Dominic is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Cannabis Studies Program Lead at Cal Poly Humboldt University. His research interests include regulatory effects of policing illicit drugs; history and geography of cannabis prohibition and legalization; political economy of cannabis markets; cultural geography of cannabis in California; and ethnographies of cannabis criminalization as it pertains to Local Equity Programs in California.

Genine is the Founder and Executive Director of Origins Council, a California nonprofit advocacy, education and research organization dedicated to sustainable rural economic development for rural cannabis producing regions. OC is partnered with 6 regional trade associations based in rural legacy producing regions, and represents the collective 900 members of these regional partner associations in OC’s programmatic activity. Her research interests are focused on community-based participatory research and appellations research. She is currently collaborating with university researchers in California to study the economic impact of cannabis legalization on the North Coast. 

Todd is a Historian and Academic Specialist with the Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. A specialist in California and the American West, his work focuses on the history of politics, business, and agriculture in the region. At the Oral History Center, he serves as the managing academic specialist of the UC Berkeley / OHC 420 Archive, a collaborative project focused on documenting and preserving the history of California Cannabis.

Eleanor is the Co-founder and CEO of LeafWorks, a botanical genetics company focusing on plant identification and building DNA based diagnostic and verification tools for the emerging cannabis and medicinal plant industries. A classically trained botanist that has worked extensively in medicinal plants and specialty crops, her work has focused on the impacts and importance of population diversity and gene flow in agricultural systems, and how agricultural best practices affect medicinal plant quality and market value. She has a long connection to the cannabis community. In 2015, she co-founded Canndor, the Peoples Herbarium – the world’s first cannabis herbarium – to document diversity and protect the plant stewards that breed and maintain those plant collections under prohibition.

Marj brings over forty-five years of dedicated service to the forefront of social justice movements in the United States as an experienced non-profit executive director, consultant, leadership coach, and trainer. Marj’s extensive expertise spans a range of domains, including public policy advocacy training, Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), and organizational and leadership development. Through her company, Plumbline Coaching and Consulting, Inc., Marj is dedicated to fostering collaboration among nonprofit leaders, health professionals, and researchers to shape impactful research that informs public policy change. This dedication is exemplified by initiatives like Reach the Decision Makers, aimed at influencing the US Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, Marj has developed CBPR training programs for various funding agencies and their grantees and facilitated the CBPR collaboration of participants in the Child Health and Development Studies, the oldest and largest multigenerational cohort study. Over the past twenty years, she has coached and mediated disagreements in numerous CBPR projects, underscoring her commitment to effective and cooperative research practices.

Khalil is an accomplished strategist, advocate, and community organizer. He brings a racial equity lens to his leadership as well as a passion to implement racial equity in his organizations, network, and community. Khalil has assisted small for-profit and non-profit businesses with their business plans, structure, financials, and identifying funding opportunities. Khalil’s focus on strategies for combating gentrification and supporting inclusive economic development programs has resulted in appointments to committees, speaking engagements, and numerous awards. Currently, Khalil is the President of the United CORE Alliance (UCA), a non-profit organization in Sacramento, CA that restores the rights of formerly incarcerated individuals through the records expungement process in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development and the City of Sacramento.

Hannah is an attorney who has worked on behalf of legacy cultivators adversely impacted by the War on Drugs for more than three decades. In her work, she has helped document those impacts for equity grants, directly assisted cultivators with their transition to and through licensing, and now brings her history, knowledge, and compassion to this Legacy Genetics Project. In addition to regularly analyzing and commenting on state and local regulations, she has regularly prepared and presented community and professional education materials and workshops. Hannah’s deep history in cannabis law, originally as a criminal defense and civil rights attorney, and currently as a business, land use, and compliance attorney, is complimented by her extensive experience in the development, implementation and oversight of local, state, and federal grants.

Ross is Policy Director with Humboldt County Growers Alliance (HCGA) and Policy Chair with Origins Council (OC). In these roles, Ross works to help direct HCGA and OC’s policy advocacy at the local, state, and federal level. Following the passage of Proposition 64, Ross worked as policy staff for California Growers Association, a statewide trade association primarily representing the interests of small, independent, and legacy cannabis farmers in rural California. In 2018, he began working for HCGA with a focus on a range of legislative and regulatory policy goals including sustainable rural economic development, the protection of the Humboldt name, and the ability for small and independent businesses to succeed within the regulated cannabis market. In 2021, following HCGA’s decision to join Origins Council as a regional partner organization, Ross came on board as Policy Chair with Origins Council to help represent the interests of legacy California producing regions on a statewide and federal level.

Richard is a wine lawyer at the law firm of Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty in Napa and Santa Rosa who specializes in the establishment of American wine appellations. Richard also represents the Napa Valley Vintners, which is the trade association of Napa Valley wineries, and in that capacity has worked to protect the Napa name at home and abroad. Richard directs the the Wine Law and Policy Program at UC Berkeley Law School. He has written several books on wine, including most recently Appellation Napa Valley: Building and Protecting an American Treasure (Val de Grace 2016).

Courtney Bailey (she/her) has over a decade of leadership experience in the cannabis industry, emphasizing compliance, operations, and financial management. In 2010, she co-founded Giving Tree Farms and later helped launch Hive Mendocino Cooperative, one of California’s first cannabis cooperatives. Courtney also co-founded the Rural Resilience Project, a nonprofit dedicated to securing grant funding for cultivators to support annual licensure, water conservation, and sustainable practices.