Laura Herrera, MPA
Laura Herrera holds a Master in Public Administration from the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York.
Her dual undergraduate degrees are a Bachelor of Journalism, and a Bachelor of Science Public Relations from the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin.
She is a seasoned Organizational Manager with 19 years of professional experience working with diverse organizations such as University of California Berkeley, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, American Museum of Natural History, New York State Health Foundation and Texas Commission on the Arts .
Herrera is also an equity-driven community-based participatory researcher (CBPR) from the border community of El Paso, Texas who has resided in the Bay Area for nearly two decades.
CBPR is a model of research in which community members, organizational representatives, and academics work in an equitable partnership in all aspects of the research process.
She has mapped and presented on the administration of state Cannabis Equity Grants through local social equity programs and is currently in dialogue with a working group of cannabis educators investigating models of cannabis education.
She has been deeply integrated in the cannabis industry for 16 years through cultivation, manufacturing, and ethnographic research exploring the therapeutic uses for cannabis and other plant-based indigenous medicines.
In 2009 Laura started as a seasonal cannabis worker in the fall harvest season and continued to work with small scale cannabis growers through 2015.
In 2016 she widened her scope to help entrepreneurs understand the emerging laws around commercial cannabis & providing business consulting services to transition to the licensed market.
In 2019 Laura was contracted to work with Cannabis Social Equity programs in Oakland, then Sacramento, Los Angeles and Long Beach to facilitate the disbursement of financial support from the state directly to cannabis business entrepreneurs.
In 2020, she began a multi year appointment in the College of Natural Resources, Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management to support the Berkeley Cannabis Research Center as their Digital Communications Specialist and affiliated researcher.
Herrera presenting at the 2023 Berkeley Cannabis Research Briefing on the social impacts of cannabis equity programs in California.