2023-2024 Executive Board

  • Will Tilburg

    PRESIDENT (2023-2024)

    Will Tilburg was appointed as the inaugural Director of the Maryland Cannabis Administration in May 2023 and was confirmed in February 2024. Prior to this appointment Tilburg spent five years at the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, where he served first as the Director of Policy and then as the Executive Director of the State’s medical cannabis program. Before joining the Commission, Tilburg managed multiple non- profit organizations providing legal and policy support to federal, state, and local governments and health departments on a wide range of public health issues, including environmental health, tobacco control, food safety, and drug policy. Tilburg also teaches graduate level courses on health law and ethics at the University of Maryland. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Providence College, and a Master of Public Health and Juris Doctorate from the University of Maryland.

  • Dominique Mendiola

    PRESIDENT-ELECT

    Dominique Mendiola serves as the Senior Director of the Colorado Department of Revenue's Marijuana Enforcement Division, responsible for licensing and regulating Colorado’s medical and adult-use cannabis industries. Mendiola began her work at the Marijuana Enforcement Division in 2014, where she previously served as the Division’s Senior Policy Advisor and Deputy Director. In July 2018, former Governor John Hickenlooper announced Mendiola as Colorado’s Director of Marijuana Coordination, where she provided cross- agency coordination and advised the Governor and regulators on Colorado's cannabis framework. Prior to joining the Marijuana Enforcement Division, she practiced law in Texas and Colorado with a focus in family law and medical and legal malpractice.

  • Adria Berry

    TREASURER

    Adria Berry is the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. Berry is a licensed attorney in Oklahoma and Texas with extensive experience in government affairs and public policy. She was a member of Governor Stitt’s senior staff, serving Oklahomans as a policy advisor and counselor. During that time, she advised the Governor on cannabis policy, building on her previous experience working with cannabis businesses and attorneys as Vice President of Government Affairs for the State Chamber of Oklahoma. She was appointed as the first Executive Director of the standalone Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority on November 1st, 2022 and confirmed by the state senate in May of 2023 after nearly two years of overseeing the program. Adria’s goal is to ensure consistent and equitable regulation of medical cannabis in Oklahoma.

  • Kirsten Davis-Franklin

    BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE

    Kirsten Davis-Franklin is the Deputy Policy and Legislative Liaison with the Illinois Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office (IL CROO). Davis-Franklin joined the IL CROO, which coordinates cannabis regulation and taxation across ten state agencies, in 2022. Previously, Davis-Franklin was the Legislative Liaison for the Office of the IL Lieutenant Governor. Prior to her tenure in state government, she began her career in government relations and communications for business trade associations like the Illinois Independent Insurance Association and the Illinois Banker’s Association. In addition to her role on the board, Davis-Franklin also serves at the co-chair of CANNRA’s Social and Economic Equity Committee. Davis-Franklin earned her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Master of Communications at the University of Illinois.

  • Nicole Elliott

    BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE

    Nicole Elliott is the Director of the California Department of Cannabis Control. Prior to becoming Director of the California Department of Cannabis Control upon its creation in 2021, Elliott was Governor Gavin Newsom’s Senior Advisor on Cannabis at the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. Previously, she was Director of the Office of Cannabis for the City and County of San Francisco from 2017 to 2019. Before that, Elliott held multiple positions in the Office of San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee from 2011 to 2017, including Director of Legislative and Government Affairs, Board Liaison, Director of Appointments, and Commission Liaison. She held multiple positions in the Office of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom from 2009 to 2010, including Budget Office Policy Assistant, Director of Scheduling, and Deputy Board Liaison.

  • Amy Moore

    BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE

    Amy Moore is the Director of the Division of Cannabis Regulation at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which is the sole regulatory authority for Missouri’s medical and adult-use cannabis industry. She joined the program at its inception in December 2018 as Deputy Director and Counsel and became its Director in February 2023. Before joining the Department, Moore worked in public utility regulation at the Missouri Public Service Commission, serving first a legal counsel for the Commission’s subject matter experts and then as legal and policy advisor to the Chair of the Commission. Moore holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri and Bachelor’s degrees in Business and Psychology from the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga.

  • Andrew Turnage

    BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE

    Andrew Turnage is the Executive Director of the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. Turnage previously served as State Director for the Georgia Secretary of State. He has also served as the Executive Director for the Georgia State Board of Cosmetology and Barbers, and as Executive Director for the Georgia Board of Nursing. Turnage is also a former Deputy Sheriff in Hall County and a graduate of The University of Georgia.

CANNRA Staff

  • Gillian Schauer, PhD, MPH

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

    Gillian Schauer, PhD, MPH was elected CANNRA’s first Executive Director in 2021, and served as a Senior Advisor to CANNRA before the association’s founding. Dr. Schauer has worked in public health and policy for nearly two decades, and has a decade of experience working with federal and state agencies on cannabis policy, data monitoring, and research translation. Through her federal work, she founded and led the Multi-State Collaborative for Cannabis and Public Health from 2014-2021 to foster learnings and cultivate best practices for public health across states with legal cannabis. Prior to working on cannabis policy, Dr. Schauer worked on tobacco control policy. She was the Senior Editor on the 2020 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking Cessation.Dr. Schauer is an affiliate researcher at the University of Washington and has more than 70 peer-reviewed research publications on cannabis and other substances. She has a PhD from Emory University, a Master of Public Health from University of Washington, and a Bachelors of Science from Northwestern University.