Thursday, May 23rd, 2019

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

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

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

Robert Schubring, Co-Founder, Give Pain a Voice

Janice Hardoon, Owner, KTown Collective, The Antidote CBD and Elevate CBD Skin Care

Nancy Duitch, Founder & CEO, Sera Labs

Mskindness B. Ramirez, MA.Ed., Founder/CEO, Club Kindness and Elixirs by Kindness

Dr. Robb Flannery, CEO, Dr. Robb Farms

Merrill Shindler, Executive Producer and Host of High on the Hog, The Potcast, Moderator

Janice Hardoon. Owner of KTown Collective, The Antidote CBD and Elevate CBD Skin Care. Janice is highly regarded in the cannabis industry. Since 2008, she has owned and operated a PRE-ICO collective in Los Angeles. Throughout the years she has successfully branded Koreatown Collective as a premier dispensary in Hollywood, she also co-founded an award-winning Edibles R’ US ganja savory and sweet food products. Before the marijuana, Janice worked on Wall St for Merrill Lynch as a financial consultant and operations manager.

Janice currently is on board of Glaca, California’s oldest cannabis trade association. She serves as an advisor for the Southern California Coalition (SCC) and on the San Francisco Equity Board. She recently started a podcast, “High on the Hog”, to focus on the simplest of terms in the cannabis today: CBD and THC. Janice has found a unique niche in the skin care market as she infused CBD into daily skin care. Elevate Skin Care, products known as Elevate CBD Cosmetics, was created to provide consumers with the essentials of beautiful youthful skin.

NANCY DUITCH, FOUNDER, PRESIDENT, AND CEO, has over 30 years’ experience as an entrepreneur and leader in the consumer products industry. She has founded and developed several diverse businesses, from start-up to public company level, involving beauty, health care, wellness and education, and has executed state-of-the-art campaigns generating over $3 billion in revenue for some of the most well-loved brands. Sera Labs was created to expand CBD products in the health, wellness, and beauty sectors, and is structured to connect the brand with customers in a results-oriented and fully-integrated relationship. Her creativity, ability to develop talent, and effective utilization of multi-channel strategy for optimal ROI has consistently positioned Nancy as an industry leader. After losing two siblings to sudden cardiac death when they were in their 20’s, she, along with her mother, embarked on a mission to raise awareness, education, and resources to help fight sudden death in children and young adults. In 1995 they founded the Cardiac & Arrhythmia Research & Education Foundation (C.A.R.E.) which continues to play a critical role in supporting thousands of patients and their families. She is also passionate about, and heavily involved in, several philanthropic activities including mentorship and supporting children in need.

Mskindness B. Ramirez, MA.Ed., Founder/CEO, Club Kindness and Elixirs by Kindness: With both a given name and a calling, Mskindness B. has remained committed to a life of service and philanthropy. Following a long, successful career in large-scale fundraising and earning her Masters degree in Education, Mskindness became a high-school math teacher. Only to soon discover that life had other plans for her skills, when a bad slip and fall during her second pregnancy led her down a path toward Cannabis for healing. This bold Mom officially entered the Cannabis space in 2015 when she founded Club Kindness, a non-profit organization that supports patients, brands and dispensaries with holistic cannabis education and outreach programming. In 2016, she developed Elixirs by Kindness, a CBD rich apothecary line geared toward the mature consumer She is the host of Sneaking in Silence, a podcast about mindful Cannabis consumption, co-owner of the luxury CBD store, ECS, and the author of her upcoming children’s book, Our Very Special Garden; written to spark the Canna-conversation between kids and their parents. Mskindness is an educator, wife, mother and all around hard-working lady; Who remains gracefully balanced through her daily meditation and mindfulness practice. “I’m fully committed to this wonderful journey God’s Plant has placed me on. For me, it’s simple... Gratitude Wins!” ~Mskindness B.

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.

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.

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.

Merrill Shindler, Executive Producer and Host of High on the Hog The Potcast -- is Restaurant Critic for the Southern California News Group -- writing more weekly reviews than anyone in America, while still maintaining his girlish figure! -- and author of “American Dish” and the “El Cholo Cookbook.” He was the LA Editor of the Zagat Survey since the beginning. He’s been the Restaurant Critic at the LA Herald Examiner (may it rest in peace), and the LA Reader (ditto!). Also, host of Feed Your Face on CRN: The Digital Radio Network. He's from the Bronx, where he was raised on deli, pizza and Chinese on Sunday nights. He firmly believes that ketchup is nature's most perfect food.