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About > Staff
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Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Executive Director
Rick founded MAPS in 1986. His dissertation (Public Policy, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government) was on "The Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and Marijuana," and his master’s thesis (Harvard) focused on the attitudes and experiences of oncologists concerning the medical use of marijuana. His undergraduate thesis (New College of Florida) was a twenty-five year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He has also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Tim Leary’s Concord Prison experiment.
Rick studied with Stan Grof, M.D., and was in the first group to become certified as holotropic breathwork practitioners. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise "healthy" people, and to also become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He resides in Boston with his wife and three children. |
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Valerie Mojeiko, Deputy Director and Clinical Research Associate
Valerie Mojeiko has worked with MAPS since 2000, facilitating research about the healing potentials of MDMA (Ecstasy), LSD, Ibogaine and other psychedelic medicines. In her work leading MAPS’ psychedelic harm–reduction project, Valerie has prepared over 200 volunteers to provide peer–based psychedelic emergency services from Burning Man to Tel Aviv. Formally educated at New College of Florida and the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
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Randolph Hencken, M.A., B.S., Director of Communications and Marketing
Randy earned his Master of Arts in Communication and his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from San Diego State University (SDSU). He focused all of his graduate studies on drug policy issues. His research about the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, and a portion of his thesis that investigated the importance of drug prohibition to non-drug users’ deterrence from drug use have been presented at the National Communication Association conferences. His thesis further investigated correlations between political attitudes and drug policy beliefs, and he tested the effectiveness of several arguments for drug policy reform.
Randy formerly was the program coordinator at the Ibogaine Association in Mexico. He was the founder and president of SDSU’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and he interned for the Drug Policy Alliance in San Diego.
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Josh Sonstroem, Accounting, IT and Existential Support
Josh earned his BA in Philosophy and Religion from the New College of Florida in 2003. As a longtime believer in maybe-logic he has actively sought out and explored a multiplicity of consciousness expansion techniques, psychedelics notwithstanding. Like all MAPS Staffers, Josh's workload spans many different domains within the MAPS microcosm: From helping Rick to monitor and control MAPS funds (accounting), to administering the MAPS' website (webadmin), from managing most of the company's computer technology (IT), to traveling around with Valerie to MAPS' many different study sites to assist with data management (clinical research). And, if you have ever been to a MAPS fundraiser where food was served, you have probably sampled his experimental, cutting-edge cuisine as well (see DogStar Catering). Josh loves to read philosophical science fiction; eat delicious, challenging food; listen to dark, glitchy music; write abstract, surrealist poetry; and think about thought-at-its-limits. He will continue to seek out and enjoy both the chaotic depths [and the ethereal heights] of existential experience. |
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Amy Emerson, Clinical Operations
Amy earned her BS in genetics and cell biology from Washington State University. She has worked in clinical development and research for the last 15 years in the fields of immunology, oncology and most recently in vaccine development. Amy has worked with MAPS as a volunteer since 2003 facilitating the development of the MDMA clinical program. She is currently working as the clinical program manager and is involved with creating the structure needed to support the growing needs of the clinical operations group and MAPS clinical research studies. |
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Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Ph.D. Cand., Clinical Research Associate
Berra will earn a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology from University of California at Santa Cruz in March of 2010, where she served as treasurer and president of the Graduate Student Association. After attending Stanford University for a B.S. in Biology, she worked as a Research Associate with Geron Corporation on telomerase activation and with Millennium Pharmaceuticals on Phase I clinical trials for Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Berra enjoys working with researchers and the clinical operations team at MAPS to design and facilitate clinical research studies. |
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Brian Wallace, Events and Outreach Coordinator
Brian studied neuroscience, philosophy, and medical sociology at a host of universities, the latest being UC Santa Cruz. As a longtime
advocate for the dissemination of accurate,
unbiased information with respect to psychoactive
drugs and other medicines, Brian is right at
home doing outreach and education on behalf
of MAPS at music festivals and medical or policy
conferences, and in the digital world through
various Web 2.0 frameworks. |
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L (Ilsa) Jerome Ph.D., Research and Information Specialist
Ilsa earned a PhD in psychology from the University of Maryland. She helps MAPS and researchers design studies, gathers information on study drugs (as MDMA) through keeping abreast of the current literature and discussion with other researchers, creates and maintains documents related to some MAPS–supported studies, and helps support the MAPS psychedelic literature bibliography. She has written informational documents on psilocybin, LSD and MDMA. She is interested in using methods from behavioral science and neuroscience to learn how humans feel and think about themselves and each other.
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