Board of Directors

CCIA’s Board of Directors brings together leaders from every sector of California’s cannabis industry. Their collective expertise ensures that the needs, challenges, and priorities of operators across the supply chain are heard—and represented—where it matters most.

Our Board listens to cannabis businesses and carries those insights to the legislators and regulators shaping the policies that impact your operations. As a powerful unified voice for California cannabis operators, the Board works to advance a fair, sustainable, and thriving industry.

Board seats are held by Business and Executive Members, each serving a two‑year term and contributing their time, experience, and leadership to guide CCIA’s mission and statewide advocacy.

Our Board

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  • CAREN WOODSON | KIVA CONFECTIONS

    Caren Woodson is a nationally recognized marijuana policy expert with over twenty years of experience advising policymakers at all levels of government about transforming law and policy. Her unique perspective on managing compliance risk comes from her combination of employment with national drug policy reform organizations, licensed marijuana operations, and the State of California. She pioneered relationships with elected officials resulting in strategic gains for the cannabis industry during her tenure with Drug Policy Alliance and Americans for Safe Access; she lobbied early support for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, organized the first and only electronic dance party on Capitol Hill, facilitated adoption of medical marijuana laws in seven states, and played an integral role in the adoption of San Francisco’s landmark medical marijuana dispensary ordinance.

    Ms. Woodson’s success stems from her ability to forge strategic partnerships. She guided favorable policy endorsements from the American Medical Association, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, and American Public Health Association. Her collaboration with medical and scientific organizations led to the creation of the American Herbal Products Association’s Cannabis Committee and the subsequent production of operating guidelines which many states have used to develop regulations. She has advised marijuana industry leaders across the nation on license acquisition and regulatory compliance. Her ability to design efficient compliance programs and mitigate risk is informed by her previous work as an environmental regulations specialist with the State of California. Successful navigation of complex regulations and consumer expectations has helped her clients strengthen brand reputation and value.

    Born in California and raised in Las Vegas, Ms. Woodson received her degree in Political Science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and her Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the American University in Washington, DC. She is a natural resource volunteer, avid cyclist, and enjoys backpacking in the high Sierras.

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  • Zoe Schreiber | ZCBS Strategies

    Zoe Schreiber is the Principal of ZCBS Strategies.  She previously served as Director of Compliance for Garden of Eden stores and Eden Infusions brand. Beginning her career in cannabis and membership into CCIA in 2014, Zoe has worked in many capacities within the industry including compliance, political organizing, legislative development, licensing procurement, outside general counsel support, and trade organization development. 

    As a current co-chair of the Retail, Delivery, and Distribution Committee, Zoe is dedicated to membership engagement and ensuring members’ voices are heard in their needs from a Committee. She is also an active member of the Legislative and Agricultural & Manufacturing Committees. 

    Zoe is excited to offer her expertise in supporting and running trade organizations and industry organizing and both as a staff and on the board, previously for OCEP (Oakland Citizen’s for Equity and Prosperity) Safer San Jose, Measure C 11, Safer Vallejo, and in her former life in aviculture.

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  • Whitney Collie | Pacific Stone

    As Vice President of Compliance at Pacific Stone, a leading flower and pre-roll brand in California, Whitney Collie oversees all aspects of the brand’s compliance. 

    Since 2019, she has entitled five properties, been pivotal to the acquisition of four, secured countless licenses, and guided key policy. Her expertise in compliance has been recognized in private and public sectors; The METRC program she developed at Pacific Stone has been used as training for regulators at both state and local levels. 

    Whitney also served as the President of CARP Growers in 2022, a local trade association formed by responsible cannabis cultivators in Carpinteria. As President, Whitney advanced community outreach on the historic cooperative odor agreement reached the year prior. She continues to serve on their Board of Directors. 

    Born and raised in Rhode Island, Whitney moved to California in 2015 with her husband and their pup Sally. She spends her free time enjoying the sunshine with her family which has grown to include a chiweenie named Moose.

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  • Michaela Sweatt | ALG Strategies

    Michaela Sweatt is Licensing and Compliance Director and Chief Operating Officer at Austin Legal Group/ALG Strategies. She currently serves on the CCIA Board of Directors. Michaela delivers local permit, state licensing, and compliance services to a large portfolio of cannabis clients from small operators to large MSOs. She is known as a problem solver when working with local jurisdictions and the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC). As a California regulatory compliance consultant Michaela assists clients by providing up-to-date knowledge of the laws and regulations that affect the cannabis industry so that cannabis business owners have the information they need to make business decisions.

    Michaela is currently Co-Chair of the Agriculture and Manufacturing Committee of the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA) where she shares her expert-level knowledge of licensing and compliance while working with other industry professionals to provide input into proposed legislation, regulation, and best practices in the ever-changing cannabis industry.

    Prior to joining the cannabis industry in 2017, Michaela was a product-launch consultant and entrepreneur. She co-founded Nurture Connect, a company that created a distribution and sales platform for digital health technology companies to launch their health, safety and communication technology products and services for healthcare professionals, senior care organizations and family caregivers. She gained her business experience at start-ups and Fortune 500 companies from Stanford Healthcare, GreatCall’s launch of the Jitterbug cell phone (now owned by BestBuy), Microsoft, Intuit, and The Walt Disney Company’s “Disney Interactive” software division where she provided her deep consumer insights into winning customer experiences.

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  • Sam is a seasoned policy advocate, public affairs and political strategist at the national, state and local levels of government. A frequent commentator and contributor on national and regional news shows and press. He served on the Hispanic Finance Council for Biden for President and later on the energy/workforce transition committee.

    He started his policy career working for former Governor Bill Richardson when Richardson served as Member of Congress in New Mexico and years later in the U.S. Department of Energy as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Education. At USDOE, Sam created the Community College Initiative - a award-winning, signature workforce program designed to train and educate students for science and technology related occupations.

    In California, Sam was appointed to the highest levels of government by the Governor and Speaker of the Assembly to lead and reform workforce development programs. He also served on the Board of Directors for the California Employment Training Panel and served on the Newsom for Governor Workforce Development Cluster Group. He’s currently the Vice Chair of the San Francisco Workforce Investment Board and a Board Member of the California Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun.

    In the telecommunications industry, Sam served as the State Director for Comcast and led the west coast effort to integrate Universal Studios and tax reform measures to underscore its value with community benefit investments.

    In the emerging cannabis industry in California, Sam drafted several provisions in the medical and adult-use state regulatory and legislative system to protect workers, social equity businesses and enhance local cultivation with farming incentives. He’s currently the policy lead for a trade association of cannabis farmers based in Santa Barbara County.

    Since the 1990’s, Sam has traveled to several countries in Latin America under the banner of USIA and also to Cuba building bridges with the musical and artistic communities to support medical relief efforts. Global community engagement also includes Israel as a National Latino Leader with the American Israel Education Foundation. He also served on the Battleground Campaign Directors Team for Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaigns. Sam has a B.A in Political Science from the University of Texas at Dallas and is a member of Sierra Club.

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  • Laura Fogelman | PAX

    Laura Fogelman is VP, Communications & Public Affairs at PAX, a leading global cannabis brand on a mission to deliver consumer well being through exceptional cannabis experiences. In her role, she leads communications, public policy and social impact for the brand, including partnerships with leading nonprofits and advocacy organizations driving social change. Laura won a Clio award for The Human Toll: How the War on Drugs Targeted Black America, a three part docu series produced in partnership with Vanity Fair and the Last Prisoner Project, and has delivered coverage in top tier publications including The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, Adweek, High Times and more.

     

    Laura serves on the legislative committee of the California Cannabis Industry Association, is a Steering Committee and founding member of Legal Cannabis for Consumer Safety, serves on the policy and communications committees of the United States Cannabis Council, is a member of the policy council of the Marijuana Policy Project and is a member of Chief, a network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders. Prior to joining PAX, Laura was VP, Strategy & Accounts at Grow, a marketing agency with clients including Google, Airbnb, BlackRock, Nike, Target, Dignity Health and more. She previously held various public affairs roles at McKesson Corporation.

     

    Laura received her Bachelors from the University of California, Davis, and currently lives in Marin County with her husband, son and golden retrievers.

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  • Lauren Carpenter | Embarc

    Lauren Carpenter is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Embarc and Embarc Events. Embarc is one of California’s leading cannabis retailers and Embarc Events is a pre-eminent cannabis concessionaire, responsible for integrating onsite sales and consumption into some of the world’s largest experiential festivals and events including Outside Lands, Cali Roots and the California State Fair, among many others.

    Lauren has spent nearly fifteen years working to advance thoughtful policies in highly regulated industries ranging from food and beverage to education and energy at the local, state, and federal levels. She brings this significant policy background to her role at Embarc, working to advance legalization in communities across California.

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  • Josh is a cofounder and serves as the President of SC Labs where he is responsible for managing technical operations, research and development, regulatory compliance, and intellectual property. Founded in 2010, with facilities in California and Oregon, SC Labs is one of the longest running cannabis testing laboratories in the nation. Josh also serves as co-chair of the CCIA's Quality Control Committee. He has a background in analytical and synthetic chemistry and spent his early career in the pharmaceutical and electronic materials industries and has managed cannabis testing laboratories since 2009.

    As a long time patient and cannabis activist, he is committed to the continual development of quality and safety standards for cannabis and cannabis products. Besides his role on the CCIA QC Committee, he serves on the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) Cannabis Expert Panel, is a founding member of the AOAC CASP advisory group on cannabis, and is a founding member of the American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL) cannabis committee, as well as other cannabis and hemp trade associations and committees.

    Josh has served as a flower judge for the Emerald Cup and regularly presents his research with regard to cannabis chemistry at conferences and trade shows. Josh received his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.

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  • Nicole Phillis | Davis Wright Tremaine

    Nicole Phillis is a commercial litigator at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP (“DWT”) and co-chairs DWT’s Cannabis Industry Group. She served as the Vice President of CCIA. She has represented some of the largest brands, investors, and enterprises in the cannabis industry in a wide range of litigation matters, including supply chain disputes, trademark and trade dress litigation, breach of contract and corporate governance disputes, unfair competition disputes and class actions, trade secret actions, and defamation matters, among other things.

    In addition to her litigation practice, Nicole advises clients in both the cannabis and hemp industries on speech, advertising, and compliance-related issues. She has written extensively on cannabis advertising and been featured on multiple panels based on her advertising and speech expertise, including most recently for the LACBA Cannabis Section’s Second Annual Litigation Salon (2021), the LACBA Cannabis Section’s Cannabis Advertising CLE (2021), and the International Bar Association’s panel on Cannabis Trends in the Americas (2021).

    Nicole is also very active in industry advocacy spaces, serving as a co-chair for CCIA’s Risk Management Committee (2021-Present) and as an executive board member and former VP of Communications for the Los Angeles County Bar Association Cannabis Section (2019-Present). She focuses much of her pro bono practice on serving social equity applicants and licensees in the cannabis industry.

    In her civic life, Nicole is an elected commissioner and past chair of the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, a municipal office to which she was first elected in 2014. Nicole has also served as a delegate to the California Democratic Party (2017-present), the Los Angeles County Democratic Party (2017-2021) and previously chaired Santa Monica’s Commission on the Status of Women (2013-2017).

    In her personal life, Nicole is a dog-mom to three Golden Retrievers (Loki (12.5 years), Parker (11 years), and Georgia (7 months)) and a Maine Coon cat (Theo, 8 years). Nicole is also an avid Settlers of Catan player and won her first Catan tournament in 2021!

Legislative Advocate

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  • Dan Seeman | Principal & Founder, New Momentum Strategies

    Dan brings over a 15 years of policy and political experience in both the Governor’s Office and the State Legislature. Dan most recently served as deputy cabinet secretary to Governor Newsom where he advised on matters related to corrections, public safety, and criminal justice. Prior to that, he was deputy legislative secretary to Governor Jerry Brown, and was legislative consultant to State Senator Mark Leno.  Dan has also served as a legislative analyst at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) where he focused on climate issues, and began his career at the State Capitol as a legislative aide to State Senator Fran Pavley. 

    Throughout his career in Sacramento, Dan has been at the center of some of the most consequential criminal justice and social policy reforms in the State’s history, including raising the state’s minimum wage, the California Electronic Privacy Act, public safety re-alignment, Proposition 57, bail reform, ending life without parole for juveniles, ending the prosecution of children as adults, reforming California’s youth prisons, reforming CDCR and ending private prisons in California, eliminating a number of overused sentencing enhancements, authorizing earlier parole consideration for youthful offenders and establishing the CA Penal Code Review Committee, among many other legislative and administrative accomplishments.  

    Through all of these efforts, Dan has established himself as one of the go-to trusted advisors to Governors and Legislative leaders alike.

General Counsel

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  • Henry Wykowski | Wykowski & Wood, LLP

    Admitted to the California State Bar in 1976, Henry has been practicing law for nearly forty years. A graduate of Bridgeport University, and Tulane Law School, Henry has practiced law in both California and Louisiana. Before entering private practice Henry worked as a prosecutor in the Treasury Department specializing in Tax litigation, and later as an assistant United States Attorney with the Justice Department, as well as White House aide under President Carter. Before founding Wykowski & Associates Henry served as a partner at the Palo Alto based firm of Mohjer – Pooley.

    Henry serves as the General Counsel for the California Cannabis Industry Association and the National Cannabis Industry Association.