Our 2022-2023 Leadership Team

Victor is 5th Year PhD in the Bioengineering Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Center for Neurotrauma, Neurodegeneration, and Restoration at the CMJC Veterans Hospital, Center for Brain Injury and Repair, and the Penn Psychedelics Collaborative. He is also an organizer for the upcoming PhilaDelic Conference at UPenn (July 13th – 15th). Victor’s thesis focuses on the development and characterization of a 3D tissue engineered in-vitro model for neuroscience research. He has also delivered talks on the neuroscience underlying the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for neurotrauma. He is also passionate about policy reform, community organizing, neuroethics, and philosophy, He is also a Co-Founder and Director of Internal Operations for the Intercollegiate Psychedelics Network, a non-profit organization developing students into the next generation of diverse and interdisciplinary leaders in the psychedelic ecosystem. He is the Chair of the Graduate Faculty Board for the Penn Psychedelic Collaborative.

I’m currently an undergraduate student at Arizona State University and will be graduating May 2023 with a BS in Psychology. I was born and raised in Austin, Texas and love to read, cook, and do anything outdoors related in my free time. I’m interested in psychedelics because of how much potential they have as a safer and more potent alternative to the conventional treatment methods currently available in the mental health field, which is a field that means a lot to me and am pursuing a career in.

Uma is a neuroscientist, board-certified Mental Health Peer Specialist, and mental health advocate. She is currently completing her M.S. in neuroscience at the University of Texas-Dallas, studying the hemispheric lateralization of the central amygdala in the Kolber Lab. She has also conducted award-winning psychedelic research, bringing together her multidisciplinary background to study the effects of psychedelic-assisted therapy on comorbid OCD and PTSD across several disciplines. She has presented her research at numerous scientific conferences and received several accolades for her novel findings, including winning the PsychedelX 2022 conference and several research awards. Uma’s research, MHPS practice, and advocacy are all informed by her lived experience with AYA cancer, OCD, PTSD, and chronic illnesses. Her survivorship serves as the bedrock of her advocacy, carried out through her work as an educator, organizer, and host of the podcast ‘A Chat with Uma.’ Uma is also a global Advocate for the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF).

I’m a Master’s student at Imperial College London, studying Translational Neuroscience, and I have completed my Bachelor’s degree at UCL in Human Sciences. I am interested in human experiences of health and illness and new paradigms for improving healthcare, more generally. I am passionate about psychedelic research, specifically in the mechanisms of action of psychedelics and the factors influencing therapeutic outcomes in psychedelic-assisted therapy. I am particularly interested in digital therapeutics and applications of AI in psychedelic-assisted therapy, and I will be writing my master’s thesis on this topic at the Centre for Psychedelic Research and Dyson school of design engineering at Imperial. I also love surfing, climbing and have sailed a wooden ship across the Atlantic in the past!

Carli has a PhD in neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine where she studied memory using behavior and electrophysiology to probe memory, visual, and social areas of the brain. Her primary thesis work investigated changes in neural activity in functionally related brain regions under hallucinogenic LSD. She has been in IPN leadership for 3 years now, and believes in the potential of psychedelics to heal with careful, safe, and informed access paired with lifestyle change and proper integration. Carli is also a dog mamma and Rover host as well as a nutrition-informed cook, yogi, gardener, and outdoors explorer.

Connor is currently pursuing his J.D. at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He expects to graduate from law school and sit for the bar in 2024. Before Law School, Connor received his MA in Religion along with a graduate research certificate in Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism from Rice University in 2021. His master thesis “Psychedelics and Religious Insight: A Precedent in American Psycho-Spirituality from William James to Timothy Leary” is published and available through Rice. Connor received his BA in Religion as well as minors in Jewish Studies, Asian Studies, and Economics from Michigan State University in 2019. Connor also performed research abroad in Italy at John Cabot University and Israel/Palestine at Hebrew University. Connor is interested in domestic and foreign policy, research, and discourses around psychedelics from the clinical/therapeutic to the religious/spiritual.

Jeff’s innate interests in consciousness and wellness have naturally led to a passion for psychedelic medicine. He is currently a third year medical student at Dartmouth Medical School who hopes to bring psychedelic healing into his future practice as a physician.

Alex is a 4th year PhD student in Social Psychology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His research interests lie at the intersection of experimental existential psychology and the psychedelic sciences. Using theory and empirical validation, Alex is developing a model that explains how and why psychedelics – with a supportive therapeutic context and proper integration – have so much therapeutic value. Alex first became interested in psychedelics in 2016 when a friend shared a podcast hosted by Tim Ferriss. Alex’s initial intrigue was sparked from learning how clinical studies with psychedelics in the 1950’s/60’s showed great promise but were shut down for unscientific reasons. His intrigue turned into a career passion after hearing how many people reported a reduced fear of death after their psychedelic experiences. Alex is also a ski/snowboard instructor, an astrophysics enthusiast, and a guide for backpacking, canoeing, and hiking trips.

Erin is currently a 5th year Neuroscience PhD candidate at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, where she is studying the role of acetylcholine and norepinephrine in brain states. She also has a BA in Psychology with a minor in Mathematics from University of St. Thomas, and MA in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Neuroscience from University of Houston – Clear Lake. She is a native Houstonian and in her free time enjoys hanging out with her crew: husband, daughter, cat, and two corgis. Her career goal is to be able to bridge the gap between science and patient outcomes through a career in translational psychedelic research.

I’m an MD-PhD candidate studying parasite-viral coinfections within the Georgetown/NIH Graduate Partnership Program and UIC. I’m interested in studying the intersections between immunology and psychedelics and understanding how psychedelics might impact neuroimmunology. I like to boulder, run and try new recipes!

Isla graduated from Princeton University in 2022 with a degree in neuroscience. She hails from Bloomington, Indiana and currently lives in San Francisco working at a neuroscience research start-up. She is fascinated by psychedelics and the potential for neuroplastic mechanisms to alter the way we perceive and interact with the world around us. Her previous work with psychedelics includes mouse research to better understand the effects of context on psychedelic-induced changes and human research on improvements in well-being following high dose sessions. She is excited to learn from this year’s PsychedelX presenters!

Haley Maria Dourron is a Ph.D. student in the Drug Use and Behavior Lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her work focuses on understanding how psychedelics can induce lasting changes in people’s lives from a neurophenomenological behavioral perspective and how they compare to other extreme experiences, particularly psychosis. She is currently conducting an interview-based study of how people with a history of psychosis respond to psychedelics. She is also utilizing real-time fMRI neurofeedback in the post-acute effects of psilocybin to understand more about how flexibility within key large-scale brain networks might change after psilocybin-assisted therapy. She is also currently working with Dr. Peter Hendricks on a trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for cocaine dependence, which is the first-ever psilocybin-assisted therapy trial for any substance use disorder with a neuroimaging component. When not doing science she can be found running around the woods or rock climbing.