Meet Our Team

Kelsey has over 15 years of experience founding, scaling, and operating innovative companies across Canada and the Caribbean. She has built multiple 8-figure businesses from the ground up and has twice been named Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneur. Kelsey also serves on the Entrepreneurship Council for the University of Western Ontario, where she is also a faculty member teaching Design Thinking. Kelsey holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. She is an accomplished keynote speaker and published author.

Dr. Engle is world-renowned for his specializations in psychiatry and neurology. With a background in integrative psychiatry, neurocognitive restoration, peak performance medicine and psychedelic research, Dr. Engle helps individuals shift from illness and trauma to health and happiness. His trans-disciplinary approach focuses on healing the body and brain, the heart and mind and, finally, integrates the spirit to help individuals optimize all aspects of health for sustained fulfillment.

He received his medical degree from the University of Texas in San Antonio, his psychiatry residency degree from the University of Colorado in Denver and his Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship degree from Oregon Health and Sciences University.

‍

Hamilton Morris is a chemist, filmmaker, and science journalist. He uses an interdisciplinary approach combining anthropology and chemistry in the study of psychoactive plants, fungi, chemicals, and the cultures that surrounds them in more than thirty countries. Hamilton is the director of the award winning documentary series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia in which he explores the chemistry and traditions surrounding psychoactive drugs.

Hamilton attended the University of Chicago and The New School in New York City, where he studied anthropology and science. He frequently consults with media on the subject of psychoactive drugs and conducts pharmacological research at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

Philip has over 25 years of experience driving transformational change in highly regulated industries. Most recently, he served as the Chief Information Officer at Westland Insurance and has held a variety of other leadership positions within the financial services industry. Philip is experienced at bringing innovative and disruptive technologies to market, having founded iProcess Solutions, a pioneer in the insurance technology space. He holds an MBA from Simon Fraser University.

Dr. Joel Raskin was a community psychiatrist and academic with 20 years of international pharmaceutical experience in neuroscience drug development, lifecycle preparation, launch, and commercialization. He earned his medical degree and FRCPC, Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is currently on the Alzheimer’s Drug Development Foundation Scientific Review Committee and the Weston Family Foundation Brain Institute Scientific Advisory Committee.

Dr. Raskin is a member of the Canadian Medical Association, Ontario Medical Association, and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. As an active member of the academic and life sciences community, Dr. Raskin, until recently, held an adjunct staff appointment with the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry.

Geoff has over 30 years of experience in the fintech industry building innovative and industry-leading technology solutions to drive operations. He is a senior architect and creator of the Integration Services Team at banking solutions company Fincentric Corporation. Geoff’s most recent position was as Vice President of Information Technology at Westland Insurance.

Dr. Wallach is an instructor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences as well as the Substance Use Disorders Institute at the University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, PA. He also holds an adjunct appointment at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, NJ, and is an author of over 20 publications in peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and press articles. Dr. Wallach is interested in the effects of drugs in altering a person’s reality and having lasting impacts. He and his team research how existing drugs, including psychoactive drugs, dissociative drugs, and new formulations can best help patients.

Dr. Wallach has a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from University of the Sciences and a BS in Cell and Molecular Biology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff is the Director of ICORD and a professor in the departments of Zoology and Surgery at the University of British Columbia. He also holds the John and Penny Ryan British Columbia Leadership Chair in Spinal Cord Research. He completed his MD at the University of Essen, his Dr. Med. at Ruhr-University Bochum, and his PhD at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Tetzlaff's research is focused on neural protection and neural repair, working on strategies to protect the spinal cord and brain in the early phases after injury, including with nutrition, and to promote recovery after spinal cord/brain injury by stimulating endogenous stem cells.

Michael Wolfe has over 30 years’ experience in finance, accounting, private equity, and business valuation. He was most recently the CFO of Baylin Technologies Inc., a TSX listed company in the wireless communications industry. Prior to joining Baylin, Michael was the CFO of several mid-market Canadian companies, including Masstech Group Inc., a software company in the broadcast industry. As a General Partner at VenGrowth Capital Partners Inc., Michael had a successful track record in acquisitions, management buyouts, growth financings, and recapitalizations in diverse industries such as cable, broadcast, manufacturing, insurance, oil field services, and global logistics.

Michael has also served as a director for several private and public companies, including as a member of audit and other independent committees. He earned a CPA, CA designation, a Chartered Business Valuator designation, an MBA from McMaster University, and a BA (Business and Economics) from the University of Western Ontario.

‍

Tarik is an accomplished executive within the healthcare and technology sectors, with over 13 years of international operational experience. He started his career as a software engineer but then moved to the business world to lead the medical division of Johnson & Johnson in Morocco. He later found a passion for scaling and structuring rapidly growing companies, and his most recent experience was with a large cannabis producer.

He holds a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from Ripon College and an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.

Rob is an experienced Chief Financial Officer and corporate director of public and private companies and not for profit organizations. He has over twenty years of experience contributing to the growth and successful development of organizations in Canada, the USA, and Japan. Rob is an exceptional team builder and is experienced in delivering strategically sound acquisitions, financings, and reorganizations. He has led and advised companies in strategy development, corporate governance, Canadian and U.S. securities disclosure requirements, and stock exchange listings. Rob obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of British Columbia and has been a Chartered Professional Accountant for over 20 years. He lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia.

‍

Dr. John Brownstein, PhD, is Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School and is the Chief Innovation Officer of Boston Children’s Hospital. He also directs the Computational Epidemiology Lab and the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator both at Boston Children’s. He was trained as an epidemiologist at Yale University. Overall, his work aims to have translation impact on the surveillance, control and prevention of disease. He has been at the forefront of the development and application of data mining and citizen science to public health. His efforts are in use by millions each year including the CDC, WHO, DHS, DOD, HHS, and EU, and has been recognized by the National Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. In addition to research achievements, this translational impact comes from playing an advisory role to numerous agencies on real-time public health surveillance including HHS, DHS, CDC, IOM, WHO and the White House. He was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government to outstanding scientists and the Lagrange Prize for international achievements in complexity sciences. Dr. Brownstein is co-founder of digital health companies Epidemico and Circulation and an ABC Medical News Contributor. He has authored over 250 peer-reviewed articles on epidemiology and public health. This work has been reported on widely including pieces in the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Nature, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, National Public Radio and the BBC.

Dr. Weingardt is a clinical psychologist with 20 years of experience working at the intersection of technology and behavioral health. As an Associate Professor at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine he served as the Scientific Director, Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITS), where he worked with researchers and clinicians to develop and evaluate digital therapeutics for behaviour health. Prior to this, he held an appointment as a Consulting Associate Professor in in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition, he has served in a variety of national leadership roles in the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including the National Director for Mental Health Web Services, where he led a team that was responsible for all of the VA mental health web assets including the patient portal. In his career to date, has led the development and implementation of digital behavioural and mental health technologies globally.

Daniel Herrera is a pharmaceutical executive with extensive experience in large and startup pharmaceutical organizations and a proven track record in translating business strategy into actionable goals for growth, and profitability in highly regulated industries. His experience ranges from sales and marketing management to medical affairs, product development and product licensing, to negotiations with public and private payers, GPOs, and pharmacy buyers, to operations and strategic business development, and strategic partnerships resulting in high-value M&A transactions.

Daniel is a graduate of McGill University, the University of Montreal and earned an MBA from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University.

Jerry White is known for leading high-impact campaigns, three of which led to international treaties. He shares in the 1997 Nobel Prize for Peace awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. White has worked closely with the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan. Later, under President Barack Obama, White served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, launching the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, where he introduced data-driven diplomacy and advanced decision analytics to predict with high accuracy the outcomes of conflict and negotiations. A Senior Ashoka Fellow, he earned his BA with high honors from Brown University, an MBA from the University of Michigan, theological study at Cambridge University, and Honorary Degrees from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC, the University of Massachusetts, and Caledonia University in Glasgow. He is a Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia, teaching on Religion, Violence, and Strategy while offering strategic advice to impact-minded investors and philanthropists.

Chris brings a deep competency for the union of technology, community, brand, and business to all of his partnerships. He is well-versed in guiding global brands, startups, and his own digital experience agency through consumer awareness and strategy, audience building, and brand design. His work with Rolex, The New York Yankees, Disney, Community, and TURN has cultivated a uniquely nuanced skill set and insights. As an advisor and board member to several successful entities in the digital experience space, Chris brings to MINDCURE a wealth of experience and passionate energy for product development.

Mark holds an MSc (in Paleotoxicology) from Queen’s University. He gained valuable International experience with CREMA (Marine Conservation) in Costa Rica alongside renowned conservation biologist Randall Arauz. He has directed many scientific research projects and enjoys facilitating connections between diverse stakeholders in support of the greatest communal good.  

That this company is on the cutting edge of making profound therapeutic contributions to the fields of mental health and pain management, truly inspires Mark to apply his multidisciplinary background and innate desire to connect and collaborate with others. Mark is excited to be a member of the team at Mind Cure translating great ideas into the delivery of effective therapeutic products for the benefit of those experiencing physical and psychological pain.

Teya has extensive experience working in public companies in a variety of industries, including technology. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Teya is a communications and investor relations leader with over 15 years of experience in corporate marketing, branding, and strategy development and implementation for private and publicly traded companies.

Shelley has extensive experience in product management, spending the past 10 years in various product roles at a leading Canadian healthcare technology company. She excels at building relationships with healthcare professionals to better understand their needs and develop solutions with technology. Shelley holds a BA in Psychology from the University of British Columbia. She is also a Pragmatic Institute Level 5 (PMC-5) Product Manager and has recently completed a course on Disruptive Strategy through Harvard Business School online.

Dr. Tashiro received his PhD in psychology from the University of Minnesota and has been an award-winning professor at the University of Maryland and University of Colorado. He is also a social scientist, relationship expert, and published author of books including, THE SCIENCE OF HAPPILY EVER AFTER and AWKWARD: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome. In his professional career, Dr. Tashiro also served as the Chief Science Officer at Connectidy, a platform that leveraged IBM's Watson AI platform to improve decision-making at scale.

Hector has over 30 years of experience providing legal advice to high growth public and private companies in life sciences, health, mining, clean tech. He advises on corporate domestic & cross-border public & private security offerings, M&A, international partnering & licensing transactions, and board committees on corporate governance. He is recognized by Lexpert as being among the Top 100 Canada/US Cross-Border Corporate Lawyers in Canada and Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada; by Best Lawyers as Lawyer of the Year 2020 in Biotech and a Leading Lawyer in M&A, tech, corporate & securities; and in Chambers Canada 2020.

Jon Bier has 15+ years in marketing and public relations and is CEO/Founder of Jack Taylor PR, a communications agency with offices in Brooklyn, NY and Venice, CA. He is a bar-admitted non-practicing attorney and Adjunct Professor of Marketing at New York University. Jon is known as an expert storyteller and brand builder, having worked with health and wellness industry leaders.

Larissa Chaikowsky is the Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Wealth Management business at BMO. She leads the National Office Teams and oversees the
planning, development and implementation of product and service strategies for BMO Financial Group's U.S. Wealth businesses. Prior to this role, Larissa was
the U.S. Chief Human Resources Officer for BMO Financial Group. She oversaw the strategic and operational governance processes of the U.S. HR organization. She executed enterprise HR overseeing and coordinating human resources related matters as they pertain to: U.S. regulatory agencies, and U.S. mergers and
acquisitions. Larissa had a leadership role with the Human Resources Committee of the BMO Financial Corp board of Directors and the Benefits Investment
Committee. She also chaired the U.S. Compensation Oversight Committee and the U.S. Benefits Administration Committee.
‍

During her fifteen-year tenure with BMO, Larissa has held several senior positions that have played a role in helping redefine the BMO brand and improving the
business practices of Technology and Operations, Human Resources and Corporate Strategy. Larissa received her Bachelor of International Business and
Relations from the Sprott School of Business and holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

Jason has over 20 years of experience managing operations and product development in the technology and consumer products industries. He has led start-up companies through concept to launch and has also managed strategy and development at large enterprise software companies. Jason’s expertise extends into e-commerce, where he has led operations across digital media, health and medical cannabis. He received an Executive MBA from Simon Fraser University.

Dr. Anita Clayton is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences and a Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Virginia. She is also an associate member of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology and founding faculty in the UVA Women’s Midlife Health Center. Her decades-long research career has focused on sexual medicine and women’s mental health, and she has significant expertise in women’s mental health including mood disorders associated with reproductive-life events in women, treatment-resistant depression, clinical trials of new treatment paradigms, sexual dysfunction related to illness and medications, and nomenclature development and treatment of primary sexual dysfunctions in women.

‍

Dr. Clayton has served as the Principal Investigator in the development of instruments to measure and has been involved in the development of sexual medicine nomenclature including for International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH), International Consultation in Sexual Medicine (ICSM), and WHO/ICD-11 Advisory Committee on the new Chapter on Conditions Related to Sexual Health.

Dr. Jennifer Mitchell is a neuroscientist whose main research objective is innovation in the treatment of addiction and other mental health issues including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and impulsivity. At UCSF, she serves as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry. Her research group studies the mechanisms of expression of behavioral dis-orders through the use of translational tools, such as behavioral pharmacology, genetics, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), in order to identify new potential treatments.

Dr. Mitchell has extensive and diverse experience with human and animal pharmacology, hypothesis-driven neuroscience, human proof-of-concept studies, and clinical trials. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from UCSF and currently conducts research for MAPS in their quest to test and develop MDMA as a treatment for PTSD.

Dr. Cindy Meston is a Full Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches and conducts research on a wide range of sexuality topics. She directs the Female Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory, which is one of the few laboratories in the world devoted exclusively to the study of women’s sexual health from both a psychological and physiological perspective. She is Past President of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) and an active member of the International Academy of Sex Research (IASR) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS). In 2016 she was named one of the 100 most influential and inspirational women in the world by the BBC, London, England.

She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1995 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Sexual and Reproductive Medicine at the University of Washington, School of Medicine in 1996, and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, Ford Foundation, NY from 1996-1998 and is the recipient of numerous awards for her research.

Dr. Robert Pyke has worked for four major and seven smaller pharma companies including Bristol Meyers, contributing to 6 NDAs or SNDAs on AIDS, anxiety, depression, insomnia, spasticity, analgesia, and sexual dysfunction over his 44-year career in drug development.  Dr. Pyke has also directed a Phase I clinic and a drug dependence clinic and served as a clinical investigator for three antidepressants.  With female sexual dysfunction, Dr. Pyke led the Addyi® project through Phases II and III, helped develop the currently accepted measures and diagnostic interviews, brought Lorexys® through IND and Phase 2a, and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the last 18 years. Dr. Pyke received his Ph.D. in Internal Medicine from the University of Miami and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin.

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, theologian, best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. She specializes in trauma, stress and burnout with an emphasis in spirituality and mind-body integrated treatment. Her research has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Dr. Walling is a graduate of the University of California, Davis and Fuller School of Psychology. She has a PhD in clinical psychology and master’s degrees in both psychology and theology. She completed a pre-doctoral research fellowship in prevention and community research at Yale University School of Medicine and a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Center for PTSD in Boston. She’s held teaching appointments at five academic institutions including the University of California, San Francisco. She trained in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy with the Psychedelic Somatic Institute, and she is currently training with MAPS to conduct the MDMA for PTSD treatment protocol.