About Parabola Center
When we fight, we win.
"If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else." – Toni Morrison
Parabola Center is a nonprofit of legal, public health, and policy professionals working to put people over profits. From cannabis to artificial intelligence, new industries are being built right now, and the rules written today will decide who they serve.
We believe emerging industries shouldn’t mean emerging monopolies. Without sustained pressure, the same handful of corporations capture each new market, concentrate its profits, and write its rules. Our job is to give the research, tools, and expertise to the public to push back, because when we fight, we win.
We’ve spent decades writing laws, shaping regulations, and running campaigns. We put that experience to work for consumers, workers, and small businesses, not lobbyists. Every analysis and resource we publish, every event we run, and every training we conduct is designed to make policy clear and actionable.
Policy works best when it is connected to people’s lives. We make the details clear, so anyone can have a say in the markets that will shape their future.
Board of Directors
Shaleen Title: Director
Shaleen Title is a lawyer, activist, and adjunct professor focused on regulations for emerging industries. She is a former top cannabis regulator for Massachusetts, where she served as a commissioner of the Cannabis Control Commission. In addition to her role with Parabola Center, she is Of Counsel at Rudick Law Group and teaches classes on AI regulations and marijuana policy at Roger Williams University School of Law. In her free time, she volunteers for Fairplay for Kids and the ACLU of Massachusetts.
Shanel Lindsay: Entrepreneurship Director
Shanel Lindsay is an attorney, advocate and serial entrepreneur. In addition to serving as Parabola Center’s Entrepreneur Director, Shanel is Founder and CEO of Ardent Life Inc., a global cannabis hardware and CPG company. Shanel was an author of Question 4, the ballot initiative to legalize adult use cannabis in Massachusetts. Subsequently, she was appointed to the Massachusetts Cannabis Advisory Board, serving from 2017-2021. Shanel is also co-founder of the grassroots advocacy group Equitable Opportunities Now.
Laury Lucien: Education Director
Laury Lucien is an attorney and educator and Parabola Center’s Education Director. She founded Lucien Law, representing clients in immigration, wills and estates, personal injury, and criminal defense across Greater Boston. Born in Boston and raised in Petionville, Haiti, she earned a biology degree from UMass Amherst and her J.D., Magna Cum Laude, from Suffolk University Law School. Laury teaches Cannabis Law and entrepreneurship at Suffolk and Clark University and serves on the Massachusetts Cannabis Advisory Board.
Legal & Policy
Damian Fagon: Policy Director
Damian Fagon is a former cannabis regulator for the state of New York, where he served as the inaugural Chief Equity Officer for the Office of Cannabis Management. A third-generation farmer and development economist, Damian blends grassroots agricultural experience with equitable economic policy, advising on cannabis market development and agricultural initiatives internationally. He currently serves as Director of the Bronx Cannabis Hub, building new models and programming for restorative economic justice and community-centered cannabis markets from the ground up. Damian holds a BA from the University of Virginia and an MPA in Economic Development from Columbia University.
Margeaux Lavoie: Legal Fellow
Margeaux (Maggie) was born and raised in Maine. After graduating college, she moved to Shanghai China and was hired as an early member of a fast-growing education technology startup, where she assisted the company with business and product development. After China, she moved back to Maine and was the Director of Operations of a CDC certified harm reduction Syringe Service Program where she helped grow the annual budget from $50,000 to $1.16 million within three years. In 2022, Maggie enrolled in law school at the University of Maine School of Law with a focus on drug policy and cannabis law.
Public Health Researchers
Faith English: Public Health Researcher
Faith English is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Drug Dependence and Epidemiology Training Program. She received her PhD and MPH from the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, her research focuses on the intersection of cannabis legalization, health equity, and criminal justice reform. Dr. English is passionate about exploring the multiple ways in which cannabis and other drug legalization can address the public health crisis of mass incarceration and the war on drugs.
Meredith McGee: Public Health Researcher
Meredith McGee, MPH (she/her), is a public health professional dedicated to bridging the gap between research, community, and education. Her work focuses on cannabis, health equity, and LGBTQ+ communities, with a mission to make public health research more accessible and actionable beyond academia. A seasoned grant writer and fundraiser, Meredith has helped secure over a million dollars in funding to support community-led initiatives. She is especially passionate about connecting cannabis policy to public health infrastructure in ways that center lived experience and promote health justice. Meredith authored Parabola Center's essay on the drug policy U-curve.
Andrea Sparr-Jaswa: Public Health Research Fellow
Andrea Sparr-Jaswa is a researcher and educator with fifteen years of experience working at the intersection of cannabis legalization and public health. Over the course of her career, she has led data-driven educational programming and community outreach efforts within the industry, authored award-winning cannabis science and policy content, and served as an analyst for New York’s medical cannabis program. Andrea holds an MPH from Thomas Jefferson University, where her seed-to-sale experience informed solution-oriented, actionable research to guide public health-centered policy recommendations and programming. A staunch advocate for cannabis-integrated healthcare, Andrea’s work is rooted in health equity and an unwavering commitment to systems-level transformation.
Digital Team
Tyler Giles: Digital Strategy Director
Tyler Giles is the founder & digital strategy director at Hammerhead Strategies, LLC. With a focus on progressive campaigns, advocacy groups, nonprofits, and small businesses, he leads digital fundraising, fundraising strategy, and data‑driven communications efforts. Hammerhead Strategies leverages cutting‑edge online tools and deep internet culture insights to amplify stories, build lasting infrastructure, and drive measurable impact—having helped clients raise thousands of dollars both online and at events. Prior to launching Hammerhead, he built a reputation in the political, hospitality, and non-profit spaces. He leads Parabola Center's email, social media, outreach, and other digital marketing efforts.
Steve Mendez: Digital Marketing Fellow
Steve Mendez is a cannabis industry consultant and the founder of Buzz Krew LLC, a marketing and digital agency supporting cannabis businesses through branding, websites, and strategy. A University of Florida graduate with a degree in biology, Steve was pre-med and passed the MCAT before choosing to apply his scientific background to the cannabis industry to help build equitable markets. He has supported the acquisition of over fifty cannabis licenses across Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, and has helped secure over $1.5 million in Social Equity grants in Massachusetts.
Advisors
Parabola Center is grateful to our advisors who have been generous with their evidence-based and integrity-based guidance. They collectively bring deep expertise and a wide range of legal, science, and policy perspectives aligned with our goals of equity and justice.
- Ismail Ali, plant medicine and reciprocity
- Professor Leo Beletsky, public health law
- Professor Douglas A. Berman, criminal law
- Professor Scott Bloomberg, constitutional law
- Professor Rob Chlala, socioeconomics
- Rafi Aliya Crockett, financial services policy
- Damian Fagon, cannabis and equity
- Kassandra Frederique, strategy
- Dr. Peter Grinspoon, cannabis medicine
- Khurshid Khoja, federal regulations
- Drudys Ledbetter, patient access
- Victoria Litman, tax law
- Kim Napoli, DEI policy
- Jason Ortiz, youth and racial justice policy
- Cat Packer, tax and community reinvestment
- Steve Rolles, regulatory policy
- Dan Riffle, economic policy
- Danielle Schumacher, worker policy
- Justin Strekal, federal legislation
- Tamar Todd, legislative drafting
- Sanho Tree, international drug policy
- Jeannette Ward Horton, justice grants and loans
- Professor Jay Wexler, constitutional law