2025 Garden States Contributors

More to be announced soon!

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Adrienne Mitchell

Adrienne was raised in Ipswich, Queensland, where she grew up on a single-parent family farm alongside her mother and Filipino grandparents. From a young age, she learned about tropical and sub-tropical plants through everyday experience, helping to care for fruit trees, orchids, and a range of other sub/tropical species. This early exposure fostered a quiet but steady interest in horticulture, particularly in plants valued within her family’s heritage.

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Samuel Douglas

Samuel Douglas is a philosopher, writer, and former non-profit leader whose work sits at the crossroads of psychedelic ethics, political disillusionment, and attempted satire. He holds a PhD in philosophy and spent 15 years teaching critical thinking and professional ethics at the University of Newcastle before mostly stepping away from academia. Since then, he’s worked as a freelance writer and editor for a range of psychedelic organisations and publications, including Third Wave, Psychedelics Today, and Wakeful Travel.

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Nick Sun

Nick Sun is the current individuated ego expression of 5th dimensional consciousness incarnating within a 3rd dimensional flesh suit in order to navigate this simulation often mistaken as life on Earth. After emerging from his mother’s womb amidst loud protests sometime in the late 20th century, he was cast upon this Earth in the prerequisite state of spiritual amnesia. In this state, he began performing standup comedy around the world, winning many prestigious competitions (Triple J Raw Comedy, UK's So You Think You're Funny, Director's Choice Award) and appearing on various television programs.

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Dr Adam J. Carroll

Dr Adam J. Carroll (PhD, Plant Biochemistry) Exposure to the profound transformational power of psychedelics as a teenager in the mid-late 1990s - combined with a deep sense of spiritual connectedness with nature.

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Communacacian

Drawing on his background in horticulture, arboriculture and ethnobotany, Communacacian brings an accessible and unique approach to growing Australian native trees.

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Jessica Moulynox

Jessica Moulynox from Backyard Botany Australia is a qualified Ethnobotanist with over 20 years of experience identifying and utilising Australian native edible plants.  During this workshop, she will explain the importance of connecting people to these plants and the importance in using native edible and medicinal plants in your garden.  

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Lee Miles

Lee Miles, PhD, is a biologist and geneticist, who has an inquisitive nature that drives a passion for understanding the inner workings of various biological processes and sharing this knowledge with others. He is passionate about decriminalisation and has had an interest in education around roadside saliva testing.

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Sianna-Rose ‘Pixie’ Miller

Sianna-Rose ‘Pixie’ Miller is the founder of Psychedelically Aware, a harm minimisation group, and The PATCH – The Psychedelically Aware Talking Circle Hub. Having studied psychology and health science with a focus on neuroscience, she possesses a comprehensive understanding of how entheogens impact both the body and mind. Pixie is passionate about research and the potential therapeutic applications of entheogens. Currently, her pursuit of harm minimisation through Psychedelically Aware and The PATCH has led to ongoing community discussions and education.

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Agnieszka Sekula

Agnieszka is a scientist with a background in biomedical engineering, psychology and design. She is currently a PhD candidate at Clinical Psychedelic Lab at Monash University and a co-investigator on a psilocybin study for depression, with the goal to improve outcomes and increase access through a personalised, tech-supported design of PAT. As a scientist at Monash, she investigates mechanisms of novel therapeutics, including psychedelics and VR. As a co-founder of Enosis Therapeutics she developed a novel method of leveraging immersive technology to create an insight-focused approach to mental health treatment, well-being and human optimisation. She conducted the World’s first study on using an immersive therapeutic approach in combination with psychedelics to sustain psycho-emotional change.

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Prashanth Puspanathan

Dr. Prash P is a consultant psychiatrist, psychedelic therapist and entrepreneur at the forefront of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Alongside his private practice, he works as a psychedelic therapist and researcher at the Clinical Psychedelic Lab at Monash University. As a founding member of Psychedelic Institute Australia, he is a vocal advocate for evidence-based, accessible psychedelic care, and has contributed to leading journals including The Lancet and the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, where he promotes the integration of novel therapies into mainstream psychiatry.

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Thomas Forrest

Tom Forrest is a global leader in the cannabis industry and the first ever Churchill Fellow for Cannabis Agronomy. He is the author of a White Paper on cannabis botany, global industry trends and best-practice cultivation.

With formal qualifications in business, horticulture and protected cropping, and specialist training in hydroponics and plant botany, Tom brings deep expertise across both science and industry. His intimate knowledge of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis cultivation, combined with business and marketing skills, has made him a sought-after speaker, lecturer and advisor in the field.

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Vince Polito

Vince Polito is a Senior Lecturer, and leads the Altered States Lab in the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University. Vince has a keen interest in understanding how altered states of consciousness can impact on cognition and mental health, and he and his students have studied hypnosis, states of flow, meditation, yoga, chanting, virtual reality, religious rituals and psychosis.
Vince is best known for his work on microdosing psychedelics. He is developing a psychedelic research program at Macquarie that includes the world’s first magnetoencephalography (MEG) study of microdosing, and is leading one of Australia’s largest psychedelic clinical trials, which will investigate low doses of psilocybin as a potential treatment for depression.

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Jef Baker

Jef Baker is a committee member of The Australian Psychedelic Society (APS) and the Sydney Chapter Lead. With a long-standing interest in psychoactive plants and compounds, Jef completed an Honours thesis examining the philosophy of Deep Ecology within Ayahuasca discourse at SCU in 2015. 

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Jake Payne

Jake is a Master of Clinical Psychology and PhD Candidate at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. He teaches undergraduate psychology students in counselling, social psychology, and the fundamentals of psychology. He also supervises psychology honours research projects. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles on the topic of mindfulness, psychedelics and neurophysiology. His PhD explores the ways psychedelic use may aid emerging adult development.

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