Build. Become. Blossom.
July 12, 2026
The International Women’s Cannabis Conference centers the voices of women and non-binary leaders shaping the global cannabis landscape. Through our Speaker Series, we spotlight diverse perspectives across education, business, healing, and lived experience. From grassroots activists to research scientists, our speakers reflect the full spectrum of cannabis engagement. Drawn from around the world, they invite audiences to step into their unique relationships with the plant—and the movements it inspires.
Amanda Reiman PhD MSW
Public Health Researcher
@dr.amandareiman | LinkedIn | www.mypersonalplants.com
Amanda Reiman, PhD MSW has been studying the relationship between people, cannabis and greater society for 25 years and is the founder of Personal Plants, an education platform focused on helping people develop healthy, balanced relationships with cannabis. Personal Plants includes a collection of articles relating to cannabis use, harm reduction and public health.
Dr. Reiman earned her PhD in Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley and conducted the first study of medical cannabis patients sampled from inside the dispensary in 2005, and one of the first research studies on medical cannabis patients and the use of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs in 2008. She then taught courses on substance abuse, drug policy and sexuality at Berkeley for 11 years. She recently published a textbook on harm reduction approaches to working with adolescents who use substances.
Dr. Reiman is an internationally recognized cannabis expert and public health researcher. Formerly the in-house cannabis expert for the Drug Policy Alliance, she has written for/been quoted in numerous national and international publications as well as peer reviewed academic journals and several textbooks. She was the first Chairwoman for the Berkeley Medical Cannabis Commission and a commissioner for the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission. Dr. Reiman currently lives just outside of Tacoma, Washington with her partner Sean and their cat and two dogs.
Advocacy to Industry: The Evolving Roles for Women in Cannabis
Audience Shift: Many feel that, now that cannabis is legal in many places and the focus has shifted to industry, there is no longer room for advocacy. But the need for movement building has never been greater. Women own that space. I will show you how to bring advocacy into industry and lead with values.
LaTonya Warren
Cannabis Industry Educator
@ltwarren_001 @armintia_001 | LinkedIn | armintia.com
LaTonya Warren is a cannabis scientist, educator, Army veteran, and industry leader dedicated to advancing cannabis through research, education, and responsible policy development. She is the Founder and CEO of Armintia, LLC, a federally certified cannabis research, development, and education company focused on bridging the gap between science, workforce development, compliance, and public understanding of cannabis.
With experience spanning laboratory operations, cannabinoid education, regulatory compliance, and public policy, LaTonya has become a respected voice in the evolving cannabis landscape. She previously served as a Laboratory Director in a fully legal adult use market and continues to advocate for higher scientific standards, consumer safety, and evidence based cannabis education nationwide.
LaTonya currently serves as Chair of the City of Virginia Beach Cannabis Advisory Task Force, making Virginia Beach the only locality in the Commonwealth operating a dedicated cannabis advisory board. She also serves as the Research & Education Chair for the Cannabis Small Business Association, where she works to ensure small businesses, educators, and communities remain part of the national cannabis conversation.
Through Armintia, LaTonya created the Armintia Cannabinoid Education (A.C.E.) | Certified Pharmacy Technician program, a workforce development initiative designed to prepare professionals for careers in medical cannabis and cannabinoid focused healthcare settings. Her work has expanded into municipal education, retail compliance training, workforce certification programs, and cannabis science communication.
As a speaker, LaTonya is known for blending scientific expertise with cultural awareness and practical industry insight. Her presentations focus on reducing stigma, improving consumer literacy, strengthening compliance, and helping audiences understand the importance of connecting cannabis culture with credible research and responsible business practices.
Her mission is simple yet powerful: ensure cannabis evolves with education, integrity, and community at the center of the conversation.
Bridging the Gap between Cannabis Industry and Cannabis Research
Audience Shift: I want the audience to shift away from the belief that science and cannabis culture exist on opposite sides of the table. Too often, research is viewed as something that slows the industry down, while operators and consumers are viewed as disconnected from data and compliance. My goal is to show that the future of cannabis depends on both worlds working together. I will also show how to bring advocacy into industry and lead with values.
Guidance River Moon
Chef | Wellness Warrior | Spiritual Healer | Cultural Storyteller
@guidancegoes @puffpuffpastor.church | LinkedIn | chefguidance.com
Guidance Moon is a chef, educator, holistic wellness advocate, naturalist, entrepreneur, and community leader whose work bridges the worlds of food, culture, spirituality, and personal transformation. Raised in the small towns, forests, and waterways of Northeast Louisiana, Guidance developed an early appreciation for the connection between people, nature, and community—values that continue to shape their work today.
Over the course of a diverse career spanning hospitality, culinary arts, education, wellness, and public engagement, Guidance has traveled extensively throughout the United States and beyond, learning from a wide range of cultures, traditions, and perspectives. These experiences have inspired a unique approach to leadership and wellness that combines practical knowledge with a deep respect for the natural world and the wisdom found in diverse communities.
As a speaker, Guidance is known for engaging audiences through storytelling, humor, and thought-provoking conversations about food, faith, travel, nature, wellness, and community empowerment. Their presentations encourage people to explore the connections between what we eat, what we believe, how we care for ourselves, and how we care for one another.
Guidance is the creator of the keynote presentation “”Food, Faith & Faraway Places,”” an inspiring exploration of how travel, culture, plant wisdom, and shared human experiences can deepen our understanding of healing, purpose, and connection.
Whether speaking at conferences, community events, wellness gatherings, or educational forums, Guidance brings a refreshing perspective rooted in curiosity, compassion, lifelong learning, and a belief that positive change begins with meaningful relationships—with ourselves, our communities, and the world around us.
Food, Faith, and Far Away Places
Audience Shift: Guidance challenges audiences to rethink their relationship with food, community, nature, and even themselves. Along the way, attendees will discover how ancient wisdom and modern wellness intersect, how plants have shaped human culture throughout history, and why some of life’s most important lessons are found far from home—only to lead us back to what matters most.
Kyla de Clifford
Cannabis Educator
@cannacuriousaus | LinkedIn | cannacurious.com.au
Kyla de Clifford is an Australian cannabis educator, entrepreneur, podcast host and founder of Ruby Mary Botanicals. A legal medicinal cannabis patient herself, she is passionate about helping women navigate medicinal cannabis with confidence, curiosity and evidence-based education.
After an international career in brand strategy with Unilever in Dubai and the Qatar Foundation, Kyla returned to Australia to build purpose-driven businesses. Her own experience with chronic pain and perimenopause led her to medicinal cannabis, inspiring a mission to improve the way women are supported, educated and included in conversations about their health.
Today, Kyla is the host of the Canna Curious Podcast, where she explores medicinal cannabis, women’s health and wellbeing through conversations with clinicians, researchers and people with lived experience. She is also leading an international survey exploring how women want to be spoken to about medicinal cannabis, with the goal of developing a white paper to help shape more compassionate, evidence-informed communication.
Working within Australia’s highly regulated medicinal cannabis landscape has given Kyla a unique perspective on patient education, stigma and access. Combining her background in brand strategy with cannabis education, she helps bridge the gap between science, healthcare and the real-world experiences of women navigating medicinal cannabis.
Kyla is a passionate advocate for putting women’s voices at the centre of the conversation and believes that the future of cannabis education begins by listening before we teach.
From Stigma to Safety: Why Women Need a Different Cannabis Conversation
Audience Shift: I want the audience to stop seeing women as passive recipients of cannabis education and start recognising them as experts in their own lived experiences. My hope is that attendees leave believing the future of women’s cannabis care won’t be built by speaking louder or sharing more information—it will be built by listening first and designing education with women, not just for them.
Meghan Zaklin MSN, FNP-BC
Owner/Chief of Quality & Safety, ECS Wellness
@mcz_51 | LinkedIn | ecswellness.com
Meghan Zaklin, MSN, FNP-BC, received her Master of Science in Nursing Practice from Simmons University and brings over a decade of clinical experience across integrative medicine, internal medicine, geriatrics, and orthopedics in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She has held multiple clinical leadership roles and has led and contributed to interdisciplinary quality improvement initiatives across departments, with a focus on optimizing patient outcomes, enhancing safety, and implementing evidence-based protocols.
Meghan has guided thousands of patient encounters on the safe, evidence-based use of medical cannabis alongside conventional treatment plans. Her approach emphasizes whole-person care, integrating mind-body medicine, cannabinoid therapeutics, and lifestyle medicine to build patient-centered partnerships that support balance and long-term wellness.
As Co-Owner and Chief Quality and Safety Officer of ECS Wellness, an MGB-affiliated integrative medicine practice, Meghan co-developed the ECSW Medical Model of Cannabinoid Care with founder Dr. Zaklin. She led the creation and implementation of the practice’s clinical standards and treatment protocols and oversees a team of nurse practitioners delivering high-quality, evidence-based care.
Meghan is widely recognized for her expertise in endocannabinoid medicine and her ability to translate emerging evidence into individualized, practical treatment plans, with careful attention to safety, dosing, drug interactions, and integration with conventional therapies. She is an active member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians and the Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and is a frequent speaker at national conferences, where she educates providers on applying cannabinoid science in clinical practice.
Advancing Cannabinoid Care Through an ECS-Informed Model
Audience Shift: Cannabis is a powerful therapeutic modality, but it becomes most meaningful when placed inside a patient-centered, ECS-informed model of care that also considers movement, nutrition, sleep, trauma, stress, social context, and personal goals. This session shifts the focus from cannabis as the whole answer to cannabis as one important spoke on a larger wheel of care, helping patients build regulation, become more resilient, and blossom in ways that matter to them personally.
Nina Fergus, PharmD, MS
Senior Director of Clinical Excellence, Curio Wellness
@drninaknows | LinkedIn
Nina Fergus, PharmD, MS is the Senior Director of Clinical Excellence for Curio Wellness and Far & Dotter dispensaries, leading clinical programming across Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, and New Jersey. She brings over two decades of traditional retail pharmacy excellence to her work, rising through the ranks as a pharmacy manager, innovator, and clinical leader known for her ability to build and execute at scale. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Fergus was tapped by both the DC Department of Health and her former large regional employer in Maryland to direct mass vaccination centers, a testament to the trust her peers and institutions placed in her clinical judgment and leadership under pressure.
Her path into cannabis medicine is as personal as it is professional. As a chronic pain patient herself, suffering for 20+ years with psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis and degenerative discs, Nina turned to cannabinoid medicine when conventional options had run their course. What she experienced changed everything. She recognized immediately that if cannabis was transforming her quality of life, it had to be doing the same for countless others, and that there was not just a place for a pharmacist in this industry – there was a need for one. She joined Curio Wellness, one of Maryland’s most respected cannabis wellness brands, and never looked back. Nina’s Doctor of Pharmacy and Masters in Cannabis Science and Therapeutics brings the perfect combination of knowledge to the cannabis industry and beyond.
Dr. Nina Fergus holds a Doctor of Pharmacy alongside a Master of Science in Cannabis Science and Therapeutics — a combination that remains rare in the industry and positions her uniquely at the intersection of clinical medicine and cannabinoid science. Today, Dr. Fergus is a widely recognized voice in cannabinoid medicine, holding a seat on the Special Advisory Panel for the Society of Cannabis Clinicians and serving as a member of the National Clinical Director Consortium. She has built her career around one deceptively simple idea: that patients deserve rigorous science delivered with genuine compassion. Her clinical focus spans pain management, women’s wellness, sleep, whole-body wellbeing, and cannabis as a mindful alternative to alcohol and she brings to each space the rare fluency of someone who has lived the science, not just studied it. Outside of her professional life, Dr. Fergus is a wife, mother, and home gardener who walks the talk when it comes to whole-person wellness. She is fiercely committed to destigmatizing cannabis as a legitimate clinical tool and to elevating the voices of women in an industry still stepping into its power.
A Pharmacist’s Journey: Building Clinical Excellence in Cannabis Care
Audience Shift: I will shift the audience from seeing cannabis work as a departure from traditional healthcare, especially pharmacy, to seeing it as a natural extension of clinical excellence where pharmacists can break down complex cannabinoid knowledge for all users.
The Dank Duchess
Founder, International Women’s Cannabis Conference | Hashish Specialist | Writer
@thedankduchess | LinkedIn | thedankduchess.com
The Dank Duchess is a cannabis cultivator, hashish educator, consultant, writer, judge, and public speaker with 23 years of indoor and outdoor cultivation experience and more than a decade devoted to the art and science of solventless hashish. Her work brings together practical cultivation knowledge, traditional hashmaking techniques, plant medicine education, and a deep commitment to preserving the cultural and sensory language of resin.
A dedicated student of the resin, Duchess has spent nearly 12 years refining her technique alongside some of the world’s foremost hashmakers, merging ancestral methodology with modern precision. Her hands-on mastery and warm, unpretentious teaching style have earned her international recognition as a trusted voice in hashish education and cannabis culture.
Through YouTube, social media, and digital education, Duchess has reached millions of viewers, translating the complexity of solventless hash into lessons that empower both the layperson and the laboratory. She distills decades of experience into relatable, captivating storytelling that connects seasoned professionals, home growers, and curious newcomers alike.
Her in-person workshops and immersive hands-on trainings, hosted in cities from California to Barcelona to Mexico City, have taught hundreds the tactile, meditative craft of hashmaking. Each event blends technical precision with human connection, revealing hash not merely as product, but as practice: a ritual of patience, pressure, and devotion.
Her consulting work spans continents, guiding cultivators and brands as they refine strains, improve processes, and elevate quality through deep respect for the plant. As a judge for elite competitions such as The Emerald Cup and Masters of Rosin, Duchess upholds the heritage and integrity of solventless hashish, ensuring that excellence remains rooted in authenticity.
Duchess is also the founder of the International Women’s Cannabis Conference, a global educational platform that has featured 104 speakers from 16 countries and celebrates the women and non-binary leaders shaping cannabis, plant medicine, research, policy, advocacy, cultivation, and care. Through INTLWCC, she has built a living library of expertise, visibility, and cross-cultural exchange for voices too often left out of the industry’s official record.
She also created Mocha Mary Jane, a digital sisterhood that uplifts Black and Brown women in cultivation, hashmaking, cannabis education, and plant-centered leadership. Across her platforms, Duchess works to expand who gets seen as an expert, who gets paid to teach, and who gets remembered as part of cannabis history.
Her voice and vision have resonated across mainstream and academic platforms alike. She has appeared on VICELAND’s Bong Appétit in Seasons 1 and 3 and has spoken at the University of British Columbia, the University of Barcelona, Medgar Evers College, the Boston Freedom Rally, Spirit Plant Medicine, and CWCBExpo. Her writing has been featured in Weed World UK, Cannabis Now, Skunk Magazine, and Ed Rosenthal’s publications, as well as in How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World by Stephen Gray and This Bud’s for You by Ed Rosenthal.
Today, Duchess maintains an ongoing relationship with Method Seven through her Duchess FX and FX2 eyewear collaborations, bringing function, protection, and personal style into the cultivation space. She continues to collaborate with brands that share her values, blending education, culture, and aesthetics into limited-edition creations rooted in both purpose and plant work.
At her core, The Dank Duchess is a teacher, artist, musician, and advocate who believes that mastery is an act of love. Whether reaching millions online, shaping global conversations on solventless craft, creating platforms for underrepresented educators, or mentoring a new generation of makers in person, she moves with joy and purpose, living by her guiding mottos:
“Cannabis flower fuels my power.”
“My niche is hashish.”
Host
Audience Shift: I will curate a room where were understand more and more that cannabis education touches every aspect of our lives.
Sarah Kiah Morton
CEO/Co-Founder, LOCKGREEN
@lockgreenproducts / @sarahkiah | LinkedIn | lock-green.com
Sarah Kiah Morton is the CEO and Co-Founder of LOCKGREEN, smell-proof stash boxes with a built-in combination lock that give cannabis consumers peace of mind as they safely store and travel in their cars with their stash. She has advocated for cannabis law reform in Virginia since 2018 and is passionate about engaging the local and national community in advocacy and normalizing cannabis through community conversations and education. She often moderates panel discussions and speaks on stages across the country about cannabis laws and a range of hot topics.
Over Sarah’s 20+ year career, she has led many new business development efforts in Corporate America, including a past role as Vice President at one of the largest consulting firms in the country where she built a multi-million dollar book of business from scratch, and her current role as Operations Executive for a national insurance agency where she provides strategic guidance to support over 50 independent insurance agents. Sarah has a passion for small businesses and entrepreneurs and has received several awards and recognitions, including being nominated by her peers for the Women in Cannabis Expo’s ‘Best East Coast Woman Trail Blazin’ Startup’ and being named as one of Southeast Virginia’s Top 40 under 40 Professionals. In addition, she has led LOCKGREEN to national and international recognition, including being named the Best Travel-Friendly stashbox by the New York Times.
Under Sarah’s leadership, LOCKGREEN has thousands of customers in all 50 states, is sold in retailers across 10+ states, and has partnered with municipalities and non-profits nationally to be distributed as a part of their harm reduction initiatives to prevent child access to cannabis.
Sarah was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH and is a graduate of the University of Virginia. She currently lives in Virginia Beach, VA with her husband and 3 kids with ages ranging from 6-19. She enjoys the beach, traveling, singing, and live music.
Legal Does Not Mean Clear: Why Legalization Requires Legal Literacy
Audience Shift: I will shift the audience from believing that legalization automatically creates safety and freedom to understanding that a right people do not know how to exercise can still expose them to harm. Many consumers hear that cannabis is legal and reasonably assume that conduct surrounding possession, storage, travel, or use is also straightforward. In reality, laws can be confusing, inconsistent, difficult to locate, and different from one jurisdiction to another. The people most vulnerable to these gaps are often those who already face disproportionate legal or economic consequences. Using selected experiences from my family and work as evidence, I will demonstrate that education cannot be treated as an afterthought to legalization. It must be part of the infrastructure.
Jabria Craft
That Dope Coach | Cannabis Coach
@craftedcancoach | LinkedIn | thatdopecoach.com
Jabria Craft (she/her), better known as That Dope Coach, is a cannabis coach, educator, and advocate dedicated to helping people build intentional, informed, and shame-free relationships with cannabis.
Through coaching, education, workshops, and digital resources, Jabria supports consumers in moving beyond stigma, confusion, and one-size-fits-all approaches to cannabis use. Her work centers on the belief that cannabis access should go beyond products and potency to actually help people understand the plant, their bodies, and their unique relationship with cannabis. Drawing from harm reduction, behavior change, and self-awareness practices, she helps individuals cultivate confidence, self-trust, and intentionality in how they engage with cannabis.
Jabria’s work is especially focused on serving communities that have historically been overlooked or underserved within cannabis spaces, including BIPOC, queer, and neurodivergent consumers. She is passionate about making cannabis education accessible, compassionate, and practical, creating spaces where people can ask questions, challenge shame-based narratives, and explore what intentional cannabis use looks like for them.
As the founder of Crafted Cannabis and the creator behind That Dope Coach, Jabria has educated thousands of consumers through coaching programs, workshops, speaking engagements, online content, and community-based learning experiences. Her approach blends evidence-informed cannabis education with a deep understanding of the social, cultural, and personal factors that shape our relationships with the plant.
Whether she’s teaching about the endocannabinoid system, facilitating conversations about stigma and self-trust, or helping someone navigate their first tolerance break, Jabria’s mission remains the same: to empower people with the knowledge, tools, and confidence they need to make informed decisions and cultivate sustainable relationships with cannabis (and themselves).
When she’s not teaching, coaching, or creating content, you’ll likely find her pulling tarot cards, exploring astrology and human design, making herbal tea blends, or sitting outside on her porch.
Cultivating Intention: Why Cannabis Consumers Need More Than Access
Audience Shift: Moving from the idea that cannabis education is primarily about products, potency, and consumption to an understanding that effective education must help people understand both the plant and their relationship with it. Many consumers now have access to cannabis without the context, tools, or support needed to navigate that relationship intentionally, and this session reframes education as a pathway toward informed, reflective, and empowered use.
Lelehnia Dubois
Founder, Humboldt Grace | Second Gen Cannabis Community Leader | Weed Geek
@humboldtgrace @humboldt.legacy.project @lelehnia.lele.dubois | LinkedIn | humboldtgrace.org
Lelehnia DuBois is the founder and director of Humboldt Grace, a DreamMaker Project of The Ink People 501(c)(3), created to empower rural communities disproportionately impacted by the drug war and to honor the people, plants, and culture that carried cannabis through prohibition.
A second-generation back-to-the-lander who came from the counterculture in Ocean Beach, CA to the Emerald Triangle in the late 70’s. Her mother was a midwife and homesteader in Trinity County. Lelehnia’s life and work are rooted in the legacy cannabis community. She grew up around the people, values, risks, and community knowledge that shaped the cannabis culture long before legalization. That lived experience continues to guide her work in genetics, ethics, education, and community.
Lelehnia has worked across cannabis media, policy, advocacy, public service, and cultural preservation. Her work includes serving as Chair of California Cannabis Voice Humboldt during the local policy process that helped shape Humboldt County’s early cannabis cultivation permitting framework. She later served as Publisher of Sensi Magazine in the Emerald Triangle, where she helped elevate regional cannabis stories, businesses, and culture through publishing, events, and community engagement. In 2022, she helped develop Canopyright, a free blockchain-based system designed to help breeders create chain-of-custody records for their genetics. She also served as Chair of the Humboldt County Human Rights Commission, where her work reflected a broader commitment to dignity, equity, accountability, and community.
Through Humboldt Grace, Lelehnia founded the Humboldt Legacy Project, a community-based effort to explore ethical pathways for documenting, preserving, and protecting legacy cannabis genetics, stories, and knowledge. Using the HLP Skunk #1 case study, the project examines how genetics, laboratory testing, cultivation data, historical records, consumer research, and firsthand community knowledge can work together to support better stewardship of the plant and greater recognition for the people and communities who developed, preserved, and carried it forward.
Her current work also includes the Humboldt Grace Cannabis Ethics Survey, which is gathering input from patients, consumers, legacy growers, educators, advocates, researchers, public safety voices, and industry participants. The survey is designed to better understand where cannabis ethics are breaking down and how transparency, accountability, patient access, fair compensation, environmental stewardship, product integrity, and regulatory fairness can help stabilize the industry.
Lelehnia speaks from the position that legacy cannabis culture is not something to extract, or repackage. It is a living body of knowledge built through risk, relationship, observation, adaptation, care, and community responsibility. Her work asks the cannabis industry to slow down, and listen so we can build ethical guardrails before more people, plants, and knowledge are lost.
At the center of her message is a simple belief: cannabis will not be stabilized by hype. Its future depends on ethical practices, cultural respect, and accountability.
Carrying Cannabis Forward: Protecting Legacy, Stewarding Genetics
Audience Shift: I want to shift the belief that legacy cannabis knowledge is only history or branding. Legacy culture, ethics, and genetics stewardship are practical tools for building a more stable, accountable, and trustworthy cannabis industry.
Dra. Joyce Bernardo
Educadora | Palestrante | Educator | Public Speaker
@adentistacanabica | clinicabejoy.com.br/
Dra. Joyce Bernardo é cirurgiã-dentista há mais de 10 anos, com atuação integrativa voltada à união entre ciência, tecnologia e cuidado humanizado. Natural de São Paulo, iniciou sua trajetória na área da saúde como técnica de enfermagem pelo Hospital Stella Maris (2009–2011).
É bacharel em Odontologia pela UNG, pós-graduada em Saúde Coletiva com ênfase em Saúde da Família pela Uninove, especialista em Implantodontia pela USP e pós-graduada em Cirurgia Oral Menor pela FUNDECTO.
Também é prescritora de Cannabis Medicinal habilitada pelo Instituto Jurema e pós-graduanda em Cannabis Medicinal pela Unifesp. Possui formação em gestão financeira pela LLC (EUA).
À frente da BeJoy Odontologia, localizada no coração de São Paulo, lidera uma equipe multidisciplinar focada em oferecer atendimentos pautados em inovação, ciência e humanização.
Encontrou na Cannabis Medicinal uma importante aliada terapêutica, reconhecendo o valor ancestral da planta e seu potencial no cuidado integrativo à saúde.
Dr. Joyce Bernardo has been a dental surgeon for more than 10 years, with an integrative practice focused on bringing together science, technology, and humanized care. Originally from São Paulo, she began her path in healthcare as a nursing technician at Hospital Stella Maris from 2009 to 2011.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dentistry from UNG, a postgraduate degree in Collective Health with an emphasis on Family Health from Uninove, a specialization in Implant Dentistry from USP, and a postgraduate degree in Minor Oral Surgery from FUNDECTO.
She is also a medical cannabis prescriber certified by Instituto Jurema and is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in Medical Cannabis at Unifesp. She also has training in financial management from LLC in the United States.
At the helm of BeJoy Odontologia, located in the heart of São Paulo, she leads a multidisciplinary team focused on offering care grounded in innovation, science, and humanization.
A Revolução Canabinóide na Odontologia: Da Inflamação Gengival à Proteção dos Órgãos
The Cannabinoid Revolution in Dentistry: From Gingival Inflammation to Organ Protection
Audience Shift: Impactar e concientizar os odontólogos, mostrando a importância da cannabis na odontolgia, que vai muito alem da cavidade bucal, quando temos conhecimento sobre o sistema endocanabinóide , conseguimos mudar a qualidade de vida dos nossos pacientes, de forma sistemica proteger seus órgãos de doenças como por exemplo : Endocardite Bacteriana .
To impact and raise awareness among dental surgeons by showing the importance of cannabis in dentistry, which goes far beyond the oral cavity. When we understand the endocannabinoid system, we are able to change the quality of life of our patients and systemically help protect their organs from diseases such as bacterial endocarditis.
Carola Pérez
Patient Advocate | Strategic Communications Consultant | Founder, Dosemociones | Founder, OECM | Founder, We, The Patients
@carolaperez | LinkedIn | wethepatients.eu dosemociones.com
Carola Pérez Gómez has spent more than a decade building what did not exist: a credible, organised, and politically effective patient voice in European medical cannabis policy. Her work is not advocacy in the conventional sense, it is architecture. She has constructed, from the ground up, the institutions, coalitions, and public narratives that have made patients visible in spaces where decisions are made.
She is the founder of Dosemociones, Spain’s first patient association dedicated exclusively to medical cannabis: an organisation that, from its very beginning, was built and led by women, and has grown to serve a community in which women represent 85% of its members, predominantly between the ages of 40 and 85. These are women navigating complex chronic conditions: pain, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, cancer, neurological disorders in a healthcare system that has historically marginalised both their diagnoses and their treatment preferences. Dosemociones was founded with the explicit understanding that patient advocacy without a feminist lens is incomplete, and that the women most affected by inadequate access to cannabinoid therapies must be at the centre of any meaningful reform.
That founding conviction aligns with the spirit of Build. Become. Blossom. Not as a metaphor, but as a lived methodology. Carola built an association when there was no model to follow. She became a recognised institutional voice through relentless presence in rooms designed to exclude patients. And she has helped an entire community blossom into informed, empowered participants in their own healthcare — and in the political process that shapes it.
The work did not remain national. Carola went on to found the Observatorio Español de Cannabis Medicinal (OECM) and, subsequently, We, The Patients, a pan-European patient coalition active across the United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, and Portugal. Through these organisations, she has expanded the model she developed in Spain into a transnational force for patient-centred policy.
Her institutional track record is exceptional. She has testified before the Spanish Parliament on medical cannabis legislation, contributed to the Forbes Manifesto for Global Access to Cannabinoid Therapies at the 69th CND session.
She has spoken at Cannabis Europa, ICBC Berlin, and the Global Cannabis Regulatory Summit in London, where her interventions consistently centre one argument: that no regulatory or commercial framework in this industry is legitimate unless it is built around the people who depend on it for their health.
In 2026, Carola was awarded the Hannah Deacon Award, presented at the Business of Cannabis Europe awards, recognition of her sustained, courageous, and effective work in patient advocacy at the European level.
Beyond policy, her public presence has helped de-stigmatise medical cannabis in Spain and across Europe. Her TEDx Madrid talk introduced the subject to a broad popular audience; her profile on the cover of El País Semanal — Spain’s most widely read weekend supplement — marked a turning point in mainstream media treatment of the issue.
Carola operates as a strategic communications consultant, advising organisations at the intersection of patient rights, regulatory affairs, and public education. Her approach is distinctive: rooted in lived experience, disciplined in evidence, and designed to build lasting change rather than generate short-term visibility.
She brings to the International Women’s Cannabis Conference not only expertise, but a clear and urgent thesis: that the women who are already the majority of patients in this field have been systematically excluded from the institutions that govern it and that correcting that imbalance is not a matter of representation optics, but of building a healthcare system that actually works.
Nothing About Us Without Us: Patients at the Center of Cannabis Reform
Audience Shift: By the end of this talk, the audience will stop seeing patients as passive recipients of the healthcare system and start recognizing them as legitimate political actors and credible sources of expert knowledge.
Ashley Manta
Certified Sexologist | Creator, CannaSexual®
@cannasexual | LinkedIn | pussywhisperer.coach
Ashley Manta, ABS-certified sexologist, is an award-winning intimacy educator and the strategist high-achieving women and couples call when success in the boardroom hasn’t yet translated to passion in the bedroom. For almost two decades she has helped clients rekindle desire, negotiate ethical non-monogamy with confidence, and turn relational tension into shared growth.
Grounded in Internal Family Systems, trauma-informed somatics, and evidence-based sexology, Ashley’s private coaching weaves structured communication playbooks with embodied practices that shows progress between sessions. Her Pussy Whisperer™ framework pinpoints and calms the parts that sabotage connection, builds consent-driven erotic skills, and installs rituals that keep intimacy effortless under demanding schedules.
She is the author of The CBD Solution: Sex (Chronicle Books × Merry Jane, 2020) and trained as a Bodysex® facilitator under pleasure visionary Dr. Betty Dodson. Her speaking resume includes SXSW, AASECT, and the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit, along with guest lectures at universities, retreat centers, and conferences in the US and internationally. She has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Philosophy with a concentration in Women’s Studies.
Cannabis for Pleasure and Thriving
Audience Shift: Push back against the belief that you need to be high to enjoy the pleasure and relief of cannabis.
Queenee Gonzalez
Endometriosis Advocate | Dab Educator | Kritic
@Queeneedakritic @sesh_with_queenee | LinkedIn | queeneedakritic.com
Melodie “Queenee Da Kritic” Gonzalez is a Bronx-born cannabis educator, concentrate reviewer, patient advocate, and content creator who brings more than 25 years of clinical medical experience into her work with the plant. Known to her community as Queenee, she built her platform through a combination of patient advocacy, cannabis education, product knowledge, and honest conversation about living with chronic illness.
Her relationship with cannabis is personal as well as professional. Living with stage 4 endometriosis, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, insomnia, and a neurodivergent brain, Queenee came to the plant after years of navigating pain, prescriptions, and the limits of conventional care. That experience shaped the voice she is known for today: direct, informed, compassionate, and rooted in both clinical knowledge and lived experience.
As the “Painsomniac Plant Educator,” Queenee speaks to people who are trying to understand cannabis while also trying to understand their own bodies. Her work covers concentrates, patient care, chronic illness, mental health, travel, relationships, and the everyday realities of using cannabis with intention. She has a particular gift for making concentrates feel less intimidating, especially for people who may be curious but do not know where to begin.
Queenee is the marketing manager for Alibi.NY, Sales Support and Merchandising for Papa’s Herb, co-host of The International Women’s Cannabis Conference, a contributor to The Other Magazine, a Budist judge, and a judge for rosin competitions. She has appeared on podcasts and interviews, produced community events, and continues to build bridges between patients, brands, and cannabis consumers seeking real education.
Across her platforms, Queenee reaches a majority-women audience with cannabis education that is grounded, accessible, and deeply connected to the realities of pain, care, and self-advocacy. Her mission is to help people feel seen, informed, and empowered in how they use cannabis to care for themselves.
Neurodivergent Womanhood: Navigating Pain & Mental Health with Cannabis
Audience Shift: Participants will move from thinking pain management means being “fixed” or symptom-free to understanding cannabis as one tool for negotiating with a body and brain that do not always follow the rulebook. This session will help attendees recognize how masking, hypervigilance, chronic pain, and mental-health strain can feed into each other, while giving them permission to stop performing “fine” and start approaching care with more honesty, compassion, and self-trust.
Mia Garlock
Cannabis Researcher | Educator
@cannasciencemia | LinkedIn | https://substack.com/renegademia
Mia Garlock is a neurobiology and cannabis researcher, educator, advocate, and the founder of CannaScienceMia, a platform dedicated to helping people understand the relationship between cannabis, the endocannabinoid system, and everyday human experience.
Through her research-driven Instagram, Substack, and podcast, Synapse & Sativa: Her Lab, Mia translates complex neurobiological data into accessible cannabis education for recreational and therapeutic consumers alike. Her work connects the dots between cannabinoids, mood, memory, stress response, nervous system regulation, and overall cognitive function, helping people understand not only what cannabis does, but how and why it may affect them differently.
A self-described neurodivergent Canna Nerd, Mia brings both scientific curiosity and lived experience to her work. She is especially interested in neurobiology, women’s health, and the experiences that have long been overlooked, underexplained, or dismissed in mainstream conversations about cannabis and the body.
At the heart of Mia’s work is the belief that stigma lives in the fear of the unknown. By making the endocannabinoid system and cannabis science easier to understand, she helps people build a more informed, compassionate, and confident relationship with the plant — one rooted in data, self-awareness, and the possibility of true healing.
Neurodivergent Womanhood: Navigating Pain & Mental Health with Cannabis
Audience Shift: Participants will move from feeling uncertain or unsupported in their cannabis use to feeling more informed, supported, and confident in cannabis as a meaningful tool for pain relief, mental health support, and nervous system regulation, especially for neurodivergent women navigating a world that often does not account for their needs.