The Board of Directors jointly supervises the activities of the SCC. The BOD represents the interests of the organization’s membership and guides decision-making needs. The BOD meets to vote on pressing topics related to the non-profit and discuss the growing needs of the organization.
The Board of Directors jointly supervises the activities of the SCC. The BOD represents the interests of the organization’s membership and guides decision-making needs. The BOD meets to vote on pressing topics related to the non-profit and discuss the growing needs of the organization.
Learn more about the BOD members and the organization’s support staff below. SCC Members are encouraged to get involved in our organization’s Committees. Anyone can submit inquiries for collaboration by emailing us.
A 2020 article by SCC member Kevin M.Takakuwa details the history of the SCC, which is the first and oldest U.S. medical organization promoting the use of medical cannabis. You can also check out the publications and research studies created by members of the organization by visiting the SCC Bibliography.
Dr. Stephen S. Robinson grew up in Newark, NJ and graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle. Dr. Robinson completed his MPH at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
His interest in both public health and global health became a lifelong commitment after his first visit to Cuba in the early ’70s. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Harlem Hospital Center and later served as a medical team leader to Ghana and Liberia with Operation Crossroads Africa.
In New York City, Dr. Robinson worked within the Sophie Davis School at the City College of New York for 15 years, to establish the CUNY Medical School. Esteemed colleagues included the late Dr. George I. Lythcott. During his tenure with the City University, Robinson also served as the interim director of the Physician Assistant Program at Harlem Hospital Center.
After working as Medical Director with Georgia’s Primary Care Assn., he left the US for five years and worked in Tanzania, setting up an exchange program between the Institute for Medical Research in Tanzania and the Public Health Sciences Institute at Morehouse College. While there, he also worked with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health evaluating health facilities for their readiness to provide HIV/AIDS care and treatment.
Since his move to Oakland, California in 2010, Dr. Robinson has been evaluating patients for their use of medical cannabis. He participated on panels at numerous cannabis-related conferences and delivered presentations on cannabis’ medicinal benefits and dosing strategies to both professional and lay audiences. Dr. Robinson contributed to the revision of the Medical Board of California’s “Guidelines for the Recommendation of Cannabis for Medical Purposes.” He has been a board member of the Society for Cannabis Clinicians, and currently serves as president of the organization.
Genester Wilson-King, MD FACOG is a Board-Certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist with over 20 years of clinical experience providing compassionate and research-driven care to patients. In 2010, she founded Victory Rejuvenation Center (VRC), a private holistic and integrative wellness medicine practice that provides life-transforming management modalities and customized medicines to patients.
She is Vice President of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, a non-profit that works to empower and educate healthcare providers on the use of cannabis medicine. She is a member of the Special Advisory Board of the Association for Cannabis Health Equity and Medicine, ACHEM, an organization that is a mutual benefit, professional medical association for BIPOC healthcare professionals and students active or interested in cannabinoid medicine and health equity. And finally, she is on the Board of Directors for Doctors for Drug Policy Reform, a national physicians’ association dedicated to the legalization and regulation of cannabis and psychedelics for adults.
A co-author of published articles on the Assessment of the Impact of Cannabis on Female and Male Sexual Function. Dr. Wilson-King is an expert on cannabis use in female health and Hormone Therapy for females and males.
Sherry Yafai, MD is a Cannabis and Emergency Medicine physician at Providence St. John’s Medical Center since 2009. Dr. Yafai started her medical career at UCSD Medical School graduating in 2005 and UCSD Emergency Medicine Residency in 2009. In 2017, after recreational marijuana laws had passed in California, Dr. Yafai opened her private Cannabis Clinic, the ReLeaf Institute, where she sees patients primarily referred by physicians for cannabis education and treatment. Roughly 75% of her patients are over the age of 50 and prefer to use non-smokable Cannabis products. She is the Co-Vice President of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, a member of the UCLA Cannabis Initiative and a distinguished speaker for UCSD Center for Medical Cannabis Research, Pacific Neuroscience Institute and multiple other medical programs. In 2018 she was accepted as an Adjunct Associate Professor at John Wayne Cancer Institute working with cannabis and cancer research. This year, Dr. Yafai has worked with the Los Angeles community to put together the first ever CME approved Medical Cannabis Conference designed to educate the healthcare community on dosing, indications and legal perspectives in the recreationally legal setting of California. The ReLeaf Institute Conference proudly hosted Kim Kirchmeyer from the Medical Board of California, the LA County of Public Health, The Department of Cannabis Regulations for LA, Clinical and Cannabinoids Research Journal and the Society of Cannabis Clinicians.
Of all of these positions, her most fulfilling role is as a medical educator. She currently sits on the Advisory Board for Canopy Health International and is a lead expert for cannabis education throughout the country. She has been interviewed by GOOP and The Doctors TV show. As Co-Vice-President for the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, Dr. Yafai works to educate physicians, clinicians, and other health care providers on the most up to date clinical data and research in the field of Cannabis.
Dr. Benson A. Hausman, MD, MPH, became involved with medical cannabis when from October 2012 to December 2017, he was the Executive Director and Chief Science Officer of the second largest medical cannabis dispensary in California, Elemental Wellness Center (EWC) in San Jose, and President of the Board of Directors of Coastal Americare, Inc., dba EWC. Dr. Hausman was in charge of strengthening the dispensary’s operations and medical work. He developed education, training and quality control of medical services as well as medical research carried out by EWC. He developed educational material on medial cannabis aimed at improving patient care and understanding at the physician, dispensary and local government levels, and was involved in strengthening quality control and safety of medical cannabis products, as well as linking laboratory analysis to specific therapeutic effects and treatment regimes.
Previously Dr. Hausman was an epidemiologist in International Public Health for over 30 years, working with various international aid organizations, including USAID, the Dutch and Danish governments, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Royal Dutch Tropical Institute, UNICEF and the World Health Organization. He has managed a diverse range of projects and programs from academic research to national disease control programs (diarrheal diseases, immunizations, tuberculosis). In this context he traveled to more than 25 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Dr. Hausman has several publications to his name. He holds a BA degree from Tulane University, a MD degree from the University of Amsterdam, and a MPH degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Currently Dr. Hausman is Treasurer of the Board Directors of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians and is the sole proprietor of LuarBiasa Consulting. He writes a blog: Dr. Benson’s Cannabis Corner.
Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD, a charter member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians in 1999, would serve as president of the group 2008-2018. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Hergenrather got his MD from Brown University’s Program in Medicine in 1975. He had a one year rotating internship at the University of South Carolina’s Spartanburg General Hospital in the family practice program.
Hergenrather spent six years as the general practitioner caring for > 600-1500 residents of “The Farm,” an intentional community in rural Tennessee, and working as an emergency physician at Maury County Regional Hospital. At The Farm marijuana use was the norm for adults, and Hergenrather was able to observe its range of effects on people with various medical problems (and those in good health). He backed-up the Farm midwives with Ina May Gaskin for hundreds of births, and helped train midwives who would subsequently influence the American way of childbirth. His study of “Pollutants in Breast Milk of Vegetarians” ran as a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine (March 26, 1981).
Emergency Medicine would be Hergenrather’s specialty for more than 20 years after he moved to California in 1982, eventually settling in Sonoma County. After voters legalized the medical use of marijuana in 1996, Hergenrather could openly discuss it as a treatment option with patients. In 1999 he launched a private solo practice in the town of Sebastopol specializing in cannabis consultations. He joined the International Cannabinoid Research Society and began attending their annual symposia.
At the ICRS meeting in 2004 Hergenrather warned researchers from Sanofi-Aventis that —based on the range of beneficial effects reported by his patients— their plan to produce a cannabinoid-antagonist drug would have unforeseen negative consequences. He was unheeded —Rimonabant was marketed in Europe— but proved right in 2008 when it was withdrawn for safety reasons.
Many of the findings about cannabis as medicine reported by Hergenrather in SCC surveys have yet to be confirmed in clinical trials, but they have been of use to practitioners who accept the validity of clinical evidence. His pioneering 2005 paper “Cannabis Alleviates the Symptoms of Crohn’s Disease” was based on 38 patients’ seen by SCC physicians. His dramatic account of cannabis oil on a baby’s pacifier reducing an optic pathway glioma in 2011 alerted many doctors and patients to the anti-cancer potential of cannabinoids.
In December 2019 Hergenrather completed a three month ‘sabbatical’ as an Academic Visitor at the Technion Department of Biology, Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research Institute, in Haifa, Israel. His hobbies include organic farming (olives and apples), theater set design and building, and working with mosaic tile. He and wife Starr have been married 48 years and have four grown children, with whom, when they were young, lived in a schoolbus and later traveled the world with backpacks.
Joe D Goldstrich, MD, FACC grew up in Dallas, Texas and graduated from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. After working as a mathematician for the US Navy, Dr. Goldstrich attended the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas where as a senior medical student he was present in trauma room and participated in the futile attempt to save president John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
He subsequently became board-certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases and Clinical Lipidology. In 1978 Dr. Goldstrich met Nathan Pritikin, the father of the Pritikin diet, and became the chief cardiologist at the Pritikin clinic and later the medical director of the Pritikin program.
He practiced preventive cardiology and integrative medicine until his retirement in 2010. In 2013 he accepted a position at a clinic that provided medical cannabis recommendations in Oakland, California. In 2014 he personally worked with approximately 3500 patients who used medical cannabis to treat their medical condition. From these patients, he learned the beauty and efficacy of medical cannabis. During that time, he saw a presentation by Mara Gordon that detailed shrinkage of brain tumors that could be attributed to cannabinoid therapy. At that moment he knew that treating cancer with cannabinoids would become his life’s work.
Dr. Goldstrich has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians since 2016.
Patricia Frye M.D. began her journey with medicinal cannabis as the first evaluating physician for a cannabis telemedicine platform, HelloMD. This was her first introduction to the use of cannabis as medicine and it proved to be an invaluable and career-changing experience. Intrigued by the testimony of thousands of patients and what she learned from the scientific literature, Dr. Frye went on to become professionally certified in Cannabis Science and Medicine by the University of Vermont School of Medicine.
Now in private practice, Dr. Frye focuses on the role of cannabis in the management of chronic pain, inflammation, autoimmunity, neurodegenerative disorders, autism, seizure disorders, and psychiatric conditions. She works closely with patients and their referring clinicians to develop sound treatment plans that are based on both observational and scientific evidence.
Dr. Frye earned her medical degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she also trained in pediatrics, and is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. After completing her pediatric residency, she trained in Anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine where she gained experience working with adult patients in medical pain management and pain management procedures.
During her many years at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California her practice focused on children and teens with autistic spectrum disorder, learning and developmental disabilities, school problems, and behavior issues. She has served as a volunteer for several organizations which include the St. Mary’s AIDS Care Team, Phoenix House, an in-patient drug rehabilitation program for adolescents, Head Start Committee on Health, and Piedmont CASA where she served as an advocate for children in the family court system due to abuse or neglect.
Dr. Frye lectures internationally, educating medical providers, patient groups, policy makers, businesses, and government agencies on the endocannabinoid system and medical benefits of the cannabis plant. She serves on the Cannabis Trade Federation Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the board of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians. In 2018 she authored the book “The Medical Marijuana Guide: Cannabis and Your Health”.
Dustin Sulak, D.O. is a traditional osteopathic general practitioner and expert in integrative medicine. His clinical practice focuses on treating refractory conditions in adults and children. Dr. Sulak received bachelor degrees in nutrition science and biology from Indiana University – Bloomington. He received his medical degree from the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2008. Dr. Sulak is an internationally-renowned expert in medical cannabis and frequently educates clinicians, industry professionals, and patients at conferences, webinars, and retreats. In addition to co-authoring eight peer-reviewed publication on medical cannabis, he is the author of a foundational text on the clinical use of cannabis, Handbook of Cannabis for Clinicians: Principles and Practice, published in 2021. He is co-founder of Healer, a medical cannabis education and products company, and has served on the SCC’s board of directors since 2015.
Bobby Vincent, III, PharmD, RPh is a Clinical Cannabinoid Pharmacotherapist born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Vincent is driven by a passion to bridge the medical cannabis industry with communities in need. Dr. Vincent currently serves the northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. metropolitan area as a pharmacist and medical consult– providing care for hundreds of cannabis patients. Dr. Vincent is the founder of Cannabis Health Alliances, LLC., building partnerships to advance therapy, policy and patient accessibility. He also serves as the Communications Chair for the Virginia Pharmacists Association’s Academy of Medical Cannabis and a member of the organizations Task Force for Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Dr. Vincent is a graduate of Hampton University where he obtained a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Cannabis Science and Therapeutics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore – the first degree of its kind available in the United States. He has experienced a host of unique learning opportunities, including time abroad in Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and the Philippines as a medical volunteer. Dr. Vincent also spent time with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Office of Science Policy and Communications as a pharmacy intern.
Dr. Vincent was honored as a Virginia Pharmacists Association “10 Under 10” award recipient, recognizing upcoming pharmacists advancing health initiatives in their community. Dr. Vincent is also a recipient of the United States Public Health Service (U.S.P.H.S.) Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award. He uses his platform to advocate for the involvement of pharmacists in the medical cannabis industry. He also speaks to the importance of training the next generation of healthcare professionals on the medical advantages of cannabis, personally mentoring pharmacy students across the US. As an advocate, educator, and pharmacist, Dr. Vincent is enthusiastic about the evolution of cannabis as a medicine and the opportunities it continues to open up for patient care.
Dr. Shiksha Gallow is a pioneer in the Medical cannabis industry globally. She serves as the first and only South African on the Board of Directors at the Society of Cannabis Clinicians in the USA. She is the Medical Director of Holistic Healing and Cannabis Research Council in South Africa and Vertical High in Thailand. She holds a degree in Bio- Medicine and is qualified in Clinical Pathology which she achieved Cum Laude. Additionally she has a Masters in Medical Science, Masters in Public Health Medicine, MBA, and two PHDs. She has a Doctorate in Medicine and a PHD in Business Leadership and is now completing her third PHD (Medical Science) in medical cannabinoid research. Her passion lies in healing patients and she completed her Dispensing of Medicines qualification as well. Among all her academic qualifications, she is an Ethnomedicine practitioner, Ayurvedic practitioner and Cannabis Clinician. She has consolidated many natural medicinal protocols, which include cannabinoids and has conducted large scale research studies on these protocols. Dr Gallow is the principal investigator of the first cannabis clinical trial in South Africa, which investigates the replacement of opioids with medical cannabis. She is also involved in research on South African landrace chemovars for specific pathologies.
Dr. Gallow is an international author and published five academic books and many articles. She is appointed as a peer reviewer for AOSIS international. She is an international speaker at many events and conferences such as Cannatech, Medical Research, SAMA, HPCSA, Cannabis Expo etc. Dr. Gallow is an advisor to local and national governments in South Africa and represents part of the Strategic advisory team for medical cannabis. She was recently appointed on the EXCO of the BRICS strategic team representing medical cannabis in South Africa.
Windi Muraszka graduated Hunter College of Nursing of the City University of New York in 1992 and began working in Manhattan’s Upper East Side as a labor and delivery nurse. She attended Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing deep in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, the birthplace of American Nurse-Midwifery. Her midwifery clinical training occurred at a Bronx Birthing Center, a Manhattan Planned Parenthood clinic, and at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. She then completed a Master’s Program at Stony Brook University of The State University of New York. Upon graduation, she took a job at Wyckoff Height Medical Center, a Brooklyn community hospital where she has welcomed babies since 1996.
In 2014 Windi worked in concert with several physicians to establish a visionary new type of private practice maternity care service. The Augury for Women’s Health and Midwifery was a true coupling of the science of medical-based maternity care with the humanistic centering of a midwifery approach. This amalgam of ancient knowledge and sacred midwifery lineage married quite well with a modern evidence-based approach to women’s health and wellness, pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding and has become an answer to the prayers of so many women and families. Windi has worked with thousands of women through the years, catching over 2800 babies and now serving two full generations.
Windi became intrigued with the healing and wellness-supporting properties of cannabis when several members of her close family and friend circle were diagnosed with cancer and auto-immune disorders. After completing the New York State training program for medical cannabis providers, she decided to delve deeper into this field and matriculated in the first university program in the country offering professional medical cannabis training, the University of Maryland’s Medical Cannabis Science and Technology Master’s program.
Windi continues to serve the women and families of New York City in her role as midwife and nurse practitioner, now offering medical cannabis as one of the many tools she uses in optimizing their health. She looks forward to continuing the vision of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians by focusing on matters highly pertinent to women’s health and the nurturing of the next generation.
Katia Tonkin, MBBS, MD, FRCPC, FRCP (UK) is a medical oncologist who worked at The Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton Alberta Canada for 20 years and in London, Ontario Canada for six years prior to that. She did her medical oncology training at The Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto Ontario and has dual UK and Canadian oncology qualifications. Dr. Tonkin was involved for 30 years in clinical trials that specialized in breast and gynecological cancers.
She has a master’s degree from two years spent in the lab studying chemotherapy and radiation effects in immune compromised mice.
She became interested in medical cannabis in 2016 as many patients started asking about cannabis. After researching into it, Dr. Tonkin felt cannabis was likely to help many patients with a wide variety of problems.
She started treating patients in April 2017 and wants to pursue clinical research to further medical knowledge into appropriate uses of medical cannabis. Dr. Tonkin’s goal is to help uncover the true benefits and side effects of cannabis beyond the already very useful pragmatic clinical approach.
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