Board of Directors
Ariel Clark
Lawyer and Policy-changer
Ariel Clark (she/they) is an attorney actively involved in policy reform and culture change. For over 15 years, Ariel has provided business, corporate, and regulatory advice to business organizations, non-profits, government agencies, tribes, practitioners and providers regarding cannabis, and other plant medicines and psychedelics, and is Of Counsel at Calyx Law. Ariel co-founded the Psychedelic Bar Association, serves on PBA’s Legacy Board, and is co-producing the series Law & Ethics: The Psychedelics Industry and Indigenous Peoples. Ariel is actively engaged in the conversation about psychedelic lawyering, and helping to shape policy and relationships that emphasize open source, ethical business models that honor the Earth, Peoples, and lineages. Ariel is Odawa Anishinaabe and walks the Red Road. Ariel is a member of Roots To Sky, a BIPOC-stewarded land-based healing and community project. She is also honored to be in study of Indigenous Peacemaking ways, and has been collaborating with Life Comes From It and her thought-partner, Roman Haferd, on human beings' reunion with land and our more-than-human relatives. She has a Bachelors of Arts from University of Michigan in Religious Studies (2000) and a JD from Berkeley Law School (2005). While in law school, Ariel participated with a group of other Native American law students in discussions at the United Nation for what became the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Roman Haferd
Restorative Justice Coordinator
Roman Haferd (he/him) has been working on the front lines of restorative justice and drug policy reform for nearly a decade. He serves as the first Restorative Justice Coordinator at the Attorney General’s Office for Washington DC, where he has helped build the nation’s largest restorative justice program inside the prosecutor’s office. Roman was a Steering Committee Member of the successful campaign to pass the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act, which made certain medicines among the lowest law enforcement priorities in Washington DC. Roman is a founding board member of the Psychedelic Bar Association, serving as the board steward of its Ethics Committee. He also serves as board member and Director of Community Engagement for the Plant Medicine Coalition, a non-profit hub and advocacy organization that promotes safe, equitable access to psychedelic and plant medicines. Roman is a founding partner of Roots to Sky Sanctuary, a BIPOC-owned community farm located at the headwaters of the Potomac River. Roman has also represented civil rights plaintiffs in cases around the country involving deprivations of Constitutional rights and law enforcement misconduct. Roman is Black American with mixed ancestry, African American and European American lineages. Roman holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA from Bucknell University.