accounts of psychedelic experiences. She was a 2015-16 Research Fellow at the New York Public Library’s Timothy Leary Papers and a Research Fellow with the New York University Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, where she participated in the first qualitative study of patient experiences. She has presented on psychedelics at conferences in the United States, Mexico, Canada, England, France, the Netherlands, and Australia.