Leo Russell
Executive Director
“Leo” Leonora Russell is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked in the field of Social Work and Mental Health for the last 18 years. She previously worked for DSHS for 11 years as a State Social Worker with the Martin Luther King, Jr Office, Indian Child Welfare, and Family Treatment Court. Prior to her work with the State she worked with United Indians of All Tribes doing cultural-based counseling in the Native American community.
Leo currently works with chronically mentally ill people facing civil commitments and recently volunteered with Seattle Indian Health Board and Prostitution Survivors in the King County area. She has a keen interest in integrating psychedelic research/modalities in the fields of mental health and chemical dependency.
: gyauustees
Tribal People Headman
: gyauustees who was named for “he who gets it done”, he also caries other traditional hereditary names, and is a father of 9 and ceremonial leader of the tribal-people of the pacific north west, currently living on the unceded land of the Duwamish people.
His life has been an incredible journey of acceptance and forgiveness for what can only be described as the aftermath of attempted genocide of his people and destruction of the tribal people’s way of life.
Through his connection to his spirit and the path of the spirit of unity peace and dignity he has been able to overcome life’s immense challenges and return to the responsibilities with the ancient traditions of mother earth.
: gyauustees lives a ceremonial life as a hereditary pipe carrier, traditional song keeper, peyote roadman, purification lodge keeper, sun-dancer, ayahuasca facilitator, copper carrier master carver and has been entrusted by creation the great responsibility of being the carrier and voice of the UNITY PEACE AND DIGNITY walking staff. He has also been very involved with the longhouse painted face societies and potlatch systems of spirituality and governance. Through this way of life, he is also known as a unique artist creating traditional dancing masks, creating colorful paintings and beautiful medicine tools and instruments such as staffs, drums, fans, rattles, jewelry and regalia.
As well he now offers his time teaching at university and has been developing curriculum from his traditional wisdom and knowledge. He is also focussing on implementing the applied sciences for green technology locally and internationally. As a speaker he has shared his voice at local and international events, as radio host, regular guest on local television and has been featured in numerous music videos, pod casts, movies, documentaries, and has produced and released dvds sharing with the world his traditional songs, : gyauustees is also currently writing producing directing and composing for his upcoming tv shows and films. He was also featured in the book Lalakenis, which described his and other hereditary leader’s ceremonial journey to Parliament Hill.
Georgette Monseratt
Board Member
Georgette is the host of the Psychedelia podcast which takes a unique lens to psychedelic education by combining storytelling and cutting edge research from diverse voices. She graduated from UT Austin with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Communications. She is very passionate about educating people on the healing power of Psychedelics and removing the stigma surrounding them.
Her personal goals in life are to remain curious, never stop learning, read everyday, continuously work on self-improvement, live a positive and balanced life, and to always make time for tea and dessert. She has a white shepsky whom she loves spending time with and lives an active life which includes yoga, running, and hiking.
Ellany Kayce
Board Member
An enrolled tribal member of the Tlingit Nation, Raven Clan, Ellany is a workshop presenter, keynote speaker, traditional drummer, singer, dancer, and activist.
Over the course of her career, she worked as a cultural consultant, event planner, coordinator, facilitator, trainer, curriculum developer, and fundraiser.
She has lifelong experience working with Alaska Native, Native American, and First Nations communities and industries.
Cloretta James
Board Member
Cloretta is an attorney working for the Office of Public Defense. She cares deeply about the impact of racism and bigotry on the most vulnerable and seeks justice for those who have been afforded so little.
She supports the right of individuals to heal themselves responsibly with plant medicines, especially in light of what is allowed (specifically the horrific opiate crisis in this country which is pharmaceutical-based).
Kris Shaw
Board Member
Kris Shaw received a Master’s degree in philosophy studying political theory and world religions. After receiving a law degree, he moved to Seattle and became a public defender.
He benefitted early In life from the transformative power of hallucinogens, leading him to an interest in Buddhism since 1990.
He is married with two beautiful daughters, Alexis aged 3 and Olivia aged 6.
Anthony Shelby
Board Member
Anthony is a small business owner in Seattle. He believes the healthy mind and body of the human is the integral ingredient for a free society.
Right now, society is in chains. These chains are kept in place with carefully placed information detrimental to the evolution of human health. With available technology, humans have become sicker, more dependent, and less capable of recognizing actual value in the health of the body and mind. The decriminalization of mind expanding psychedelics is a step in achieving the true health of the human mind and body
Berry Edwards
Board Member
Berry worked as an adult addiction and forensic psychiatrist and retired after 35 years of practice. He was also a New York City Police Surgeon. He’s the past President of the WA State Psychiatric Association and publisher of behavenet.com.
Barry believes competent adults have a right to decide what to put in their bodies. The “war on drugs” harms those it claims to protect, kills tens of thousands of Mexicans, fails to achieve what it promised, and props up the cartels.
He enjoys playing saxophone and harmonica, watching movies, and yard work.
Sheila Teleios
LGBTQ diversity recruitment head
Sheila Teleios is an dream interpreter, existential therapist, and intersex individual who respects and honors all forms of expression in human behavior (as long as it is non-harmful to others). She is a survivor of early religious indoctrination, physical and emotional abuse, rape, and was kicked out of her home at 13 and has been homeless most of her life. She has also suffered the horror of the persecution of being intersex.
Sheila believes psychedelics are visionary doorways which bring healing and reintegration and the ability to touch the numinous and the transcendent.
“There are so many people who need healing
Who need understanding
Who need to work through their trauma. A lot of these medicines can be very gentle in helping someone work through that trauma.”
Miguel Duque
Board Member
Miguel is a liberty activist and coach whose mission is “to lay the foundations for a voluntary, peaceful world through leadership, philosophy, and love.”
He currently serves as an At-Large Representative of the Libertarian Party of Washington and the Libertarian Party of King County, is an organizer for the LP Mises Caucus, and is a co-founder of the Sasquatch Freedom Festival.
Miguel’s love of nature and desire for a voluntary, peaceful world drove him to discover and advocate for plant medicines and their potential to empower every individual and to heal multi-generational trauma caused by past and present systems of aggression or coercion. He is a proponent of decriminalizing entheogens and nullifying all victimless crimes.
Miguel holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from Texas A&M University. Originally from Houston, he and his wife, Jamie, live in Bellevue, Washington with their three cats. When not working to set brushfires of freedom in hearts and minds, Miguel enjoys being in nature, hiking, foraging, gardening, and learning new skills.
Yasmeen Waheed
Board Member
Yasmeen Waheed is a healer, psychic, and medium working in the Seattle area. She advocates for holistic medicine and is a firm proponent of spiritual and metaphysical healing. She has lived experience in the inadequate mental health system in King County and is part of a think-tank activism group through Entheo society that focuses on an alternative commitment process for civil commitments which focuses on holistic and plant medicine. Yasmeen is an Entheo society executive board member.