Advisors
PYRC's advisors are a community of researchers, clinicians, public health and nonprofit leaders, legal counsel, and longtime friends of the work. Their guidance informs everything from the design of our research protocols to the ethics of our offerings.
Josh Lipson, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychedelic researcher based at the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality. He earned his doctorate at Columbia University, with a dissertation called "Modeling the diverse trajectories of psychedelic-occasioned mystical experiences", advised by Dr. Lisa Miller and in collaboration with Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris. He currently runs a project studying the factors that predict psychedelic-related difficulties, as well as effective remedies and integration approaches. He also writes on a wide range of topics at Whitmanic, and moonlights as a poet and historical geneticist.
Cate Jester, MA, LMHC, is a grounded psychospiritual counselor, breakthrough coach, and creative strategist. Cate received her MA in mental health counseling from NYU, BA from Brown in International Relations, and certifications in psychedelic-assisted therapy, applied positive psychology, master shamanic reiki, and laughter yoga.
Her 15+ years of training includes clinical work as a psychedelic research therapist, multiple modalities of holistic practice, Indigenous teacher plant lineages, transpersonal psychology, and metaphysical philosophy. Cate’s unique approach also leverages a background in education technology, games, and comedy production. As creator of BS-FreeLife.com, Cate is committed to offering bold space for exploration, insight, and meaningful action.
She is the author of two books and is currently working on her third about how to hack reality with humor. Cate offers holistic support via individual sessions, groups, and workshops. She is a passionate advocate for inclusive community that honors diverse identities, safe practices, and authentic wellbeing.
Robert Rush is an attorney and policy advocate whose work bridges law, science, and individual liberty in the evolving landscape of psychedelic and drug policy reform. He
operates an independent practice, representing scientists, facilitators, healing centers, entheogenic churches, advocacy organizations, non-profits, and emerging businesses.
Rush is also the founder of the Rights and Reason Project, a public-interest initiative dedicated to advancing cognitive liberty, evidence-based drug policy, and constitutional accountability within administrative and criminal law. His work emphasizes the intersection of civil rights, cognitive liberty, and individual and scientific freedom, challenging administrative overreach and seeking to ensure that public policy reflects
reason rather than fear.
In 2024, Rush co-led the groundbreaking challenge against the DEA’s proposed scheduling of DOI and DOC - one of the most consequential administrative hearings in modern drug policy. His broader practice includes advising on business development, risk management, cannabis and hemp law, and the development of equitable frameworks for emerging natural medicines. Rush regularly speaks on law, policy, and science at the forefront of reform, working to create a rational and humane legal system that honors both empirical evidence and individual rights.
Logina Mostafa, MPH is a public health practitioner, educator, and community organizer whose work centers the body as a site of healing, liberation, and transformation. She holds a Master of Public Health in Policy & Management from NYU School of Global Public Health, where her research focused on equity in access to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, and a BA in Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies and Global Health Studies from the University of Iowa.
A former Fellow at the Center for Psychedelic Public Health and a member of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective and the Psychedelic Alliance for Healing Justice, Logina has spent over a decade working at the intersection of expanded states, somatic practice, and community care. She has facilitated intentional cannabis use and embodied movement workshops nationally and has contributed to publications including Sex and Psychedelics Magazine.
Her writing on psychedelic public health has appeared in Psychedelic Alpha, where she has advocated for equity, Indigenous stewardship, and community-rooted approaches to psychedelic access and harm reduction.Logina is the founder of Queering Existentialism, an NYC-based education and connection initiative that co-creates containers for somatic healing, harm reduction, and communal secure attachment — exploring how altered and expanded states support the unlearning of internalized oppression and the reclamation of embodied identity.
She serves as Head of Community at Violette, a data-secure, encrypted platform that gives healing and psychedelic communities a protected space to connect and organize free from surveillance and censorship. She is also a board member of Tarab NYC, a community wellbeing organization serving LGBTQ Arab and SWANA communities, and a Stewardship Circle member of the Root and Bloom Institute, a psychedelic somatic therapy center based in Berkeley, CA.
Josh Barocas is an early literacy leader and member of the PYRC’s advisory board. He began his career performing as a bass player in clubs across New York City and beyond before transitioning into laboratory work and, ultimately, education. Josh spent seven years as a classroom teacher (grades 1–3) and reading specialist, developing deep expertise in early literacy development and the broad range of psychological and linguistic research that powers great teaching of young readers.
In his current role as Senior Director of Early Literacy at LINC, he focuses on innovating new approaches to early literacy with a special emphasis on strengthening family–school relationships and strengthening NYC’s literacy ecosystem. Josh is a husband, a father of two and a lifelong resident of Brooklyn, NY.
Katherine R. Bell, PhD (Santa Cruz, California) is a dreamwork practitioner and is the founder of Experiential Dreamwork. She has facilitated Dream Groups for 30 years and has been a Dream Coach for 15. She manages conferences and is on the Board of Directors and Ethics Committee for the International Association for the Study of Dreams and leads peer support groups for the Association for Spiritual Integrity.
Katherine is host of the podcast The Dream Journal, which originates as a weekly hour-long radio show featuring live interviews with dream experts and call-ins from listeners. The Dream Journal is dedicated to spreading information about the power of our nightly dreams. The Dream Journal has been on the air for over seven years and has 370 episodes to date.
She is seeking a publisher for her first book, “Dreams, The Treasure Hunt.”
Katherine trained as an astrophysicist and has a BA from Williams College and a PhD from UC Santa Cruz. She worked for NASA for 11 years as a Space Scientist and lives in the Bonny Doon mountains with her husband and son.
Veela Jeweline is a Licensed Holistic Psychotherapist, combining somatic, cognitive, & energy psychology therapies for her clients' empowerment, healing, transformation, insight, & post-traumatic growth. She is also a Subtle Body Work Practitioner, Wisdomkeeper, Cultural Spellworker, & Doula of Souls.
Veela sees the blocked energy in systems & helps people, things, & places transform. She facilitates events which offer opportunities to rewrite culture & which support people in cultivating deeper intimacy with themselves & others.
She graduated from Silberman School of Social Work & received certifications in practice with Trauma & Subtle Body Work Coaching. Veela is an Energyworker & Reiki Master (Usui Shiki Ryoho & Karuna Holy Fire III). She has years of experience counseling Empaths & HSPs, empowering youth & healthcare workers, caring for Elders, conducting research on people & their experiences.
Intellectual curiosity, her own trauma healing journey, & a previously unsupported Kundalini experience also led her to train in Shamanism, Voice Healing, Conscious Kink, Sacred Sexuality, Plant Medicine Studies, & Vajrayana Buddhism.
Veela's soul is here to support the thresholds of great transition, & to empower others to transform suffering, reclaim intimacy, & remember who they are.
Her work is rooted in the belief that healing is not the absence of suffering, but the restoration of connection— to self, body, spirit, lineage, community, & the living world.
She carries a vision of a world where life, death, healing, & belonging are sacred; where Indigenous wisdom & our primal roots are remembered; where medicine is nourishing & accessible, & where intimacy, attunement, joy, & pleasure are held as essential.
Rob Heffernan is a certified Shamanic Breathwork facilitator; certified Integrative Soundand Music Practitioner (sound healing); Certified Breath Coach and has completed theEMBARK training for psychedelic assisted therapy facilitation.
He is a long-termBuddhist Dharma practitioner with a deep commitment to integrating and buildingconnections between Buddhist Dharma, sacred medicine work and the eco-climate/social justice crisis. He has participated in Vegetalismo, Santo Daime and othersyncretic medicine traditions since 2000.
Rob is an independent researcher and activistwho has been active in organizing and legal efforts for the Santo Daime, Ayahuascaand broader psychedelic community since 2005. He is co-founder of the Sacred PlantAlliance and sits on its board of directors. He has served on Chacruna’s Council for theProtection of Sacred Plants for 8 years.
Robin Silver, MA, is a death doula, ecopsychologist, and threshold guide whose work explores the intersections of grief, ritual, ecology, and transformation. Robin holds an MA in Ecopsychology from Naropa University, along with certification in mindfulness instruction in the lineage of Chogyam Trunga Rinpoche and Psychedelic Assisted Therapy. Her master’s thesis focused on the role that fear of death plays in the polycrisis, and how to use ancestral practices and connection to the rhythmic cycles of nature in overcoming that fear. Her path began in 2011 during a mindfulness retreat at Guang Jue Monastery in rural China, and has since been shaped by 15 years of contemplative study, death & grief work, and cross-cultural healing traditions across the US, Mexico, and Asia. By combining her training in nature connection and contemplative practices, end-of-life care, psychedelic healing, and ritual design, Robin creates containers that support personal inquiry and collective healing. Her facilitation style blends accessible psychological frameworks with spiritually resonant practices, to help participants remember their inner knowing and restore relationship with the more-than-human world.
Miriam Kagan, MPS, LCAT (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based psychedelic-assisted art therapist specializing in guided visualization, creative arts expression, and the integration of altered states of consciousness. She holds a Master of Professional Studies in Creative Arts Therapy from Pratt Institute, where she trained during the COVID pandemic — a period that pushed her to expand hands-on modalities into home and virtual spaces, deepening her commitment to accessible, flexible, sliding-scale care grounded in professional ethics.
Using a trauma-informed, person-centered approach, Miriam supports the New York community in healing, spiritual exploration, and personal growth. She partners with Isha Health to connect patients with insurance-covered ketamine-assisted therapy through HIPAA-compliant tools. She also collaborates with local LGBTQIA+-led organizations to offer psychedelic communal art-making rooted in harm reduction. Miriam facilitates a bi-monthly Mindful Figure Drawing workshop, which weaves together an optional cannabis ritual, guided meditation, and an hour of drawing, closing with sharing work and connecting with each other.
Keith Fiveson has spent his life working with complex systems — first in the external world, then in the internal one. His early career was in technology: building internet infrastructure, IP protocol systems, and early virtual reality models. In 1994, he began a second education: yoga, psychology, somatic work, depth therapy, and the slow, rigorous study of the human nervous system as its own kind of architecture.
His yoga practice runs deep enough to have roots in lineage. Swami Satchidananda gave Keith his sacred Sanskrit name: Shunyata — the boundless open ground from which everything arises.
A U.S. Army veteran and certified Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Provider (PATP), he brings somatic training, IFS-informed parts work, and the hard-won empathy of someone who has been on the healing path for over 30 years — first as a client, then as a guide. He holds a Master of Divinity (M.Div.), is ordained as an Interfaith Minister, and is the author of The Mindfulness Experience and Return of the Exiled Child.