Jodi McDonald

Jodi McDonald is the President & Founder of Keystone Labs Inc., (www.keystonelabs.ca) an Edmonton based Health Canada accredited testing facility with a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) establishment license.  Keystone Labs was incorporated in 2005 and in August 2015, acquired a Health Canada controlled substance license to conduct cannabis testing. Jodi has a background in clinical and microbiology sciences and her passion is bridging the gap between analytical and microbial sciences and the medical cannabis industry to help improve the quality of medicinal cannabis products being used by patients.  Her vision is to offer validated and quality testing data comparable to the pharmaceutical industry for medical cannabis patients health and safety.

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Jodi has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alberta.  She is a writer for HydroLife magazine on scientific topics regarding cannabis testing.  Jodi is very involved with the Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, enabling women to build successful businesses.  Also, Jodi offers her scientific expertise to several key advisory boards; NAIT Biological Sciences Laboratory and Research Program Advisory Committee, University of Alberta and Medical Laboratory Sciences Advisory Committee.

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Benoît P. Séguin

Benoît P. Séguin is the Associate Director of the Compliance Directorate within the Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Branch at Health Canada. His scientific experience within the government over the last 20 years has allowed him to contribute to multiple regulatory projects with national implications. Benoit joined the cannabis for medical purposes portfolio in 2013. His experience on this file covers various aspects from licensing to compliance and enforcement.

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Priyanka Mehra

Working as a Quality Assurance Manager at Aqualitas Inc. I have ten years of experience in quality assurance in cannabis, food processing, and agricultural environments. I also have a pharmaceutical audit and GMP experience with Lean training and organizational controls. I have extensive experience with hygienic system design for overall operating conditions and proficiency for product planning, processing and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). I am developing, implementing and managing procedures and protocols at Aqualitas to ensure our practices and products are of the highest quality. I am also leading the team on our EU GMP certification. I have an undergraduate degree from A.D. Patel Institute of Technology in  Biotechnology and Masters degrees from Jiwaji University and Masters of Science in Food Science from Dalhousie University Halifax.

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Bethan Ryder

Beth has been the Quality Manager at BOAZ Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Calgary for over two years. Her experience is mostly in the Pharmaceutical and food safety sectors in Europe and North America. She is an active member of the ASQ (American Society for Quality) and holds the Certified Quality Auditor designation. Beth has a B.Sc. in Chemistry, specializing in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Forensics from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom.   

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Av Singh

Av Singh, PhD, PAg
Cannabis Cultivation Advisor
Av Singh is one of the leading authorities on organic cannabis production. After completing his post-doc at the University of Minnesota on pasture-based livestock production, Singh worked at the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada and served as the Organic and Small-Scale Farming Specialist in Nova Scotia, for over 15 years, and recently held the Just Us! Chair in Small Farm Sustainability.

Dr. Singh has authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, and extension articles and has been an invited speaker to over 500 workshops, conferences, symposia as well as guest-lecturing at over 30 universities in Canada, the US, the UK, and India. Av has had the privilege of visiting over 2000 farms across five continents which has shaped his extension of holistic, system-based design solutions.

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Emphasizing a union of traditional knowledge with science, Av works with growers to cultivate an appreciation of plant: soil interrelationships. Currently, Av and his colleague Randy Flemming serve as Cultivation Advisors within the cannabis industry www.fs-cannabis.com. Av is also the Commercial Science Specialist at Greenstar Plant Products Inc. www.gaiagreen.com , the Chief Science Officer with Green Gorilla www.ilovegreengorilla.com the Chief Agricultural Scientist at BetraLif, the Chief Soil Scientist at CaliCann (Colombia) and formerly served as the Chief Agronomist with the American Cannabis Company, helping to develop the High Times Magazine’s STASH Award-winning super soil.

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Av has recently been appointed to the Cannabis Quality Assurance (CQA) Standards Committee and is a member of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, and was identified as one of the Top 50 Heroes shaping the Canadian Cannabis sector by High! Canada Magazine. Av serves on several Scientific Advisory Boards - Orion Cannabis; Bloom Genic; SolarGram; Infernotions; PlanC BioPharm;
ArcticPharm; EndoBiotics; 7 Farms Down; Cannabis Farms; Tailor-Made Extracts and Organic Grow Solutions. Av is a frequent speaker and advisory board member at MJBizCon, LIFT, O’Cannabiz, and the Grow Up Conferences.
 

Lastly, Av is also serving as the Vice-President of the Canadian Organic Growers and is proud to be a member of Slow Food Canada, Food Secure Canada and the National Farmers’ Union. Av is also a faculty member at Earth University (www.navdanya.org) in India where he delivers courses on agroecology and organic farming.

Av Singh
av @ fs-cannabis.com
www.fs-cannabis.com

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