Breadcrumb
2026 Cannabis & Environmental Stewardship Symposium
April 17, 2026
Native American Forum (BSS 162)
Doors Open: 9am
Event: 10am - 5pm
Catered continental breakfast and hot lunch
Funded by The Resource Legacy Fund and The Campbell Foundation.
The 3rd Annual Cannabis & Environmental Stewardship Symposium
is a student organized annual event designed to bring together farmers, researchers, cultural leaders, restorationists and agency representatives to collaborate on equitable solutions to support small farms and promote environmental stewardship. Through short presentations, panel discussions and networking opportunities the symposium provides a unique opportunity for a diverse group of stakeholders to work together on creating more resilient watersheds and communities.
Panel Discussions
After completing a Master of Public Administration Fellowship at Baruch City University of New York and the New York State Health Foundation, Laura was invited to a family farm in Watsonville to trim during the fall harvest season 2009. She relocated to Oakland and from 2011 - 2017 she served as a Research Administrator/Financial Analyst under the UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor of Research Office. In 2017, she transitioned to full time cannabis consulting and by 2019 was contracted to work with Cannabis Social Equity programs in Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Long Beach to facilitate the disbursement of GOBiz grants.
In 2020, she returned to UC Berkeley in a multi year appointment in the College of Natural Resources, Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management to support the Berkeley Cannabis Research Center as their Digital Communications Specialist and Community-Based Researcher.
In 2024 she was recruited to be guest instructor for the Merritt College and City of Oakland Cannabis Apprenticeship Program and then hired to be a full time Financial Analyst, Coordinator of Grants & Special Programs for Merritt College where she is currently investigating cannabis workforce development pathways and apprenticeship certification through California Community Colleges.
Mr. Grady is a licensed professional civil engineer and supervisor of the North Coast Water Board’s Agriculture and Enforcement Division with over 19 years of experience administering various water quality protection programs in the North Coast Region. He has been regulating cannabis cultivation since 2014 and helped develop the regional and statewide water quality regulations for this industry; he is currently the regional program manager for the Water Boards’ statewide cannabis regulatory and enforcement program.
Pheej Lauj (Pheng Lor) is a Project Manager and Community Researcher with UC Berkeley's Cannabis Research Center. He also serves as a the Director at the Cultural Heritage Center in Fresno's Chinatown. He was born and raised in Fresno, California, and earned his undergraduate at UC Berkeley and his Environmental Humanities graduate degree from the University of Utah. He is dedicated to cultural, agricultural, and environmental progress, and passionate about bridging resource gaps to underserved and vulnerable communities.
Alan Archuleta is Tribal Council Vice Chairman of the Mooretown Rancheria, located in Oroville, CA. Under his leadership, the tribe opend the first cannabis dispensary in Butte county in 2023. He is the author of the bestseller, "The Gospel of Hemp: How Hemp Can Save Our World". It is an eBook that is available for free on Amazon and Google Play Books, and is available in 179 countries around the world. After just three years, the tribe will open their dispensay expansion, which more than doubles the size of their original building. Currently, Mooretown Rancheria is seeking to partner with hemp processing firms to help mitigate the obscene amout of waste used in legal cannabis product packaging, with biodegradable containers made with hemp.
Seth LaRosa, Researcher, UC Berkeley Cannabis Research Center
Dana Hauser, Farmer and Director, Hayfork Chamber of Commerce
Chevon C. Holmes, MA is a co-director of the Transnational Research Centre on Emerging
Drug Markets at the Loughborough University Law School, London UK, and a doctoral
candidate in the Geography Graduate Group at the University of California Davis. In her PhD
research, Chevon applies a mixed-methodological approach to interrogate how the institutional
arrangements that govern transitioning drug policies shape the legal production landscape and
their potential to support sustainable development in agrarian and remote-rural systems.
Nathan Whittington, J.D. is a lecturer in the Cannabis Studies Program at Cal Poly Humboldt whose scholarship and teaching emphasize the application of legal training to emerging cannabis regulation and environmental policy. He contributed to the drafting of Humboldt County’s first cultivation ordinance and to statewide regulatory frameworks through advocacy and policy development with the California Growers Association and Humboldt County Growers Alliance. Drawing on his experience establishing one of Humboldt County’s first locally permitted cottage farms, Whittington navigates compliance while developing case studies that illustrate how law and policy intersect with sustainability, equity, and community-based advocacy in the evolving cannabis sector.
William Dolphin has been involved with medical cannabis advocacy for 25 years, providing communications and court support to organizations and individuals. He has published extensively about cannabis science, law, and policy, and co-authored the award-winning book The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience. Since 2024, he has been a lecturer in the Cannabis Studies Program at Cal Poly Humboldt and a faculty researcher in the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research.
Adrien cultivates 5,000 sq ft of Sun and Earth certified cannabis on his homestead farm in
Hayfork, Trinity County.
He is a Founder of the Trinity County Agriculture Alliance, and serves as the Executive Director
and Chair of Policy. He recently retired from his nine year tenure as a Director of the Trinity
County Fair Association, and an avid mushroom forager.
Now with over ten years of cannabis advocacy and 40 years of cultivation experience, Adrien
works to bring economic and environmental sustainability to his rural community.
Christina Dempsey, Deputy Director of Government Affairs, Department of Cannabis Control
Dan Mar is a lecturer, research associate and the environmental stewardship lead in the Cannabis Studies Department at Cal Poly Humboldt. He is a principal at High Tide Permaculture, a regenerative land-use consultation company, that is presently working with nonprofits that have received funding under CDFW’s Cannabis Restoration Grant Program. He also served as the co-director of the Regenerative Cannabis Farm Award that promoted regenerative practices within the cannabis industry throughout California and Oregon.
Taylor Stein and her husband Daniel own and operate Briceland Forest Farm, a regenerative market vegetable garden and award winning cannabis farm in Southern Humboldt. She graduated from the University of Utah with a double BS in Psychology and Anthropology and a minor in Cognitive Science. Her studies prompted a strong interest in the impact of food production not only on the landscape but also communities and relationships. She is passionate about community food security and the importance of gathering and connecting at local markets. Throughout, cannabis has been a vital plant ally both as medicine and in farm ecology. She is honored to be raising two young boys on their legacy family homestead in a place of evolving land stewardship and rural community building.
Ryan Bourque, Senior Environmental Scientist, Cannabis Restoration Grant Program, Cal. Dept. Fish and Wildlife
Linda MacElwee, Watershed Coordinator, Mendocino Resource Conservation District
Earl Crosby, Deputy Director, Watershed Branch (retired), Karuk Tribe, Dept. Natural Resources
Presentations
