UW-Madison Psychedelic Symposium 2025: Reset

Manish Agrawal

Founder and CEO, Sunstone Therapies

Dr. Manish Agrawal’s extensive background and experience spans medicine, engineering, philosophy, ethics, and research. He currently serves as Founder & CEO of Sunstone Therapies, a leader in the delivery of psychedelic-assisted therapy in the medical setting and the development and execution of clinical trials for those affected by complex mental health challenges. Manish previously held the position of Co-Director of Clinical Research at Maryland Oncology Hematology, where he dedicated 15 years to the care of cancer patients. He completed a fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, and his residency at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Josh Hardman

Founder & Editor, Psychedelic Alpha

Josh Hardman is the founder and editor of Psychedelic Alpha, an independent media and consultancy firm devoted to the psychedelics industry—from business and drug development through to policy reform and scientific research. Using data-driven reporting, analysis and commentary, Hardman strives to empower individuals with the knowledge, network and nuance to make an impact within the emerging field of psychedelic medicine and beyond. Hardman has authored hundreds of analyses on topics broadly related to psychedelic business, policy and research, such as commercialisation, IP and regulation. He has spoken about psychedelic drug development and industry at conferences worldwide and acted as an expert witness to bodies such as the European Parliament and the Dept. of Health and Human Services.

Elliot Marseille

Principal, Health Strategies International

Dr. Elliot Marseille is Principal at Health Strategies International. He has 35 years of senior public health management and research experience and has published widely on the cost-effectiveness of a range of global health diseases and conditions, with a focus on HIV/AIDS. He is the Course Director for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Medicine and Public Health, at UCSF. Dr. Marseille is a leading expert on the economics of the emerging psychedelic-assisted therapies to treat a range of psychiatric indications. He consults with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in modeling the economics of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of severe, treatment-resistant PTSD; with the Usona Institute in analyzing the cost-effectiveness of psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat major depression; and with John Hopkins U on the cost-effectiveness of psilocybin-assisted therapy for tobacco cessation.

Tura Patterson

Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships, Usona Institute

Tura Patterson is the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at Usona Institute, where she leads an integrated portfolio that spans strategic alliances, philanthropy, educational programming, external communications, and long-term planning for the future delivery of care. With a background in economics, international relations, and sustainable development, Tura brings over 30 years of leadership experience across non-profit, academic, and high-technology sectors. At Usona, Tura’s efforts focus on cultivating partnerships and building the ecosystem to support responsible and equitable access to psychedelic therapies.

Jackie von Salm

Co-founder and CSO, Psilera, Inc

Dr. Jackie von Salm is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Psilera, Inc., a Florida-based biotechnology company founded in 2019 focused on discovering new treatments for mental health. Dr. von Salm graduated with Honor’s (magna cum laude) with her B.A. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of South Florida with a focus on natural products drug discovery and chemical ecology. She was named the Most Read Author in 2017 by the American Chemical Society (ACS), awarded the Cosmic Sister Emerging Voices Award in 2019, the ACS ElSohly Award in 2020, and has been featured in National Geographic, Nature, and the Wall Street Journal.

Liz Birkhauser

Zoë Dubus

Postdoctoral Researcher, Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM). France

Zoë Dubus is a post-doctoral researcher in history of medicine at Cermes3 (Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Inserm), in the ARCHE project. She obtained a funding from the Institut pour la Recherche en Santé Publique (IRESP), which seeks to document the history of clinical trials involving psychedelics in addiction treatment and psychiatric care in France and Anglo-American country. Author of numerous publications, her work aims more generally to understand the relationship between doctors and psychotropic drugs, conceived alternatively as innovative medicines or as toxic substances.

Franklin King

Clinical Instructor, Harvard Medical School

Dr. King completed residency in psychiatry at MGH/McLean followed by a fellowship in Consult-Liaison (CL) Psychiatry at MGH and a research fellowship at the MGH Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program.  His areas of research include optimization of therapy paradigms within psychedelic research as well as the use of psychedelic-assisted therapies in disorders at the mind-body interface.  Dr. King is currently the Principal Investigator in a pilot study exploring the feasibility of psilocybin-assisted therapy for irritable bowel syndrome, Co-PI for a collaboration with Fireside Project, a national psychedelic harm reduction organization, and is the study psychiatrist for a neuroimaging study examining the effects of MDMA-assisted therapy for fibromyalgia.  He is also co-developing the Harvard-wide Interdisciplinary Program in Psychedelics with colleagues at BWH and BIDMC, a program that provides education and training in psychedelic-assisted therapies for clinicians across the HMS community.

Shayla Love

Journalist, The Atlantic

Shayla Love is a science journalist based in Brooklyn, and a contributor at The New Yorker and The Atlantic. She writes about mental health, the psychology that underpins wellness trends, and the shifting ways we understand our bodies and minds. She also covers research on psychedelics for the treatment of mental illness, and the sociocultural impacts of the psychedelic renaissance. Shayla has a master’s degree from Columbia University, and was previously a staff writer at Vice, Psyche, and The Guardian. Her work has also appeared in The New Republic, Scientific American, Harper’s Bazaar, Wired, Esquire, The New York Times, Nautilus, and more.

Christine McCleave

Former CEO, National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

Dr. McCleave is the former CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, where she co-authored federal legislation establishing a Truth Commission on Indian Boarding Schools—a government policy rooted in forced assimilation and the suppression of Indigenous cultures. She recently completed her groundbreaking dissertation, “More Than Peyote: Trauma, Healing, and the Politics of Indigenous Cultural Survival in the Age of Psychedelic Colonialism,” which offers a powerful analysis of accountability within the psychedelic movement through a critical Indigenous lens. In addition to her academic and policy work, Dr. McCleave served as Moderator and Project Manager for Colorado’s Federally Recognized American Tribes and Indigenous Community Working Group, contracted by Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) and Natural Medicine Program. Dr. McCleave is an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwe Nation.

Rosalind Watts

Founder and Co-director of ACER Integration

Dr. Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist and the founder and co-director of ACER Integration (Accept, Connect, Embody, Restore), a global mycelial community supporting psychedelic integration through nature-based wisdom. Her work builds on her earlier development of the ACE model (Accept, Connect, Embody) of psychedelic-assisted therapy in clinical trials, and her creation of the Watts Connectedness Scale (WCS), a psychometric tool measuring connection to self, others, and the wider world. Her current focus is on community building: strengthening networks of care to support the integration of psychedelics into Western culture in an era of systemic collapse and regeneration. Now in its sixth cohort, the ACER programme has guided more than 400 participants through a yearlong journey of slow, deep, and long-lasting change.

Josephine Anderson

PhD Candidate, UW-Madison

Josephine Anderson is a current PhD Student at the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy studying Pharmaceutical Sciences. She brings three years of analytical chemistry research experience to her current position, and has published in both the Journal of Natural Products and Molecules. Josephine’s current research is a collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital centering around the potential effects of maternal ingestion of serotonergic hallucinogens on fetal development. Her specific focus is on the pharmacokinetics of maternal-fetal transfer of the drugs of interest, and developing methods of detection to aid said study.

Emma Bublitz

PhD Candidate, UW-Madison

Emma Bublitz is currently a 2nd year PhD student, mentored by Drs. Matthew Banks, Christopher Nicholas, and Charles Raison, in the Neuroscience Training Program at UW–Madison. In her research, Emma is focused on using neuroimaging techniques, such as functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging, to better understand the mechanisms of psychedelic drugs in humans. More specifically, she is investigating functional and structural connectivity, and the neural correlates of emotional memories and psychological flexibility.

Ashton Barber

PhD Candidate, UW-Madison

Ashton Barber is a 5th year PhD candidate in Ned Kalin’s lab at UW–Madison. She is passionate about understanding and developing novel treatments for mental health disorders. Her thesis work focuses on investigating the effects of ketamine and psilocybin on anxiety-related behaviors in nonhuman primates.

Kate Nautiyal

Assistant Professor – Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College

Kate Nautiyal is an Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. As a behavioral neuroscientist, Kate uses preclinical models to understand the mechanisms through which psilocybin changes the brain to induce persisting antidepressant effects.

Chris Stauffer

Assistant Professor – Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University

Chris Stauffer, MD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and Director of the Social Neuroscience & Psychotherapy Lab housed at the Portland VA, where he conducts clinical trials of psilocybin and MDMA-assisted therapy—with a particular interest in group therapy. He also co-founded the Open Psychedelic Evaluation Nexus, which conducts health services research on state-level legal psilocybin services.

Cody Wenthur

Associate Professor – UW–Madison School of Pharmacy

Cody Wenthur is Co-Director of the Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center and
Director of Graduate Studies for the Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation Programs at UW–Madison School of Pharmacy.

Steve Paulson

Former Executive Producer of “To the Best of Our Knowledge”

Steve is the Executive Producer and one of the founders of To The Best Of Our Knowledge. He has been a contributing writer for Salon and Nautilus and has written for Slate, Huffington Post and The Atlantic. His radio reports have also been broadcast on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His book, Atoms and Eden: Conversations on Religion & Science, was published by Oxford University Press in 2010. He’s working on another book exploring the intersection between science, philosophy and spiritual experience, which will probe the edges of science and such oddities as psychedelics and near-death experiences.