Making legal psychedelic
healthcare possible.
Move your cursor through the mycelium
The people behind the work
What I learned is anyone that has contact with the justice system is holding trauma and stress.
I really wish psilocybin services could be more accessible for people above ground, more financially accessible, because it was really the most tremendous gift I think I've ever received. People need this, because the world is only getting harder to deal with.
We're excited to support the liftoff of SEF's Psilocybin Access Fund because we simply need to help more people have access to the healing potential of psilocybin. Not having the money for it should never be the barrier for greater health! Thanks SEF for showing bold leadership to make that happen!
Every state weighing public coverage of psychedelic care is running into the same wall: the fiscal case. ORCHID is the kind of research infrastructure that can answer those questions with payer-grade evidence from Oregon and Colorado. This is the evidence base that gets us there.
This project is meaningful because it looks beyond whether psychedelic care can help and asks whether it can change healthcare utilization, costs, and access. Those are the questions that will determine whether this model reaches the people who need it most.
For state-regulated psychedelic care to become accessible beyond those who can pay out of pocket, we need evidence that payers, policymakers, and public programs can trust. ORCHID is the kind of research infrastructure that can help translate real-world psychedelic care into coverage, policy, and access.
ORCHID could be a turning point for the state-regulated model. By producing payer-grade evidence from Oregon and Colorado, it can help move psychedelic care from an out-of-pocket service toward a more equitable healthcare pathway.
Over $1,000,000 in care, and we're just getting started
Starting in 2021, the Sheri Eckert Foundation began organizing and funding the nation's first real-world research projects in the legal, state-regulated psychedelic therapy model, while putting money directly into the hands of the people who need it most.
Founded by Tom Eckert & Nate Howard to carry Sheri's wish; granted 501(c)(3)-status project and launched the Fellowship Program.
Co-created and hosted the first Horizons Northwest at the Portland Art Museum.
76 Fellows awarded ~$300,000 in training scholarships, graduating from nearly every Oregon-licensed school; second Horizons Northwest.
Launched the Psilocybin Access Fund and Research Incubator; first real-world studies and the Insurance Initiative with OPEN at OHSU.
Launched the Inward Dive Fund and Community Leaders Resilience Fund; $674,000 issued or earmarked across 481 applications; ORCHID developed with UC Berkeley & UCSF.
Expanding to Colorado; a no-cost July retreat for justice-impacted people; CLR Fund cohorts; ORCHID recruitment and growing policy work.
A nonprofit built to widen the door
We carry the legacy of our namesake, Sheri Eckert, who created the nation's first state-regulated psychedelic healthcare model, now being adopted in states across the country, to make psychedelic healthcare eventually affordable and legal for all Americans: directly funding legal psilocybin therapy for people who couldn't otherwise access it, and incubating the nation's first real-world research, the evidence needed to build the system that makes that access possible.
We unite academic rigor, compassionate care, and policy innovation under one roof, and we do it three ways.
And we don't just fund access, we organize it: pairing grantees and clients into small, affinity-based groups, a careful, expert practice undertaken with reverence, because research shows that group journeys, rather than solo sessions, can deepen healing outcomes and success rates for conditions like anxiety and depression.
Fund access
Needs-based grants put medicine directly in people's hands. Four funds, on a sliding scale:
- Psilocybin Access Fund, our statewide sliding scale; 481 applications, $674k issued or earmarked.
- Inward Dive Fund, for previously incarcerated and justice-impacted people.
- Community Leaders Resilience Fund, for leaders facing or approaching burnout.
- Soul Liberation Fund, for individuals facing addiction and those who have experienced homelessness.
Incubate research
The nation's first real-world studies inside a legal model, anchored by ORCHID:
- ORCHID, now led with UC Berkeley's Collaborative for the Economics of Psychedelics and UCSF's Carhart-Harris Lab.
- A study of group psilocybin therapy for depression among low-income participants.
- An alcohol-use study with the Healing Advocacy Fund and InnerTrek.
- New 2026 research with previously incarcerated participants at our July retreat, with academic partners (incl. Princeton).
- A partner and supporter of the OPEN research at OHSU (recently bolstered by a multimillion-dollar NIH grant).
- Further partners include People Science, Synaptic, Dr. Bronner's, and NUNM.
Shape policy
We help write and pass the laws that make this care real and lasting:
- Helping craft the strategy and write the laws that make psychedelic healthcare possible, and reach people faster, with speed that never sacrifices safety or efficacy.
- Helping build and pass the Medical Advanced Healing Act (MAHA) in the Idaho legislature.
- Advocacy in Colorado's Natural Medicine Program, and support for advocates in Washington & California.
- Founding board of the new Center for Psychedelic Policy with Sam Chapman, pursuing a $1M Medicaid pilot study.
- Founder & board member of the 501(c)(4) Portland Psychedelic Society Action Fund, which helped pass Portland's Psychedelic Health & Safety Act.
We exist to accelerate the safe integration of psychedelics into healthcare and society, driving research, informing lawmakers, and funding care for those who can't afford it.
A no-cost legal psilocybin retreat, July 2026
Through the Inward Dive Fund, we're offering a fully funded, legal psilocybin retreat for formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted people, held in a small cohort, with reverence and care.
- Open to people 21+ who are justice-impacted, with financial need, anywhere in the U.S. and beyond
- Grants cover the cost of licensed facilitation; the psilocybin itself is donated
- Led by facilitator Henry Fields, with preparation and ongoing integration support
Getting medicine to the people who need it
We believe getting money directly to people who want this medicine, but normally couldn't access it, is the best way to create healing now. Each fund covers facilitation costs on a sliding scale for those facing financial hardship or from underserved communities.
Psilocybin Access Fund
A statewide sliding scale for psilocybin services, already 481 applications and $674,000 in grants issued or earmarked to more than 100 people, with psilocybin generously donated by Satori Farms PDX.
Learn moreInward Dive Fund
Created with facilitator Henry Fields for people impacted by the justice system, the formerly incarcerated, their families, attorneys, advocates, and corrections staff. Includes a no-cost July 2026 retreat.
Learn moreCommunity Leaders Resilience Fund
For nonprofit, faith, environmental, and public-service leaders carrying burnout. Covers group facilitation, lodging at Fernlove, meals, and a Community Steward. 2026 cohorts include Jewish, BIPOC, environmental, LGBTQ+, and Christian leaders. Seeded by the Riverstyx and LLS Foundations.
Learn moreSoul Liberation Fund
Expanding access for communities who have long been excluded from safe, supported, and legal psychedelic care.
Learn moreThe first real-world psychedelic research, in the open
A condensed tour of the incubator — the overview, an interactive quiz, our featured paper, the completed depression study, the flagship ORCHID project, the wider portfolio, shared measurement at OHSU, the policy landscape, the library, and how to help. Swipe, tap a dot, or use the arrows — everything stays right here, no need to scroll away.
The first real-world psychedelic research, in the open
For over 50 years, promising psychedelic medicine was kept from the public by prohibition, propaganda, and high costs. As a nonprofit incubator, we're changing that, running the nation's first studies inside a legal, publicly available model rather than only the laboratory.
"Psychedelic care has shown real promise. But without evidence on costs and outcomes, it remains out of reach for most people… we have a rare opportunity to make psychedelic care accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford it."
Elliot Marseille, DrPH, Director, Collaborative for the Economics of Psychedelics (UC Berkeley)We've partnered on studies with leading institutions and organizations:
Why more research?
Decades of FDA-regulated studies have supported only about a thousand participants in dosage sessions. Meanwhile, over 30 million Americans report having used psychedelics. The data generated within state-regulated models can help answer essential questions of safety, benefit, cost, and access, for the whole field.
The evidence that unlocks reimbursement pathways for psychedelic care, the first study to link real psilocybin care to real medical claims, and show whether it lowers health-system costs.
Nate Howard, SEF's Executive Director, originated ORCHID while building the foundation over the past five years. As ORCHID's Research Project Founder & Senior Advisor, and a Senior Strategist on Oregon's Psilocybin Services Initiative, he leads its finances, provider partnerships, and strategic direction.
Take a breath. Trace the path.
No goal, nothing to achieve, only an invitation. If you'd like, slowly move your finger or cursor around the circle, and watch what unfolds when you give it your attention.
Where our grantees find care
Grantees of our Community Leaders Resilience Fund and Inward Dive Fund receive their psilocybin care at Fernlove, Oregon's only licensed psilocybin service center with on-site lodging, set on thirty forested acres an hour west of Portland. Licensed facilitators, regulated medicine, and the quiet of the forest.
Fernlove works exclusively with licensed facilitators and psilocybin from licensed manufacturers. It is the primary service center for these two funds, though not every grantee journeys here. Visit Fernlove
From philanthropy to states that fund the care
While we create access for people who otherwise couldn't receive psychedelic therapy, we're building the evidence for something bigger: states deciding to adopt, build, and fund the model Sheri helped create, so residents can receive subsidized or fully covered psychedelic healthcare, with insurance coverage following close behind.
Early data suggests it may be possible to save states as much as $7 for every $1 spent providing residents psychedelic care, the kind of return that makes a publicly funded model not just compassionate, but fiscally rational.
Seed the field · 2021–2023
Fund facilitator training so a diverse first cohort can serve the new model, 76 scholarships, $300,000 awarded.
Increase access & prove it works · underway
Build a statewide sliding scale while running first-of-their-kind research like ORCHID. In 2026, we begin expanding to Colorado.
States adopt & fund the model · the goal
Driven by evidence that every dollar saves the state more, states pass and fund their own state-regulated psychedelic healthcare, and insurance coverage follows, so access scales far beyond philanthropy.
We helped bring Horizons to the Northwest
The Horizons Northwest conferences, co-created and presented by the Sheri Eckert Foundation and Horizons PBC.
David Bronner, Tom Eckert, and Nate Howard, the Founding Board Members of the Sheri Eckert Foundation and co-creators of Horizons Northwest, share reflections, goals, and aspirations, alongside leaders in the psychedelic medicine movement, at the second Horizons Northwest conference at the Portland Art Museum.
Alongside Horizons PBC, the Sheri Eckert Foundation co-created and hosted the first two Horizons Northwest conferences, the largest psychedelic learning and community event in the Pacific Northwest, both held at the historic Portland Art Museum, opening in September 2022 and again in December 2023. A share of every conference's proceeds funds our needs-based scholarships, so the more people who gather, the more healing it supports.
Revisit Horizons Northwest
Three days exploring the psilocybin model, the science, and psychedelics in the world.
Visit the conference Recorded talksWatch the 2023 sessions
Full keynotes, science briefings, and panels, recorded live at the Portland Art Museum.
Watch on YouTubeThe team behind the foundation
A small team, board, and trusted partners carrying a big mission — organizers, advocates, practitioners, and funders who have helped build this field from the ground up.
The people who run the foundation day to day. Tap any card to read a full bio.
Nate Howard
A systems-change organizer and nonprofit leader who has spent his career turning policy ideas into durable institutions — across voting rights, education, environmental justice, and now psychedelic healthcare. A senior strategist behind Oregon's Measure 109 and SEF's director, he is a central architect of the world's first legal, government-regulated psilocybin healthcare model, and co-created InnerTrek, the first state-licensed school for psilocybin facilitators.
Through SEF he has helped catalyze training scholarships, hundreds of direct services, and several IRB-approved studies inside Oregon's program, and he originated ORCHID, the foundation's flagship study. Earlier he led a decade of democracy and public-policy work: as Executive Director of the Bus Project he led the coalition that won the nation's first Automatic Voter Registration law — later credited with enfranchising some 25 million voters — and helped shape the Oregon Promise tuition-free grant. Born and raised in Southeast Portland, he holds a B.A. from the University of Oregon.
Lorena Dame
Dedicated to expanding access, fostering education, and supporting transformative healing. As SEF's Director of Operations and Development — and Vice President of the board of the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society — she has advanced projects including the Psilocybin Access Fund and the Psilocybin Therapy Insurance Initiative.
For five years she produced Horizons PBC's psychedelic-research conference, growing it into two week-long bi-coastal events and introducing classes for medical and mental-health professionals. As a death doula at Mount Sinai, she brings compassionate care to people moving through life's most profound transitions.
Sam Chapman
One of the country's leading experts on state-based psychedelic policy and access. He served as Campaign Manager for Oregon's Measure 109 — the nation's first successful ballot measure to create a legal framework for psilocybin therapy — and guided early implementation as the founding Executive Director of the Healing Advocacy Fund.
In 2025 he founded the Center for Psychedelic Policy to tackle affordability, and launched the National Psychedelic Landscape Assessment, the first comprehensive analysis of state psychedelic legislation and policy trends. His work rests on a simple conviction: real-world healing requires real-world access, and affordability must be the foundation of any scalable model.
Henry Fields
What I learned is anyone that has contact with the justice system is holding trauma and stress.
A trauma-informed healing practitioner, justice-reform advocate, and licensed psilocybin facilitator devoted to transforming lives on the margins. As founding Program Lead of the Inward Dive Fund, he connects justice-impacted people — from formerly incarcerated adults to attorneys and family members — with compassionate, legal psychedelic therapy and integration support.
A certified hypnotist, meditation coach, shamanic practitioner, and Registered Yoga Teacher, he founded Inward Dive Hypnosis in 2019. His work is rooted in lived experience: nearly two decades ago he overcame substance use disorder and narrowly avoided incarceration. In 2025 he established the Inward Dive Temple and partnered with SEF to launch one of the nation's first programs offering subsidized psychedelic healing to justice-impacted communities.
T. Cody Swift
A philanthropist and psychotherapist, T. Cody Swift originated the Community Leaders Resilience Fund and helped bring it to life. He is founder and co-director of the Riverstyx Foundation, which provided the fund's initial backing, and has been one of the most consistent supporters of psychedelic research since 2008 — helping seed landmark studies at Johns Hopkins and beyond.
Trained in existential-phenomenological psychology, he served as a guide in Johns Hopkins' psilocybin cancer-anxiety study, and brings a deeply relational approach to philanthropy at the frontiers of healing.
Nikia McCoon
A wide-ranging administrative powerhouse who keeps the foundation's many trains running on time — from data management and funds administration to communications and process improvement. She partners with us through Magical Teams.
A rapid learner and strategic problem-solver, she thrives under pressure, brings meticulous attention to detail, and consistently lifts the team's energy — taking on every new program and task with grace and diligence, often well beyond her prior experience.
Alex Canedo
A senior operations strategist with nearly two decades of experience in high-growth environments, having scaled customer-experience and global teams across SaaS, tech, and service-focused companies.
Known as a strategic integrator for mission-driven founders, she turns messy ideas into clean systems built for sustainable impact, and supports the foundation's operations and programs through our partner Magical Teams.
Mercedes Ballard
A people-operations strategist focused on building high-performing, values-aligned teams, with experience spanning startups and a venture she co-founded.
She brings a strong bias for action and a collaborative style — aligning people, process, and culture to support sustainable growth — and partners with the foundation through Magical Teams.
Our Board of Directors is David Bronner, Tom Eckert, Nathan Howard, and Dr. Adie Rae. Tap any card to read a full bio.
Tom Eckert, MS
Tom co-founded the Sheri Eckert Foundation and, with Sheri, set in motion the law that made it possible. A seasoned psychotherapist, he and Sheri built the Innerwork counseling practice and a Better Man program addressing intimate-partner and family violence, before turning their shared fascination with consciousness toward psychedelics.
Together they conceived and led Oregon's Measure 109, with Tom as its chief architect — assembling the coalition and the roughly 165,000-signature campaign that, in 2020, helped reverse five decades of psilocybin prohibition. He served as founding chair of Oregon's Governor-appointed Psilocybin Advisory Board, and is Founder and Executive Director of InnerTrek, the first state-licensed psilocybin facilitator school.
David Bronner
David Bronner is Cosmic Engagement Officer (CEO) of Dr. Bronner's, the family soap company founded by his grandfather, which he has helped grow into one of the country's most committed activist businesses.
A longtime champion of drug-policy reform and psychedelic-assisted therapy — alongside regenerative organic agriculture, fair trade, and animal advocacy — David and Dr. Bronner's provided crucial support that helped carry Oregon's Measure 109 to victory. He brings that movement-building experience and conviction to SEF's founding board.
Nathan Howard
Nate co-founded the Sheri Eckert Foundation with Tom Eckert and serves as its Executive Director and a founding board member. A systems-change organizer behind Oregon's Measure 109 and the world's first legal psilocybin healthcare model, he guides the foundation's strategy, funds, and research, and originated the ORCHID study.
His full biography appears under Team & staff.
Dr. Adie Rae
Dr. Adie Rae (who publishes as Adie Wilson-Poe) is a neuroscientist whose research spans the benefits and risks of psychedelics and cannabis. An Assistant Scientist at Portland's Legacy Research Institute and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, she co-directs the Open Psychedelic Evaluation Nexus (OPEN).
OPEN is the team behind Oregon's first federally funded psilocybin study — a $3.3 million NIH-supported project measuring real-world outcomes across the state's psilocybin system of care. Her peer-reviewed work has appeared in leading journals, including Neuron.
ORCHID, our flagship real-world study, is a collaboration between the Sheri Eckert Foundation, UC Berkeley's Collaborative for the Economics of Psychedelics, and UCSF — guided by an advisory board of leaders across science, policy, and ethics. View the full ORCHID breakdown
Elliot Marseille, DrPH, MPP
Stefano Bertozzi, MD, PhD
Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD
Will Lucas
Jim Kahn, MD, MPH
Nathan Howard
An advisory board of leaders across science, policy, ethics, and community health guides ORCHID and the foundation's research direction.
Tyler Norris, MDiv
Aaron Loehr
David Bronner
Tamar Todd
Britt Rollins
Bob Jesse
Trusted partners who extend the team's reach — turning a small foundation's vision into working programs.
Magical Teams Strategic & operations partner
Our key strategic and operations partner, Magical Teams works as an extension of our staff — turning bold ideas into working programs and handling the logistics, compliance, and communications behind our funds and scholarships.
As Nate describes it, the hard part of a small nonprofit is having the vision but lacking "the actual skills, attention to detail, or just time" to make it real — exactly the gap Magical Teams fills.
Horizons PBC Conference partner
Together with Horizons PBC and its founder, Kevin Balktick, we co-created and presented the Horizons Northwest conferences at the Portland Art Museum.
Social Impact Accounting Accounting & CPA
Our accountant and CPA, Jack Mesplay of Social Impact Accounting, keeps the foundation's books sound, compliant, and transparent.
What I learned is anyone that has contact with the justice system is holding trauma and stress.Henry Fields, lead of the Inward Dive Fund
I really wish psilocybin services could be more accessible for people above ground… it was the most tremendous gift I think I've ever received. People need this, because the world is only getting harder to deal with.A community leader, two months after a psilocybin session in Oregon
We simply need to help more people have access to the healing potential of psilocybin. Not having the money for it should never be the barrier for greater health!Mark Holloway & David Kahl, Full Potential Fund
Sheri Eckert
The Sheri Eckert Foundation was established in 2021 to honor Sheri's legacy and fulfill a clearly stated wish. A co-creator of Oregon's Measure 109, she spoke often of building an institution, guided by on-the-ground community leaders, to support facilitator training, community education, and service delivery for underserved populations.
She passed away in December 2020, and is remembered for championing the unique spirit residing in each of us, and for helping deliver the nation's first above-ground psychedelic therapy framework, a program infused with her perseverance, integrity, and loving, inclusive embrace.
“If you take the time to explore yourself, to listen to your spirit, to walk among the many less frequented paths within your mind, I am sure you will be amazed at the mesmerizing beauty you will find.”Sheri Eckert
Your gift becomes someone's healing
Every dollar supports equitable access to legal psilocybin services for people with financial need, and helps build the research that brings coverage closer. Our funds run entirely on donations, so the more we raise, the more grants we can offer.
Want updates instead? Read the latest from our team
Support the funds
Give once or monthly to fund psilocybin therapy for people who couldn't otherwise access it.
Donate to the fundsMore about our 501(c)(3) status
The Sheri Eckert Foundation operates as a project of the Oregon Research Foundation (ORF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN: 33-3344942). All donations are processed through ORF and are fully tax-deductible. You can view ORF's IRS tax-exemption letter here, or learn more about the foundation.