Jill Woodworth

“You are here for a purpose. There is not a duplicate of you in the whole wide world; there never has been, there never will be. You were brought here now to fill a certain need. Take time to consider what it might be.” Lou Austin. This happens to be one of Daniel Price’s favorite quotes and as you will see and hear, has truly framed the way Daniel lives his life. Daniel Price, a rare disease and adoption advocate, and young adult from the Seattle Washington area who is living with TSC. He’s Auxiliary Adult Regional Coordinator West and has been an active volunteer for the last 3+ years. Working in the airline/travel industry part-time, has given Daniel the opportunity and scheduling flexibility to travel the country and to parts of the globe to participate in TSC conferences and other events such as; Step Forward to Cure TSC walks in Seattle as well as Northern and Southern California; Sound Bites in Minnesota; Regional Conferences in Houston, San Diego, Saint Louis and Los Angeles; and the 2018 TSC World C

I was honored to interview Tiffani Goff, mother, blogger, author of Loving Tiara: A Memoir on the podcast. I followed Tiffani’s journey with her daughter Tiara who had TSC for several years on Facebook as she shared glimpses from her day to day life with an incredibly challenging presentation of TSC, one that would ultimately claim Tiara’s life. I observed her posts in the days leading up to her passing and waited and watched for her to reappear on the other side of this loss. So many of we parents of loved ones affected by chronic life-threatening conditions live with the reality that we may lose our children at some point in our lifetimes and while this is not often the case, it happens regularly. What Tiffani details is often heart-rending and painful, Treatment after medication after surgery after procedure. In Tiffani’s own words; “So whenever normally work, didn't work for her. So it was a lot of trial and error. And I think for even families who have a child not as affected (by TSC) as Tiara, that's

R.J. Cooper, Founder & CEO of R.J. Cooper & Associates is an inventor, technologist, and student of human behavior. RJ has always carried with him the goal of wanting to help as many people as possible. His interest in the area of assistive technology began over 30 years ago when he was studying to become an electrical engineer at the University of Utah. In his own words: I love what I do because my products make a tangible impact on the lives of the users by unlocking their hidden capabilities. What gives me the greatest pleasure is working one-on-one with my clients to help them tap into those abilities. For the last 18 years, I have conducted Road Trips spanning three continents to meet learners and caregivers, so I can help provide solutions that will help them overcome obstacles that they may not have thought possible""When I began my career, not many people realized the potential technology would have on the lives of those with special needs. My love for people and my interest in special needs

In this episode, my guest is Ricardo Rivera-Acevedo, Chief Science Officer and Director at Ecovita Health Corporation, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada working to initiate and manage a medical cannabis extraction facility and guide research and development of new therapeutic products. Ricardo is host of the Cannabis Science Podcast, the first weekly Canadian radio show focused entirely on cannabis and he is also a Scientific Consultant at ACGT, where he works to provide the skill and knowledge necessary to comply with the regulations set forth by Health Canada's Cannabis Act. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he attended City University of Puerto Rico. One of his college professors was from Canada and encouraged him to check out Vancouver where he ended up coming and starting his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Pharmacology with a fantastic mentor. “That’s kind of where I started my path of not just drug development, medical research, but also my introduction into the scien

In this episode, we are joined by Professor Petrus de Vries, Sue Struengmann Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Academic Head: Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Alexis Minnaar, English and Geography tutor at DawnCroft Alexis was diagnosed with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, at the age of two. Prof. de Vries and Alexis graciously joined me to engage in a discussion on TAND, a phrase coined by Professor de Vries himself, which is an acronym for Tuberous Sclerosis Associated Neuropsychiatric Disorders and its one of the most challenging aspects of managing a TSC diagnosis and is a clinical manifestation of TSC, along with the other manifestations.Recently, Professor de Vries’ along with Anna Jansen (UZ Brussel – Vrije Universiteit Brussel) were awarded funding from the Tuberous Sclerosis Association and the King Baudouin Foundation for the TANDem project, which will bring together a worldwide team of families affected by TSC, researchers and clinicians to prov

Jon Workman is Vice President - Industrial Hemp Business Development at American Cannabis Company and President - Arkansas Hemp Assoc. He has had a long career in the industry, starting out growing up on a farm in Arkansas, getting into the finance industry in California, having much success, then a random snowboarding accident revealed he had multiple myeloma. Given 3 years to live, he was hit with another disease called TTP ( Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura).He shares, "I was in the hospital for over 60 days at City of Hope in Los Angeles, I was down to about 139 pounds. I'm six-one and it didn't look real real good on me. In fact, I was scared I was going to not make it out of there. So I I took it upon myself to bring in some assistance in the form of cannabis edibles" While Jon would not say cancer cured him, it definitely helped ease his recovery and he's gone on to be in remission since shortly after his last bone marrow transplant to address his TTP. In his own words,"I am a stage 2 cancer survivo

Tiffany Watkins is a "Cannabis Enthusiast". She's been an activist for 20+ years and has done a lot of work to bring awareness to health care and proper distribution of Medical Cannabis as well as paving the way for Recreational Cannabis.She has marched the Capital (CA), to help bring a voice to those in need of the protection of the Compassionate Care Act. Additionally, she has attended and spoken at City Council meetings and delivered talks as a keynote when invited. She states, "Cannabis is my passion and I am driven to assist this industry in becoming the standard when it comes to treatment plans, revenue achievement, and sales models. My intent is to continue helping, building and growing within the Cannabis industry. "We discussed her early years getting involved as an activist and what drew her to get involved in the industry; "what drew me in was during that time in the early 90s, we were really coming off the scare of the 80s with HIV and AIDS and there were plenty of my friends whose lives had been

Dr. Uma Dhanabalan is Founder/CEO, Global Health & Hygiene Solutions LLC, Uplifting Health & Wellness, Natick, MA. "She is a highly respected physician trained in Family Medicine, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, specialized in heavy metals, a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a Cannabinoid Medicine Specialist and Medical Review Officer.She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors from Rutgers University and a Medical degree from the University of Medicine & Dentistry in Newark, New Jersey. She completed a Family Practice Residency at the Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston, South Carolina and then her Master’s in Public Health and Occupational & Environmental Medicine Residency and Fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston Massachusetts. She is also certified by the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine and by the Medical Review Officer Certification Council.She has received awards from the American College of Occ

Keith Stroup, Founder of NORML, may be a down-home country boy, from Southern Illinois, but he sure did make it in the big city (from Box #10 w/Jim Croce). Keith takes me on a walk, through the annals of his legendary history as a founding father of the marijuana legislation movement in the US. From his early years growing up in Southern Illinois, to Georgetown Law School where he became politically radicalized by the Vietnam anti-war movement, and he started using cannabis.After getting his law degree and working with Ralph Nader, he was inspired to start a consumer group for cannabis users and using his legal skills to try and impact public policy rather than simply "to assist your individual clients get richer, stay out of trouble or whatever" On founding NORML: "First off, I enjoyed smoking it but I also had become part obviously, of the underground culture of millions of smokers around this country, and began to be aware of the hundreds of thousands of people who were being arrested and having their live

Tina Guenette Pedersen is the President & Founder of R.A.M.P.~Real Access Motivates Progress, and this is how her story starts; "Well, my name is Tina Pedersen. I'm 47 years old. I have two children and two grandchildren. And I was very active in my life. I was a cheer coach, dance mom, a Boy Scout leader, a football mom. Anything my kids did, I did with them tenfold."I'm a four-time cancer survivor-breast twice, bladder twice. And during one of my bladder cancer surgeries, it was a very minor surgery to my bladder machine, because I have a machine now that helps my bladder. During a tweak to that with a 20-minute surgery, I took a stroke to my spinal cord and woke up and never walked again. So literally, a little over five years ago, I walked into surgery and never walked again""So it was kind of like here's a wheelchair, go home and figure it out. And that's what I had to do. It took me a while. I mean, of course, I had my downtime in the frustration and just trying to get through your day to day becau

Marissa Fratoni, Holistic RN - Cannabis Therapeutics - Maternal Health - Writer - Public Speaker, is a wealth of information and insight on cannabinoid therapeutics holistic medicine and integrative health. I met Marissa through Jessie Gill, Marijuana Mommy, when discussing our medical cannabis project, wondering if she knew of any local to MA cannabis nurses so was thrilled when she agreed to have a chat.We started off talking about how she went from traditional nursing in a very demanding operating room at a local hospital to becoming a visiting nurse, then "on a whim" taking a job in a local dispensary, she says, "Working in the dispensary just completely opened, changed my entire perception of the plant. I was in interacting with people who were very chronically ill and seeing miraculous changes in their overall quality of life with the use of cannabis. And these are things as a visiting nurse, I didn't see you know, my patients were always you know, very a lot of them were very compliant with their phar

Joyce Gerber & Amie Searles are The Canna Moms who started the local-to-MA podcast called The Canna Mom Show!. Referred to as The Click and Clack of Cannabis, while also aspiring to be the Terry Gross of Cannabis Talk, these ladies were awesome. Funny, smart and actually visionaries who want to get the word out that Canna Moms are not lazy, good for nothing slackers who are a burden to society but exactly the opposite! Inspirational visionaries out to change the world, one canna story at a time!We talk initially about cannabis and parenting and our observations that cannabis has helped us all, in many instances be better parents, or at least more able to engage in the now and connect with our offspring. Making the connection with the TSC community, I will share personally that using cannabis helped me greatly slow down the frequent crises long enough to observe my son's TSC/TAND behaviors, my own role in perpetuating patterns, and start to break the cycle. One small example of how the potential of cannab

Russell Cole describes himself as "FUTURIST - EDUCATOR - BUSINESS LEADER, An entrepreneur who is motivated by providing access to technologies and innovations that we should already be benefiting from. I am humbled by the deep network of passionate, caring, professional and incredibly intelligent people I am fortunate to be surrounded by and learn from, daily."In this episode, we start off discussing how Russell got his start in the cannabis industry and his current role as CEO of Organic Grow Solutions. He details the operations of OGS; "We work with cultivators on advanced imaging. So really taking a look at the bio physiology of the crops through imaging solutions and having the opportunity to see what's really going on at the crop level based on wavelengths of light that we can't see what the human eye but these cameras can. We just take photos using these very advanced imaging lenses. We start to look at the different types of light signatures that the plants give off and sometimes that signature indicat

Nurse Janna Champagne, RN, BSN, Cannabis Nurse and Medical Cannabis Expert joined me to discuss her lived experience and work in the cannabis industry, including the success she's had utilizing cannabinoid medicine for her daughter with Autism.Janna's introduction to the cannabis industry began as a cannabis patient when she suffered a health collapse in 2012. She credits cannabis for helping to reduce her reliance on harmful pharmaceuticals, and for supporting her ability to regain optimal health status. Janna is also known for her daughter's cannabis/Autism success story, which published on the cover story in a nationwide industry magazine in 2017.We engage in a discussion covering Janna's initial entry into the industry to address her own serious health issues and from there launch into a discussion of her daughter's diagnosis and lived experience of Autism."I believe Autism is dysfunction in the is the triad of the gut, the brain and the immune system and the interactions between them okay, this is wher

Stacey Jackson, special education advocate, parent, engineer & past school committee member stopped by the podcast to give us an update on her daughter's out of district placement as well as engage in a discussion on the transition process. Stacey discusses how the immersive experience living away from home in a setting such as Riverview School, a co-educational boarding school placement, can be beneficial for those with "complex learning challenges" and has served her daughter well. Keeping the big picture in mind while advocating for the most effective programming for our loved ones challenged by special needs and trying to stay positive while making and keeping connections, are a few tools that have served Stacey well over the years. She urges parents to keep setting the bar high and remember that the main goal of any transition is that our loved ones are able to hold a job and live independently as possible.She states, "I don't know if it's just people have pity on kids with special needs....oh the

Kevin Greene, VP of Cleveland School of Cannabis is an Entrepreneur - Strategic Marketer - Business Development - Cannabis Entrepreneur. He shares his experience in the education arm of the cannabis industry and the novel programs and success of CSC in terms of job placement, online and brick/mortar options and more! Dr. Mary Clifton shares her inspiration for getting into the industry with 25 years experience in traditional medicine. "My goal here is to normalize cannabis and just make it something that everybody's using for common conditions and also for income". 20 years of experience in both the hospital and private practice and is also a licensed by the New York State Department of Health to provide medical marijuana and is a recognized expert in CBD, Cannabis, and Medical Marijuana."She is a published researcher, a national speaker on women’s health and osteoporosis, and author of four books, and two new soon-to-be-released books on CBD and Cannabis – what you need to know, how to use them and a COOKBOO

Steven L. Kelley, President, and CEO of Ellenville Regional Hospital joins Jill in a discussion on the changing landscape of the healthcare industry as well as his involvement with Nicky's Gardens of Hope as a Board Member. Jill also gives a longer than usual introduction, tying together past, present and future guests, and some back story on the broadening subject matter, inspiration, and vision for the podcast. Steve has been the President and CEO of Ellenville Regional Hospital since September 2003. "He has a diverse background in the computer, research, and healthcare industries. Under Mr. Kelley’s leadership, ERH has been recognized with 4 national awards from HRSA for patient safety and medication safety, has been recognized by the National Rural Health Association as one of the top 20 Critical Access Hospitals in the country for Quality, and has been a leader in New York State in the areas of quality measurement and rural health. Many other significant awards have followed."(http://bit.ly/31zKK0E). I

The Spectrum Sports team is comprised of Dan Minko, Lisa Faracchio and James Paoletti, all involved in special education in some capacity in their local NJ high school. They got together to form Spectrum Sports. All are passionate about fitness and exercise, and being keenly aware of the challenges their students had accessing more typical opportunities for sports engagement in their local school district, they launched their business. "Spectrum Sports is an exercise program for individuals with disabilities such as Autism, Asperger's, Down Syndrome, and other multiple disabilities. We provide exercise through various sports, games, and group fitness. Our qualified team offers several activities that provide unique individuals, and their families, with fun and exercise in a judgment-free zone."Since launching, they've had huge success and have expanded their programming to include different age groups and methods of delivery. What I loved about this team is they are truly focused on making everyone's experien

Jessie Gill, AKA "Marijuana Mommy" is a Mom, Cannabis Advocate and R.N with a background in holistic health and hospice. She shares the story of her path leading to cannabis advocacy after a spinal injury left her at a personal rock bottom. Jessie loved her career as a hospice nurse, inspired been inspired to enter the field of nursing by her mother, also a nurse. After having unsuccessful spinal fusion surgery, taking multiple heavy-duty pharmaceuticals, she reluctantly became a medical marijuana patient. To her surprise, cannabinoid medicine provided great relief and further motivated her to combine her education and experience as a nurse with cannabis advocacy and launch Marijuana Mommy. Her site, www.marijuanamommy.com teaches new patients how and why to use cannabis, while challenging the stigma against marijuana use. She's had great success and is an established expert in the cannabis industry. Due to a high volume of requests for one on one support, she's rolling out a new course in a few weeks desi

Daniella Benea, Pharm.D., licensed pharmacist working in the medical marijuana industry in CT & MA comes on to discuss her experience thus far working in the growing cannabis industry. A graduate of UConn School of Pharmacy, Daniella started out working as a Stop & Shop store pharmacist but took advantage of an opportunity to work at a CT dispensary, hoping for more hands-on patient engagement. She discusses the medical marijuana industry in both CT & MA and gives her thoughts on the future of cannabinoid medicine, including the impact of the current MA vaping ban. The bulk of our discussion centers on her patient interactions, the sorts of concerns she addresses and her process for analyzing a patient's medications and making recommendations related to the vast array of choices available. We talk about the most common patient medications and diagnoses, and she gives some examples of how these considerations influence her recommendations. There is much opportunity for one on one interaction, as