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WHO WE ARE
Psychedelics & Design convenes researchers, creators, and the public to advance psychedelic inquiry, cultural understanding, and creative practice.
Grounded in science and culture, we explore psychedelics as catalysts for health, imagination, and ecological attunement—opening new paths for inspiration, learning, and regenerative futures. Our mission: to open, inform, and connect the emerging psychedelic field and creative industries.
TEAM
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Alexandra Plesner – Founder
Designer, Creative Advisor, Artist, Writer, and Founder of Psychedelics Design
She has worked with studios and agencies including Method Inc., Normally Ltd., Karla Otto PR, Tank Magazine, and Dazed & Confused Magazine, for global client projects with Nike, Spotify, WWF, Moncler, MAC Cosmetics, and The Victoria & Albert Museum London, amongst many others. Her creative work has been featured internationally in Fast Company, Wired, Elle, YCN, It’s Nice That, Design Week, Wallpaper, and Psychedelics Today.
In the psychedelic and conscious design space, Alexandra has developed brand positioning and identity for the Carhart-Harris Lab (formerly at Imperial College London, now UCSF), created the visual system for Hystelica (pioneering research on psychedelics and female biology), and led communications work for the Zendo Project, advancing psychedelic peer support initiatives.
She recently spoke on two panels at SXSW 2025, addressing empathic design, regenerative futures, and the role of media in shaping perception.
Academically, Alexandra holds an MA in Applied Imagination from Central Saint Martins and an MSc in Applied Psychology from London Metropolitan University, where her research investigated psychedelics, extended reality (XR), and nature-relatedness. She has lectured at the University of the Arts London and contributed writing to Dazed Magazine, Psychedelics Today, Psychedelic Spotlight, and Proto Life.
Alexandra grew up in her family’s artisan ice cream business, founded in 1879—a space where she first witnessed the power of craft, creativity, and intergenerational story. This early experience continues to inform her ethos: design as a vehicle for connection, imagination, and cultural transformation.
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Jalen Salazar – Strategy Partner
Strategic Advisor, Altered-States Innovator, and Psychedelic Sherpa
Jalen is a seasoned senior leader and mentor who is passionate about creativity and its ability to catalyze and sustain meaningful change.
After a successful multi-decade tenure building and guiding design at the highly regarded LUNAR in San Francisco - receiving the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewett National Product Design Award in 2015, the same year it was acquired by the preeminent management consulting McKinsey & Co. – he became a Partner, and was responsible for ensuring the successful integration of design and for scaling the capability within McKinsey’s North American practice.
Over the course of his 30 years in industry, he embodied a unique marriage of Executive level Strategy and Storytelling, with deeply seasoned Product Development expertise.
At the start of 2020, a personal tragedy ‘ruptured’ life as Jalen (then Jeff) knew it. While he remained passionate about igniting the spirit of exploration to shape better futures for his clients, he was disenchanted by working for industry. He realized that meaningful impact comes when we first focus inwards and that truly authentic change must start there. He pivoted away from the only industry he’d ever known, and ventured into the new territory.
Since then, he has been on a journey to complement his 30 years of helping teams and companies innovate their way through change, by exploring the world of alter-states “inner” innovation. In 2024, he graduated from Psychedelics Today’s year long Vital training, and completed Internal Family Systems (IFS) level one equivalent training with the Moxie School.
In 2024, Jalen launched Altered, a project focused on weaving together insights, prinicples, and practices of altered-states and inner-expansion to help individuals navigate from disrupted states of ‘rupture’ to one of living in aligned ‘rapture’.
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Floris Wolswijk – Projects and Strategy
Founder of Blossom and FLO Coaching
Floris, founder of Blossom, holds an MSc in Psychology from Erasmus University. His passion for psychedelics, sparked by personal experiences and scientific exploration, drives his mission to expand their accessibility for medical and self-development purposes.
He also offers psychedelic-assisted coaching sessions with his Fiance in the Netherlands through FLO Coaching. He hopes to play a vital part in making psychedelics more widely available and used.
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Zoe Wilder – Cultural Curation
Founder Zoe Wilder PR and Liquid Culture Records
Named “Cannabis Empressaria” by Forbes, “35 Most Influential Women in Cannabis” by Entrepreneur Magazine and recipient of the 2024 Green Market Report Award for Public Relations, Zoe Wilder is a public relations professional specializing in lifestyle, culture and wellness.For over 20 years, Zoe has worked with hundreds of clients across a variety of industries to develop and execute inventive promotional content and campaigns that capture the attention of tastemakers and influencers from around the globe. Zoe holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the College of William & Mary and a Master of Social Work from Fordham University.
Her team comprises over 40 years of forward thinking and purpose driven public relations expertise working with A-list celebrities, New York Times bestsellers, award winning film, television, radio, music, and consumer products, critically acclaimed podcasts, top brands and business leaders, and publishing oversight for several of the world’s leading peer-reviewed medical journals.
A founding member of DoubleBlind Magazine, a media company covering the expansion of psychedelics around the globe, she also launched Liquid Culture, a revolutionary record label and artist collective redefining the intersection of music, visual art, and cultural innovation. Beyond that, she’s an ambassador for the Last Prisoner Project and Success Centers, advocating for justice and community empowerment.
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Dennis Walker – MC
Founder Mycopreneur & Co-founder Mycoday
Dennis Walker is a satirist multimedia producer primarily known for his satirizing of the psychedelic space.He is the founder of Mycopreneur, with which he has platformed over 150 mushroom entrepreneurs from 25 countries on six continents. The Mycopreneur platform is a globally recognized leader in the psychedelic media space, with recent press coverage in Rolling Stone, Forbes, High Times, and many other outlets.
Walker is also the Co-Founder of Mycoday functional mushroom chocolate.
ADVISORS
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Raad Seraj
Angel Investor in Therapeutic Psychedelics, Host of the Minority Trip Report Podcast and Founder of the Mission Club
Raad Seraj is a Bangladeshi-Canadian entrepreneur and founder of Mission Club, a global angel investor syndicate targeting innovative startups in the psychedelics and mental health nexus. Beyond mere capital, Mission Club promotes a seamless development trajectory of the budding yet dispersed psychedelic ecosystem by injecting the domain with expertise, strategic network, and conviction. Prioritizing early-stage ventures, Mission Club targets both core psychedelic solutions as well as surrounding infrastructure such insurance, software, clinical network, telehealth, media, and retreats. As part of Mission Club’s mandate, Raad also hosts the Minority Trip Report podcast, which spotlights under-represented leaders in psychedelics and mental health.
By day, he spearheads growth at Affinity, a San Francisco startup developing purpose-built AI tools for private capital with global clients like Bain Capital Ventures, Softbank, Techstars, a16z and Bessemer Ventures.
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Floris Wolswijk
Founder of Blossom & FLO Coaching
Floris, founder of Blossom, holds an MSc in Psychology from Erasmus University. His passion for psychedelics, sparked by personal experiences and scientific exploration, drives his mission to expand their accessibility for medical and self-development purposes.
He also offers psychedelic-assisted coaching sessions with his Fiance in the Netherlands through FLO Coaching. He hopes to play a vital part in making psychedelics more widely available and used.
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Zoe Wilder
Founder Zoe Wilder PR and Liquid Culture Records
Named “Cannabis Empressaria” by Forbes, “35 Most Influential Women in Cannabis” by Entrepreneur Magazine and recipient of the 2024 Green Market Report Award for Public Relations, Zoe Wilder is a public relations professional specializing in lifestyle, culture and wellness.For over 20 years, Zoe has worked with hundreds of clients across a variety of industries to develop and execute inventive promotional content and campaigns that capture the attention of tastemakers and influencers from around the globe. Zoe holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the College of William & Mary and a Master of Social Work from Fordham University.
Her team comprises over 40 years of forward thinking and purpose driven public relations expertise working with A-list celebrities, New York Times bestsellers, award winning film, television, radio, music, and consumer products, critically acclaimed podcasts, top brands and business leaders, and publishing oversight for several of the world’s leading peer-reviewed medical journals.
A founding member of DoubleBlind Magazine, a media company covering the expansion of psychedelics around the globe, she also launched Liquid Culture, a revolutionary record label and artist collective redefining the intersection of music, visual art, and cultural innovation. Beyond that, she’s an ambassador for the Last Prisoner Project and Success Centers, advocating for justice and community empowerment.
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Joyce Braverman
Medical Doctor
Dr. Joyce Braverman was born and raised in Mexico. After completing her medical degree at Anáhuac University, she continued her studies in the United States and Israel. She worked as an assistant in pediatric surgical oncology, as a consultant for strategic alliances in secondary prevention of childhood cancer, and as the director of medical research at "Med Intelligence," an Israel-based startup focused on personalized medicine research.
Throughout her career, she discovered the power of integrative medicine and the potential of medicinal plants in the healing process of terminally ill patients. She became certified in mind-body medicine and Ayurvedic yoga massage, experiences that inspired her to adopt a more holistic approach to healing. This path led her to continue her studies at CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) in Psychedelic Therapies and Research, deepening her understanding of the Earth's chemistry.
Her journey continues as she strives to integrate her passion for the use of psychedelics in the medical field as a means to reconfigure and inspire others in their healing process and reduce stress responses. She is currently studying functional medicine, and one of her main interests is psychoneuroimmunology.
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Janine Dennis
Owner/Chief Innovations Officer for Talent Think Innovations LLC and Author of The Absurdity of Doing You
Janine is the Owner/Chief Innovations Officer for Talent Think Innovations, LLC, a multidisciplinary business strategy and management consulting firm. Her career spans twenty years in Consulting and HR that has taken her through the world of pharmaceuticals, the arts, K-12 education, technology, private equity, healthcare, staffing, and R&D just to name a few sectors she has worked in. Janine is a dynamic speaker, entrepreneur, futurist, and respected voice bringing both a human touch, an eye towards design, and business savvy to the companies she works with.
It is through the trials and tribulations of her career travels and her passion for Organizational Design, Futurism, Technology, Psychology and Innovation that she created Talent Think Innovations in January 2013. Her aim is to design practical and sustainable solutions, strategies, and trainings that are a catalyst for innovation and supportive of human evolution. Through her work she is using her experience to get businesses and individuals to embrace the natural trajectory of human transformation as a means of navigating both life and business in an age of rapid transformation.
Janine doesn’t just preach innovation-she lives it. A globally-known figure in Human Resources and Business, she has contributed for HRD Connect, Cornerstone Rework, and UKG to name a few. Janine is a rare professional who has worked as both a community educator and builder consistently seeking to lend a lifeline and be a voice of hope for those who have been disenfranchised and marginalized by society. From her work creating safe spaces for women of color to her teaching meditation and shamanic breathwork for a myriad of agencies in the Metro NYC Area, she isn’t afraid to design experiences that address the obstacles and issues facing us as a society and global marketplace.
She has been quoted by HBR, Thrive Global, Bustle, The Cut, Atlanta BlackStar, Newsday, USA Today and has been featured by Entrepreneur, Success, Fast Company, Black Enterprise, Essence and Ebony Magazines. In 2013, Ms. Dennis was also named one of the Top 100 Most Social Human Resources Experts on Twitter by Huffington Post and one of 50+ Unstoppable Women in HR Tech by Clear Company. Additionally, she was a part of the first-ever IBM + Purematter VIP Futurist Project. She also served as Project Manager for the revamp of IHRIM's HRIP certification exam in 2019. The HRIP exam is designed to qualify HR Tech and HRIT professionals in competencies rooted in HR Technology's best practices. Janine is currently in the process of transitioning her expertise and work to focus on Organizational Design, Mental Health, Neuroscience, Future of Life/Work, Psychedelics, and Wellness. She is also the author of the book titled “The Absurdity of Doing You: Rebel Elegance for the Evolving Soul”. Janine has proven that humility, innovation, and practical thinking has value and is fast becoming the new business imperative.
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Pernille Brostrup
Founder of Mabel
Pernille Brostrup is a founder and creative strategist working at the intersection of psychedelics, wellness, and women’s mental health. Her cross-disciplinary approach focuses on building more conscious and culturally relevant systems of care.
She founded Mabel to reimagine mental health for women — combining storytelling, research, and adjacent policy work to make alternative models not just visible, but viable. With Mabel, she’s helping bring the promise of psychedelic therapy out of the clinic and into everyday life — offering pocket-sized access to psilocybin-supported care through structured microdosing protocols, digital therapy, and a guided ecosystem of support.
As a solo founder, she raised funding to launch in a still-taboo space and continues to advocate for broader access to integrative care. Her work is driven by a belief that psychedelics, when used responsibly, can be powerful tools for restoring balance, expanding self-awareness, and helping women reclaim agency in systems not designed for them.
Originally from Denmark, she lives between Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Paris, and is mum to a teenage son.
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Natalie Lyla Ginsberg
Global Impact Officer at Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
Natalie Lyla Ginsberg (MSW) is the Global Impact Officer at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, (MAPS), and the co-founder of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit. Natalie joined MAPS in 2014, founding the Policy & Advocacy department, and serving as its director for 5 years. At MAPS, Natalie initiated and co-developed MAPS’ Health Equity program, including MAPS’ first MDMA Therapy Training for Communities of Color, and co-authored the first study interviewing Palestinians and Israelis who have shared ayahuasca ceremonies.
Before joining MAPS, Natalie worked as a Policy Fellow at the Drug Policy Alliance, where she helped legalize medical cannabis in her home state of New York, and worked to end race-based marijuana arrests. Natalie was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. She received her B.A. in history from Yale College, and her master’s of social work (M.S.W.) from Columbia University.
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Nature
More-than-Human Advisor
We aim to learn with more-than-human intelligence. Nature holds a seat on our advisory board to keep our work accountable to living systems.