Board & Founding Team

The Ethical Data Alliance is a special project of Green Aid: The Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund, a 501(c)3 charitable non-profit. The Board of Directors of Green Aid are:

Ed Rosenthal is a lifetime marijuana activist, author, expert witness, and cultivation guru. Green Aid was formed to support his trial in 2003 and over the years has worked to defend child custody rights of medical cannabis users, the right of patients to travel with cannabis and to educate the public about injustices of the Drug War and domestic SWAT raids. Rosenthal started his activist career with the Yippies, which gave him a unique perspective regarding the citizen-government relationship. He was involved with the creation of High Times Magazine in 1972. His books on cultivation were part of a plan for DIY civilian activism. He was a primary mover in the passage of California’s Proposition 215 in 1996. Since then he has promoted the rights of marijuana users and growers through writing, speeches, seminars and direct activism.

Janice M. Vaughn Knox M.D., M.B.A
Dr. Janice Knox spent 32 years as a board-certified anesthesiologist before becoming an Endocannabinologist and Cannabinology specialist. As a cofounder of the American Cannabionoid Clinics, Dr. Janice feels that it’s important to voice how important it is to understand the pharmacology of cannabis and it’s application to the intricate physiology of the endocannabinoid system and the greater endocannabinodome. Dr. Janice feels endocannabinology is here to stay and should become a subspecialty in medical training. The future of cannabis as a medicine is dependent on how we understand the application of cannabis to the physiology of the body as medicine heads toward precision medicine.

Dr. Janice Knox is the CEO of the AC Group Inc., Oregon representative of the Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, a board director for the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine and Association, medical advisor to Hemptown USA, a medical advisory board member of PRA Global, medical advisory board member of Greenway DNA, CEO of ADVENT Academy, CEO Doctors Knox, Inc and AC group.

Jeffrey Hamilton

Focusing on the cannabis industry, Jeff Hamilton counsels companies of all sizes, from startups to publicly traded corporations, in a broad range of transactional matters. As a practitioner, Jeff is a generalist by design. His law practice includes mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt offerings, venture capital financings and day-to-day business management, such as fund and joint venture formation, commercial agreements, corporate governance and regulated industry reporting compliance. Jeff leads Farella Braun + Martel LLP’s Cannabis Practice, and was recognized in Chambers USA’s 2020 edition (Cannabis Law: Western United States). Jeff sits on the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Cannabis Law Section, and the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Cultivation Committee.

Najarian Peters

Najarian Peters joined the KU Law faculty in summer 2020. As an associate professor of law, she teaches torts as well as two new privacy courses she created. Peters’ work and scholarship focuses on privacy law, technology policy and governance. Peters is a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Prior to joining the KU Law faculty, she was the Inaugural Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of Law at the Institute for Privacy Protection at Seton Hall Law School where she was the architect of its structure, operations and program portfolio. She is a member of the International Cannabis Bar Association where she has created several continuing legal education presentations on emerging technology (including blockchain) and cannabis law and healthcare.

Peters’ first law article, The Right To Be and Become: Black Home-Educators As Child Privacy Protectors was published as the lead article in the Michigan Journal of Race and Law Volume 25.1 in August 2020. Prior to joining academia in 2017, She served as a corporate compliance and privacy officer in several organizations in the private and public sectors for over a decade. She earned her J.D. at Notre Dame Law School where she created and taught the seminar in the Center for Social Concerns, Environmental Human Rights in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and was the recipient of the Joseph Ciraolo Memorial Award and Africana Studies Book Award. She received her B.A. at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Eviane Ita Coton

Eviane has been on a plant guided path for over 17 years. Herbalist, farmer and teacher she loves to share the wisdom of our plant allies. Her work is focused around environmental stewardship, biologically driven growing practices, and creating a nurturing and empowering work environment. She has extensive experience in the legal Cannabis industry and currently manages OLCC licensed Ebb and Flow Farm and Cascade Hemp Collective Inc. ODA licensed hemp company, she also consults in the field. Ebb and Flow Farm in beautiful southern Oregon has won numerous awards for their Cannabis including first place at the 2018 and 2019 Cultivation Classic for Best Type 2 outdoor and most Credible Cultivar and multiple awards at the Terpene Cup.

Eviane has been invited to share her educational presentations at numerous industry events including multiple appearances at Hemp University. She carries a Permaculture Design Certification and strives to deepen her plant knowledge at every opportunity with a passion for data driven science. Eviane has forged a deep connection with the land, owning an 82 acre farm homestead for over a decade, and developing a neighboring 600 acre hot springs project. She brings the wisdom of organic cannabis and vegetable farming, large scale project management, permaculture, Integrated Pest Management, land and water stewardship, and the wilds to her endeavors. The belief that plants can be one of our greatest teachers inspires her work.

James Turner

James Turner is an IT security engineer and software developer with 20 years of experience delivering solutions to industry. His primary focus of expertise is Data Encryption and Identity Management. He has provided quality support and solutions to multiple government agencies and large corporations. In the past two decades James has become a subject matter expert in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Identity Management, and Augmented Reality development.

Jeff Jones

Jeff Jones has provided expertise in the medical cannabis field to Californians for over twenty-three years. Jeff’s horticulture knowledge, troubleshooting skills, and easy manner make learning the basics easy for beginners and a challenge for the experts. Jeff co-founded the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative (OCBC) in 1995 simultaneously creating the downtown cannabis-friendly area known as “Oaksterdam” (named after the first two cities to regulate cannabis). With Jeff’s assistance, the City of Oakland became the first U.S. City to contract with a medical cannabis provider back in 1998, and implement a successful city program to issue compassionate provider permits in June of 2004. Jeff set precedent self-regulatory practices that would eventually become the tenants of CA Senate Bill 420 and the Attorney General Guidelines of 2008.

Jeff was named the defendant in the OCBC Federal Civil case, one of the longest-running medical cannabis cases in history as it traveled all the way through the Supreme Court; the first to ask the question of if cannabis can be provided for medical necessity patients. He transitioned the OCBC into advocacy and education with the Patient ID Center (formerly OCBC) and shared his expertise with hundreds of thousands of medical cannabis patients, professionals, and experts.

Jeff also helped establish Alameda County Patient Services, which provided patients and caregivers official Medical Marijuana ID cards in Alameda County, California. He has been educating professionally as the horticulture expert, politics and history instructor for Oaksterdam University since 2007. In 2010, Jeff Jones was co-proponent of the Prop 19 Control, Tax and Regulate Cannabis Act, the first statewide campaign to legalize cannabis in modern history, hoping to protect patients.

Jeff is an original board member of Green Aid and shares two young sons and a baby daughter with Dale Sky Jones, chancellor of Oaksterdam University.

Executive Director

Mitchell Colbert

Before becoming the executive director of the EDA, Mitchell ran his own lobbying firm, Full Spectrum Strategy, where he advocated in California, Colorado, and Canada for cannabis waste (specifically vape waste) to be easier to recycle. His efforts resulted in regulatory and statutory changes in Colorado which allow for legal cannabis consumer waste recycling for the first time since legalization. Now, as Head of Social and Environmenal Impact for Vessel, Mitchell continues to advocate for vape recycling around the US.

Mitchell cut his teeth in the cannabis industry working at Harborside for half a decade before becoming a senior consultant and communications lead for Pistil + Stigma. He is a longtime activist and has been a regional director for two campaigns to legalize cannabis in California, including 2010’s Proposition 19 which failed to pass but kickstarted the modern wave of cannabis legalization around the US. Mitchell is a prolific journalist with over a hundred articles in over a dozen outlets, and is a published cannabis researcher who has studied medical cannabis recommending doctors in California. As a drug policy researcher and a writer, Mitchell has extensively researched The Silk Road and is very familiar with Bitcoin and the myriad of other cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies out there.

ADVISORY BOARDS

Medical & Research Advisory

Adie Rae, Ph.D.

Dr. Adie Rae (publishing under Wilson-Poe) is an NIH-funded neuroscientist who has been studying cannabis, opioids, and their interaction for her entire career. She has a strong publication record in chronic pain and addiction. Dr. Rae is an assistant scientist at Legacy Research Institute in Portland OR, and holds a joint faculty appointment at Washington State University. Her multi-faceted work ranges from synaptic physiology to clinical pain management. Dr. Rae’s long-term academic research goal is to elucidate the harm reduction potential of cannabis in the opioid overdose epidemic. As a co-founder of Smart Cannabis, a Portland-based technology platform, Adie leverages her knowledge of pharmacology to enhance consumer wellbeing and support craft cannabis producers.

Rachel Knox, M.D., M.B.A.

Dr. Rachel Knox is a certified Cannabinoid Medicine specialist and Clinical Endocannabinologist with a background in Family, Integrative, and Functional Medicine. Along with her family she founded Doctors Knox, Inc., the American Cannabinoid Clinics, and ADVENT Academy. Dr. Knox is a policy and regulatory consultant on cannabis health equity, and her commitment to reform extends into educating communities of color about the role cannabis can play in addressing the Minority Health Disparity Gap, and the broader way cannabis can impact the total wellbeing of these communities through creating health equity. Dr. Knox is Chair of the Oregon Cannabis Commission, member of Portland’s Cannabis Policy Oversight Team, Board Member for Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, Board Member of Minority Cannabis Business Association, Advisory Board Member of the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine, Co-founder and President of the Cannabis Health Equity Movement, and Board Member for Nuleaf Project PDX.

Samantha Taylor
Sam Taylor started in cannabis in 2009 and was featured on CNBC’s “Marijuana USA” as a co-owner of Centennial Seeds at the age of 22. Since then, she’s founded the lifestyle subscription service HempBox, produced an award winning game show, and now runs The Grow-Off, a science based cannabis competition in multiple legalized states across the country.

Legal Advisory

Dale Hunt, Ph.D.

Dr. Dale Hunt is a plant scientist, a Cannabis lawyer and registered U.S. patent attorney with over 20 years of experience protecting plant varieties in the United States and throughout the world. Dale is the founder of Plant & Planet Law Firm, an Intellectual Property Law practice, where he provides guidance and expertise on patents and IP matters, and aids clients in establishing IP protection for their legal marijuana cultivars, products and businesses. Before he began working in the legal Cannabis industry, Dale worked with other clients in Agriculture, Water Purification, Alternative Energies, Biotechnology, Medicine, Manufacturing Processes, and Natural Formulations, and he has helped many of his clients commercialize their IP, products and plant varieties in over 30 countries. Through Plant & Planet Law Firm he and his team continue to service these clients in addition to their Cannabis clients. Dale has degrees in botany (BS), plant genetics (MS) molecular & cellular biology (PhD), and law (JD).

Dale is also the founder and CEO of Breeder’s Best, a startup company created to help independent Cannabis breeders protect their work and bring it to patients and markets worldwide.

Dale has spoken on Cannabis-related topics at several gatherings including Marijuana Business Convention, Emerald Cup, Meadowlands Leadership Summit, World Ag Expo, and many others. He has also been interviewed for and quoted in numerous news articles and by national media outlets on the topic of marijuana and patenting, as well as authored several scientific papers and book chapters. Dale maintains a blog for plant breeders and others interested in the plant law at www.PlantLaw.com.

Taylor Hopkins

Taylor is a patent scientist with Plant & Planet Law Firm. With a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Taylor’s background allows her to support attorneys and agents in the prosecution of domestic and international patent applications. In addition, Taylor acts as a client liaison and develops, implements, and maintains Plant & Planet’s office processes and staff schedules to ensure organizational and team efficiency. She is currently taking a gap year to explore intellectual property while applying to law schools. She hopes to pursue a J.D. at a California institution before returning to San Diego to practice.

Taylor has managed the large coalition that has become the Ethical Data Alliance since the start of the project. She also supports Breeder’s Best, a startup company created to help independent Cannabis breeders protect their work and bring it to patients and markets worldwide, in an administrative capacity.

Marketing, PR & Media Advisory

Angela Bacca, M.B.A

Angela Bacca is a Southern California-based freelance journalist, author, editor and political strategist. She is a former board member of the Open Cannabis Project who, along with former director Beth Schechter, formulated the concept of the Ethical Data Alliance.

Angela got her start in cannabis media as a student journalist at San Francisco State University in 2007 before becoming the editorial assistant to Ed Rosenthal in 2008. For just over 10 years she has been the editor of multiple magazines and online publications and has edited cultivation science, research, medical and cultural cannabis books. She earned her MBA at Mills College in Oakland, California while covering the Proposition 19 legalization campaign in 2010 and specializes in long form investigative reporting on the economics and ethics of the business of legalization. Additionally, as a patient living with chronic illness, she has been an effective media and political strategist on campaigns in Utah, Oregon, Missouri, Oklahoma, California and several other jurisdictions, both as a freelance strategist and through Green Aid: The Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund, where she started as a volunteer advocate in 2008.

Michele Ching

Michele is the co-Founder of Wonderfull, an up and coming CBD Brand committed to actualizing Healing & Joy as a human right, via trauma-informed psychology & endocannabinoid science. She is also a member of the Advent Academy team, working to create better health outcomes by ending the gap between natural wellness & western medicine practices, through endocannabinoid-centered education. Through her 15-year career in digital media & brand partnerships, she brings with her a passion for activating the intersection between brand strategy and paid advertising; with which the Ethical Data Alliance can fully realize its mission.

Breeding & Cultivation Advisory

Daniel Hendricks

Daniel’s journey and passion for cannabis began at an early age, in 1996 in his hometown of Arcata, in Humboldt County California. Daniel has enjoyed over 25 years of cannabis breeding and cultivation. Mr. Hendricks is well known for his work in Southern Humboldt developing the ergonomic cannabis trim scissors Chikamasa at Dazeys Supply. Affirmed by the scientific process, community relationships, and sustainable practices, Daniel is the co-founder and CEO of HENDRX Farm, which holds an Annual California Cannabis Nursery License. HENDRX provides compliant clean cannabis plant genetics to the licensed cannabis producers in California. Acknowledged for applied cannabis scientific breeding applications and genetic preservation, HENDRX was voted Best Cannabis Nursery in Humboldt County in 2018, 2019, & 2020.

Reggie Weedman

Reggie Weedman has explored the wide diversity of the Cannabis plant throughout latitudes and longitudes, elevations, soil types and seasons. Reggie likes to help people reach their goals by participating in the ever evolving and plastic nature of this plant through breeding. He supports the vision of the EDA and sees major utility in the EDEN empowering parties to make the most of their data streams.

Sarah Schuette

Sarah Schuette is Co-founder, CIO, and Nationally Certified Soil Scientist at DBS Analytics. Since 2007, she has worked for various government agencies on wetland delineations & soil conservation projects in the midwest, permafrost studies in arctic Alaska, and soil mapping programs all over the Pacific NorthWest. She currently specializes in data driven agronomy systems in addition to developing nutrient management, and IPM programs for commercial cannabis operations. Providing database customization & implementation nationally and internationally, and to increase business intelligence for farming industries around the world.

Alan Picone

Alan has been cultivating cannabis for nearly 50 years. He has developed unique genetic strains and has always sought to push the boundaries of cannabis science and research. He has developed relationships with some of the worlds leading Breeders, Researchers, Industry Leaders and Educators and is helping to shape a better public understanding and awareness of Cannabis and it’s treasures. Currently he is working with Rare Earth Genomics and Texas A&M Agrilife Research to establish in depth breeding programs and planning the Rare Earth Genomics Head Quarters Facilities. Alan and his wife Kelly reside in Southern California and operate Moonbuds LLC, a Consulting company.

Technology Advisory

Christian Saucier

Christian Saucier is founder and principal consultant at cryptotech.guru. He brings over two decades of global consulting experience and a network of expert resources to help communities, organizations, and industries manage the disruptive potential of P2P technology. Christian’s solutions have been featured at global institutions including MIT, Columbia, Bloomberg, RT, Forbes, and numerous public media outlets.

Christian’s experience in ag-tech and IOT includes collaboration with scientists from UC Davis, UMass Amherst, and WSU; direct engagement with regulators, farmers, consumer brands, and distributors to create new revenue opportunities using data tokenization strategies.

Joshua Shovan

Joshua Shovan brings nearly 3 decades of entrepreneurial, leadership, web, mobile, software development, and management experience to his role on the advisory board at the EDA, Joshua has orchestrated several full redesigns, technical initiatives, and implementations across multiple verticals including healthcare, insurance, retail/e-commerce, and supply chain, And has an extensive history of building and supporting partnerships, diverse high-performance development and collaborative teams.

Joshua currently lives near Salt Lake City, Utah. Loves the outdoors and is driven and passionate about the role of technology and thought processes in improving every aspect of his life and the world.

Business, Data & Supply Chain

Jhavid Mohseni

Mr. Mohseni is a global entrepreneur with over 22 years in commodities, consumer goods and cannabis through management, sales, marketing, distribution, operations and strategy roles. He has scaled producer/processor licenses, consulted for state, national and international cannabis companies, and currently is leading the standardization of the cannabis and hemp supply chain as the CEO of Aperon Corporation. Mr. Mohseni is passionate about creating and building consistency, reliability and integrity throughout the industry.