Medical Team of CBD Experts

Katherine Merryfield

Founder of Kat's Naturals

Katherine Merryfield holds a degree in natural health and nutrition and had been making natural health products for years, which came in handy, to say the least in 2015, after she stumbled upon the curative powers of CBD while trying to help her husband, who after 13 years in the military, began showing signs of PTSD. After creating her own CBD oil, she took it to the local farmer’s market in Chattanooga. Fast forward to 2019 - Kat’s Naturals is valued at over $23M and closed out 2018 with a sales increase of 1,300% - all through organic, word of mouth marketing.

Tsao-Lin E. Moy

Certified Chinese Herbalist & Licensed Acupuncturist

Tsao-Lin is a Licensed Acupuncturist with a Master's degree in Oriental Medicine and more than 18 years of experience in alternative and Chinese medicine. Tsao founded Integrative Healing Arts which focuses on using Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, acupuncture and energy healing to treat patients. Tsao has an integrative approach of using the ancient Eastern philosophy and healing methods in line with Westen's scientific paradigms of health. Tsao is well-known as an expert in Chinese medicine and has been featured on many publications, such as Healthline, Yahoo! Lifestyle, Dr. OZ show and many others. 

Caleb Backe

Health & Wellness Expert

Caleb is a certified personal trainer as well as health and wellness expert. He provides expert services, consultancy, and works with natural product development. When Caleb is not developing natural wellness products, he spends his time working as a personal trainer, helping people to reach their goals and live their best lives. Caleb's work has given him professional insight and expertise in the health industry as well as an in-depth understanding of the wellness world. Therefore, he has integrated his knowledge into any training he does. Caleb periodically shares his expertise on a number of publications, such as INSIDER, Yahoo, Maple Holistics, and other. Also, you can find his insights on p a plethora of wellness topics on his personal site.

Gus Hanger

CEO of Industrial Hemp Farms

Gus Hanger is one of the nation's Hemp experts - from laws and cutting edge news, to the latest research and health benefits, info on agriculture, high-level business insights and, government relations as well as fundraising/financing for this sector. Gus is currently working as CEO of Industrial Hemp Farms (IHF) - vertically-integrated hemp company specializing in farming, extraction, processing, and distribution at both the wholesale and retail levels. As such, it is one of the nation’s largest wholesalers of CBD products. IHF has operations in five states at present, but its central lab is in Colorado.

Nikola Djordjevic

MD, Co-Founder of LoudCloudHealth

Nikola is a board-certified family physician as well as co-founder and medical advisor at LoudCloudHealth.com, where he focuses on providing unbiased facts about cannabis and CBD topics. Nicola graduated in 2015 from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Medicine and obtained his medical license in the same year. Eager to learn, improve, create, and mend, Nikola found his true calling in creating and managing health-related websites. His is work allows him to make full use of his versatile skillset, so he uses the opportunity to share his knowledge and interests with the whole world. In his spare time, Nicola likes to get lost in the world of art, music, and cinema.

Jonas Urbonas

Founder of Sativum

Jonas Urbonas is a cannabis expert, philanthropist, sustainability enthusiast, and a founder of Sativum - a health and wellness company that was created to help people live life fully with help from organic full-spectrum CBD products. Jonas has been in the cannabis industry for 3+ years - from growing Cannabis Sativa L. to extracting it and following the daily news of all phytocannabinoids, cannabidiol included. As Sativum’s mission is to better people’s life quality while also taking care of the environment, they implement various innovative techniques - from 100% biodegradable packaging or using solar energy to process online payments to planting trees in the Amazon rainforest. Jonas is most happy when people experience benefits from the cannabis plant - feel calmer, get better night’s sleep, or experience an overall better quality of life. Outside of the cannabis industry he enjoys brewing craft drinks and kayaking the rivers.

Laszlo Mechtler

Neurologist & Cannabis Expert

One of the nation’s top doctors, Dr. Laszlo Mechtler (MD, FAAN, FASN, FEAN, Professor of Neurology Oncology), is on the frontlines treating cannabis patients at the DENT Institute - the largest, most comprehensive neurology practice in the U.S. that treats 1,000+ patients a day and 250,000+ patients a year. Dr. Mechtler is internationally renowned in the use of cannabinoids for patient treatment and he’s been utilizing CBD/full-spectrum hemp oil for his patients over the past five years. With the guidance of Dr. Mechtler and leaders at Nira CBD, a division of Jushi Holdings Inc., he also helped develop a line of full-spectrum hemp oil to help manage a variety of conditions. 

Rory Batt

Nutritionist, BSc, MSc

Rory has a BSc in exercise and sports science and an MSc in Personalised Nutrition, where he studied cannabinoids as part of his MSc in nutritional science. He is a co-founder of Gaia Guru, a CBD company focused on developing purpose-driven products, enhanced with additional botanical ingredients. Personally, he has been using CBD for over 6 years, which has helped him with health issues and improved his quality of life. Rory now studies the application of cannabinoids in other health conditions and helps people personalize their use of CBD to suit their individual needs. 

Andrew Leising

Vice President of Strategic Sourcing

Andrew Leising is a Vice President of Strategic Sourcing at Balanced Health Botanicals. He has been working with the cannabis industry since 2010 and with CBD since 2011. According to Andrew, sleep is an area he takes very seriously as it sets the tone for his daily life when he wakes up feeling well-rested. He has tried all kinds of natural sleep aids and while some of them have helped, they haven’t been the most effective. That's why for Andrew, cannabinoids and sleep go hand in hand. Andrew believes that while our bodies are naturally creating cannabinoids, we can also consume cannabinoids to help promote the endocannabinoid system, which will promote quality of sleep. Therefore, the main cannabinoid that Andrew likes to consume to promote sleep is CBD. 

Jen Palmer

Director of Education at Charlotte's Web

Jen Palmer, ND is the Director of Education for Charlotte’s Web, CBD industry pioneers. Dr. Jen is a naturopathic doctor with 20 years’ experience in the dietary supplement industry and integrative medicine profession. As a graduate of Bastyr University, she is passionate about sharing her knowledge about natural medicine through writing and speaking to consumers, retailers, and physicians. She recently created a one-year herbal certification CME program for physicians and authored “Berberine: Everything You Didn’t Know” by Woodland Publishing, among other writings. Her dedication to educating on the health benefits of CBD started when she used hemp extract to successfully support her dog’s health.

Ryan Lee

Co-Founder of Alive & Kicking

Ryan Lee is a Co-Founder of Alive & Kicking, a wellness brand that specializes in both full-spectrum CBD hemp products and low dose cannabis products (CA only). Alive & Kicking was created to provide people high quality, trustable low-dose option for those needing seassionable, manageable relief from the stress of everyday life. Their suite of products is growing but their specialty lies in understanding and offering products dealing with full-spectrum CBD whole-flower that provides the proper entourage effect to customers. Before Alive & Kicking, Ryan worked on high profile global brands in the advertising space. He had an interest in the CBD category and realized that he could help to make it better. Thus Alive & Kicking became alive and kicking.

Awais Spall

Director of Innovation & Development at Revibe

Awais Spall is a cannabis researcher that has spent 5 years as a clinical advisor, advising doctors and practitioners on the safe use of cannabis as medicine, along with its various applications. He spent the past year researching the unique interplay between cannabis and pathways known as transient receptor potentials. His research was recently published in a prestigious pain management journal. Awais has partnered with a direct to consumer brand Revibe, where he used his diverse background to develop a transdermal formula that is able to provide all of the benefits of CBD in a topical product.

Leslie Mudd

Board Certified Oncology Pharmacist

Dr. Leslie Mudd worked for more than two decades as a board-certified oncology pharmacist for the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville Hospital. At the Brown Cancer Center, she led the oncology pharmacy team to assist the bone-marrow transplant team and the medical oncology team. After leaving for the private sector, Dr. Mudd worked as a senior medical science liaison for multiple pharmaceutical companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she won multiple awards from its Pharmaceutical Research Institute. In her role as a Cornbread Hemp advisor, Dr. Mudd will oversee their CBD product formulation, curate available research on CBD, and help Cornbread Hemp prepare for anticipated FDA regulations.

Bryan Woods

Compounding Pharmacist

Bryan Woods brings over 35 years of experience to the Double Down CBD team, with the last 20 years specializing in the Compounding of specialty alternative drugs. He received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from San Diego State University and an advanced Professional degree in Pharmacy from the University of Wyoming. Bryan’s contribution to Double Down will be in the formulating of quality efficacious dosage forms for customers. Bryan has a deep understanding of CBD’s benefits having been part of San Diego County Planning Commission’s efforts to craft an ordinance to regulate cannabis and CBD dispensaries in San Diego County. He thoughtfully participated in public hearings where over 200 residents presented their feedback to the County Commission. Since that time, Bryan has been a vocal advocate of CBD usage for his patients and has worked with many Physicians and Veterinarians to provide customized “compounding” of natural alternatives to traditional medications for dogs, cats, and horses.

Molly Devine

Registered Dietitian

Molly Devine is a Registered Dietitian and published author who specializes in digestive health, healthy weight management, and chronic disease prevention through integrative and functional nutrition. She is an advocate for sustainable lifestyle change through nutrition intervention and founder of MSD Nutrition Consulting, a nutrition counseling and individualized meal planning service focusing on customized whole foods-based diets for disease prevention and management. She believes systemic inflammation is the root cause for most chronic diseases and has seen benefits both personally and professionally from the use of CBD oil as an effective anti-inflammatory intervention. Also, Molly is the founder of EatYourKeto, where she offers individual nutrition counseling with customized and effective meal plans.

Eric Balshin

Co-Founder & CEO of Yesterday Wellness

Eric is the CEO and Founder of Yesterday Wellness - health and wellness company focused on products containing broad-spectrum hemp extract, with naturally occurring CBD and no THC. Yesterday Wellness is on a mission to offer a natural source of relief for life’s everyday stresses, so people can appreciate how great life’s journey truly is. They offer a range of full-plant broad-spectrum CBD products with simple ingredients and no THC that help inspire relaxation and promote a sense of calm. Previously Eric spent over five years at a Toronto-based asset manager where he focused on consumer-facing sectors across North America. Prior to this, he was a member of Canada’s top-ranked retail and consumer equity research team.

 

Diana Rangaves

PharmD

Dr. Diana Rangaves, Google Scholar, holds a Doctorate from the University of California and specializes in pharmacotherapy management. She has extensive experience and expertise in the leadership and business sectors as a CEO, clinical pharmacist, consultant, and academic professor. Dr. Diana has founded ClinicalConsultantServices.com and DianaRangaves.com, and volunteered as the Clinical Director for ARISE Africa Foundation, which specializes in adult education and the reduction of STD/HIV in Nigeria. As a published author with Cognella and Radion, Dr. Diana writes for numerous print and online outlets. She is also a continuing education.com author. You can find her full portfolio here.

Darrin Yogi-D Zeer

Cannabis Yoga & Massage expert

Darrin Zeer is cannabis yoga and massage expert, professional speaker, best-selling author, stress management expert and yoga instructor. Darrin is the author of High Yoga as well as the host of Cannabis Yoga Retreats near the Colorado Rockies. Recently, he has appeared on CNN, NPR, in Time Magazine and the New York Times to discuss his books, the benefits of yoga, and the importance of managing our daily stress.