Thursday, November 14th, 2019

11:30 AM - 12:30 - Herscher Hall - Guerin C, Live Webcast

On the Forefront of Medical Cannabis Innovation: The Struggles & Triumphs in Transforming “The Wellness Industry”

Kim Barker, VP of Sales and Marketing, CannaKids

Robert Schubring, Co-Founder, Give Pain a Voice

Dr. Robb Flannery, CEO, Dr. Robb Farms

Keith Spears, Managing Partner, Skytree Capital Partners

Dr. Paula Shore, Medical Cannabis/Family Medicine Specialist

David C. Traub, Co-Founder, Epiphany Film Fund, Moderator

Dr. Robb Flannery, CEO, Dr. Robb Farms: Dr. Flannery holds a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from UC Davis with an emphasis in Environmental Horticulture and a specific expertise in hydroponic crop optimization for cut-flower production. While working on his doctorate, Dr. Flanner began serving as an adviser on modern horticulture practices to cannabis cultivators throughout Northern California. In addition to ensuring high-quality product with his clean cannabis company, Dr. Robb Farms, Dr. Flannery remains active in the community, serving as a Chair of the Agriculture Committee for the California Cannabis Industry Association, a mentor at Gateway, a startup incubator focused on launching companies in the cannabis industry, and is an advisor to the Dean of Agricultural Sciences at UC Davis.

Keith Spears, Managing Partner, Skytree Capital Partners: Mr. Spears is a Managing Partner at Skytree Capital Partners and specializes in real estate transactions and social impact investing.  Mr. Spears focuses on sourcing, evaluating, structuring and monitoring real estate investments for the firm.  Over the last two years, Mr. Spears has evaluated over 200 alternative investment opportunities.  Mr. Spears is an expert in private and public market finance vehicles including public companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REIT”), which can be used to finance alternative investments.  A committed social equity advocate, Mr. Spears is one of the Skytree management team members that is advising the City of Oakland on its $3 million social equity loan program.  Mr. Spears is an alternative asset professional with a particular expertise in impact investing, private equity, mergers and acquisitions and real estate.  Over a 30-year career, Mr. Spears has worked on over 150 transactions and investment that range from $1 million to well over $10 billion in size.  He has led the due diligence effort on over 50 fund and co-investment opportunities and has generated top quartile performance on behalf of his clients.  Mr. Spears has advised on over $47 billion in transactions, including approximately $30 billion in 80 private equity fund investments and co-investments and $17 billion in 75 M&A related financings.  As a dedicated impact investor, Mr. Spears is committed to deploying capital to achieve top quartile returns while providing significant positive economic and social impact. Mr. Spears was a Vice President and co-managed Hamilton Lane’s Golden State Investment Fund (“GSIF”), a $550 million private equity separate account fund-of-fund/co-investment fund managed exclusively on behalf of CalPERS, the largest U.S. public pension.  With over $300 billion of private equity assets under advisement, Hamilton Lane is one of the largest private equity fund-of-fund advisory firms in the U.S.  Mr. Spears is also a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.  Mr. Spears received his JD from Yale (corporate law), MBA from Stanford Business School (corporate finance) and his BA from Brown University (economics and urban studies).

Robert "Bob" Schubring, Co-Founder, Give Pain a Voice (GPAV): Film producer, cannabinoid delivery system inventor and investor Bob Schubring co-founded Give  Pain a Voice, a Toronto-based nonprofit that teaches chronic pain sufferers the skills of self-advocacy. The first of Bob's three productions, the John Holowach documentary HIGH: The True Tale of American Marijuana, sparked Bob's interest in the plight of chronic pain patients. He determined that US policy viewed pain relief as a kind of luxury or privilege, rather than as a medical necessity and found this trend troubling.  Bob, who has a chemistry and engineering background and was already working a number of legal cases involving product failure, sought to do something about it.  He chose the media side, teamed with Canadian documentary director Tina Petrova and co-produced her forthcoming film, Pain Warriors, which explores the divisive effects that miscommunication about pain exert upon families and society at large.  Bob has appreciable experience in chemistry and chemical analysis. He interned under Dr Jerome Horwitz, discoverer of the antiviral drug AZT, and later collaborated with Dr Daniel Klempner on an EPA-funded research project to recycle plastics, both in Detroit.  For the past year he has engaged in research and technical writing for The Alliance for Treatment of Intractable Pain, and submitted a research report to the FDA, Evidence-Based Policymaking: What's Absent from the Opioid Crisis.  Bob's other film productions are Twist, director Ochir Mashbat's biopic on noted Mongolian contortionist and coach Angelique Erdenechimeg, and Saraya's Universe, a sci-fi narrative short directed by Christopher P. Fure. Bob recently invented and is patenting an improved delivery system for the cannabinoid nerve protection agent invented by HHS scientists Hampson, Axelrod and Grimaldi (their US Patent 6,630,507) that promises to reduce the harm of Alzheimer's disease and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Dr. Paula B. Shore, D.O. is a medical cannabis specialist and holistic family medicine doctor. She graduated from osteopathic medical school in Kansas City in 1990. She completed a family medicine residency at Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Upper Darby, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia and then worked in an urgent care and family practice center. In 1998, Dr. Shore moved out to California, where she worked in urgent care. Sadly, practicing medicine was not what she had expected and so in 2003, Dr. Shore took a sabbatical from medicine, attending culinary school in NYC, and moving to Puerto Vallarta. In 2007, Dr. Shore returned to the States and mainstream medicine. Unfortunately, this became of cycle of prescribing medications, even writing prescriptions to counter the side effects of other prescriptions. This did not align with Dr. Shore’s wishes to practice holistically and to “first do no harm”. While waiting to start a job in hyperbaric medicine, Dr. Shore began doing medical marijuana recommendations; it turned out to be her niche. She read every article she could find; she ordered books off of the internet and devoured them between patients and each night after work. She stopped calling it ‘marijuana’ and referred to it only as cannabis because of the negative connotations and the history of the use of the word “marijuana” in this country. The benefits of using medical cannabis were undeniable. While she didn’t want to be the “pot doc” at first, Dr. Shore soon wanted to be known for her knowledge on the subject. In July 2011, Dr. Shore opened her own evaluation center in San Diego county.

Through word of mouth and physician referral, Dr. Shore became known as the foremost Medical Cannabis Specialist in San Diego county, offering regimens designed for each patient. For a period of time, it was standing-room only in the waiting room, with patients waiting up to 4 hours for Dr. Shore’s expertise. Self-taught, and with years of clinical experience, she has successfully treated chronic pain, eliminating the need for dangerous opiates and narcotics. During 8 1/2 years in practice, she has reversed dementia and Parkinson’s symptoms, halted seizures and MS symptoms, and has helped in recovery from TBI and CVA sequelae. Patients who chose only natural methods of treatment for cancer and autoimmune disorders were able to achieve remission. In those who wanted to incorporate cannabis into their conventional treatment, it proved to be an excellent adjunct. The proximity of Dr. Shore’s practice to Camp Pendleton allowed her to participate in the care of over 7000 patients with PTSD and not one of these patients was lost to suicide over this period of time. She is one of the very few cannabis specialists who is able to make strain-specific recommendations and design a regimen specific to each patient. Since early 2019, Dr. Shore began to concentrate her ongoing education to learn functional medicine and to incorporate it into her medical cannabis and alternative medicine practice. She is able to aid people in achieving optimal health using a combination of cannabis, alternative and functional medicine modalities, and when necessary, conventional medicine.

Through years of hands-on experience, Dr. Shore is able to assist patients in turning their lives around. How gratifying it is to reverse autoimmune disease, treat cancer and especially, to control chronic pain and mental illness, in most cases without pills

Dr. Shore makes herself available to patients thru mobile visit, telehealth, and on-site in a few locations in southern California. She offers nationwide and worldwide consultations by phone or video chat. The joy of helping people to regain their health and freedom from illness is what was missing for Dr. Shore in traditional family medicine. She looks forward to guiding her patients towards better health with the safest and best alternatives…….naturally.

David Traub, Global Ambassador, Unify.Earth: David earned a Masters in Education in 1990 from Harvard University, while conducting simultaneous class-work in interactive cinema and AI-based narrative at the MIT Media Lab.  HIs master thesis: design of the world's first virtual reality simulation game modeling family therapy. In 1984 he earned his undergraduate degrees in rhetoric and film with honors from the University of California at Berkeley, concluding with an honor thesis focusing on the use of film and television as "educational propaganda."  His primary focus: the aggregation and delivery of "social and emotional" and other learning-centric applications/content via feature films, TV, mobile phones, video games, thin clients/PCs and VR/AR.  In the real world, David has 20-years of experience as a digital media-oriented executive producer, entrepreneur, investor, venture catalyst, global business development executive, ind/or board member to over 40 startups/private equity companies. He has co-raised and deployed nearly $30 million dollars in support of these ventures. His most recent feature film as executive producer was JOBS, starring Ashton Kutcher;  with Bronx Bull his next movie to market (co-producer), and multiple others feature films and TV shows in  development.  David has created games, apps and other content as a co-founder,  executive and/or executive producer of digital products across a wide variety of clients such as EMI North America, MCA Records, Philips/Polydor, Microsoft/ MSN, Apple Computer and many others. He is also an author of nearly 50 articles and reports on the evolution of the digital domain for trade publications, professional books and institutional clients; and a speaker who has given nearly 50 forward-looking keynote and other speeches throughout the world for clients such as the EU, the Swedish and Canadian Governments, TV Globo (Brazil), the National Institute of Film in Denmark, Viacom, US West, Mercedes/Siebold, The Broadband Content Development Forum and numerous other economic development agencies and universities.