The Psychedelic Field Has a Leadership Problem

Most of the data doesn’t reflect the people doing the hardest work.
Most of the training doesn’t account for cultural reality.
And most leadership pipelines quietly reproduce the same blind spots we claim we’re trying to heal.

This March, that changes.

We’re launching the Psychedelic Leadership Retreat-a two-day, in-person training in Oakland designed for practitioners, facilitators, organizers, and healers already working with Black populations and Black audiences in psychedelic spaces. THIS TRAINING IS OPEN TO PEOPLE OF ALL BACKGROUNDS WHO WORK WITH BLACK PEOPLE!

This is not a conference.
This is not an academic exercise.
And it’s definitely not extractive or performative.

It’s a deliberately intimate, community-rooted retreat focused on strengthening leadership where the field is weakest-and where the consequences are highest.

Because mainstream psychedelic research still fails to meaningfully include Black subjects, much of what we know comes from lived, ancestral, and community-based knowledge. This retreat exists to honor that reality-and to sharpen it into leadership that lasts.

Participants will learn directly from Black experts working at the intersections of:

• Physical health and psychedelic medicine
• Recovery, substance use, and harm reduction
• Sex, sexuality, and altered states
• Spirituality, culture, and liberation

Facilitators include: Dr. Akua Brown, Roz McMillian, MFT, Leticia Brown, MFT, and Ayize Jama-Everett- each bringing deep experience, credibility, and accountability to the work.

Leadership Training Application

March 14–15, 2026
Oakland, California
Applications close in 4 weeks (or sooner if capacity is reached)

Enrollment is intentionally limited to protect depth, trust, and real relationship-building. Once it’s full, it’s full.

If you’re already doing psychedelic work with Black communities-and you know the field needs leadership that actually understands that responsibility-this retreat was built with you in mind.

Learn more and apply here:

Leadership Training Application

Leadership Training Application

Leadership Interest Form

Leadership Training Interest Form

Meet the facilitators

The future of this work won’t be shaped by better branding or bigger panels.
It will be shaped by who gets trained-and how seriously they take the responsibility.

Physician, abolitionist, community healer, and one of the “100 Grassroots Psychedelic Community Leaders You Need to Know.” A leading voice in culturally responsive psychedelic medicine.

Specialist in harm reduction, supporting people navigating substance use, grief, and identity—particularly within communities shaped by systemic pressures and generational trauma.

Therapist, educator, liberation-focused practitioner trained in multiple psychedelic therapy modalities, including MAPS’ historic Communities of Color MDMA cohort.

Writer, spiritual practitioner, cultural critic, and long-time guide exploring the intersections of consciousness, identity, and liberation.