Meet Our Team
Thank You Life is governed by a single Board of Directors, composed entirely of volunteers from the medical and lay communities.
Our small but passionate team is led by Co-Executive Directors Meredith Thomas and Samantha Retrosi, PhD, and we have an ever-growing team of volunteers supporting the mission. Our structure includes a headquarters in Austin, TX with a presence that reaches across The United States.
Staff
Meredith Thomas is Co-Executive Director and a founding force of Thank You Life, leading strategic initiatives to expand equitable access to psychedelic care. With over two decades of experience in social impact leadership and integrative health, she focuses on building sustainable partnerships, advancing innovative care models, and addressing gaps in mental health access.
Meredith is committed to scaling effective, evidence-informed solutions that bridge clinical practice and community-based care to drive Thank You Life’s mission forward. Inspired by the potential of psychedelic medicines, Meredith leads with a vision of healing that reconnects us—to ourselves, each other, and the world we share.
Outside of work, she enjoys time with her family, stewarding a nature-based urban landscape, and immersing herself in the natural springs of Austin, TX.
Samantha is a sociologist, former Olympian, and experienced practitioner in the field of psychedelic healing. With years of hands-on work in ayahuasca retreat settings, she brings both practical know-how and big-picture vision to her role as Co-Executive Director at Thank You Life.
Before joining Thank You Life, Samantha spent years immersed in the day-to-day realities of retreat center life—most recently as Retreat Director at Soltara Healing Center in Costa Rica. There, she oversaw all aspects of retreat operations, from team leadership to guest experience and program development. She led a multicultural staff through the complex logistics and emotional terrain of Shipibo-led ayahuasca retreats, building systems that supported both team wellbeing and deep healing for participants.
With a Ph.D. in Sociology and a deep belief in the power of inner work to create social change, Samantha is passionate about making psychedelic healing more accessible—especially to those who are often left out of this work. She sees healing as both personal and collective, and is devoted to honoring the cultural roots of this work while helping it grow responsibly.
At Thank You Life, she focuses on expanding the reach of healing programs and building the kind of organizational infrastructure that helps visionary ideas take root. Samantha is driven by the belief that personal transformation can—and must—be a force for collective change. Most of all, she’s here to work toward a world where healing is available to anyone who seeks it.
Ronny Bilodeau
Creative Director & Operations Architect
Ronny Bilodeau is a polymath, creative, and writer whose dharma involves helping others rediscover the wonder and awe of being alive. With a background in graphic design, functional neurology, meditation instruction, web design, digital marketing, clinical operations, and more, Ronny is helping to bring Thank You Life into the world in a variety of ways.
Ronny believes that psychedelics will continue to play a major role in our collective awakening process, as they allow one the opportunity to heal traumas and see beyond the limitations of the current paradigms.
He is proud to play his part in carrying out Thank You Life’s mission, because he believes that we all deserve the chance to discover the unique gifts that lie inside each of us and live more empowered, authentic lives.
Ryder Nicholas
Director of Partnerships and Community Engagement
Ryder Nicholas is an experienced researcher, logistical planner, and heart-centered communicator. She came to Thank You Life in Fall 2023 with a fervent desire to support our efforts to fund impactful therapies for our communities.
Ryder brings a unique perspective to the team, in that she has personally experienced the disparities in mental health access throughout her life. Ryder has gratefully been a recipient of various sliding scale, low-income programs in the Texas area, and she clearly sees the value of these programs to assist and uplift those in our community.
Ryder has explored and researched non-ordinary states of consciousness for the past decade, but her “Thank You Life” moment did not come from a psychedelic experience, rather from tethering her relationship with alcohol. She believes the self-actualization that is achieved through psychedelics can be achieved through multiple avenues, and she is passionate about sharing this perspective with others.
Denise Malkoon
Director of Mission Development
Denise holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Higher Education. In her role, she supports Healing Partners as they join our Provider Network and beneficiaries who receive scholarships for their therapeutic journey. She is passionate about putting systems in place for internal growth.
Denise brings an entrepreneurial spirit rooted in conscious consumerism, having created scalable processes across multiple industries in addition to founding and running her own 10+ year health-food brand with its own nonprofit giving arm. She sees high-quality psychedelic-assisted therapy—combined with the power of community—as a profound pathway to connection, meaning, and embracing our shared humanity.
Board of Directors
Laura Lochrane
Board Chair
Laura Lochrane (formerly Laura Whitney) was introduced to sacred medicine healing ways in 2009, originally on a trip to Ecuador. Through over 20 years in a variety of leadership roles at The Ojai Foundation, Laura led rites of passage retreats, nature-based ceremony and trainings in the Way of Council. She served as President of the Board for 14 years.
Laura is certified as a Council Trainer and on her way to be certified in Compassionate Inquiry™ and Holotropic Breathwork™. She holds a Master’s Degree in Ethnographic Film from the University of Southern California and is also the Founder/President of The Scheerer Family Foundation (established in 1999.)
Laura currently works full time guiding individuals and groups on journeys for personal, collective and planetary healing. Her enduring passion for making intimate contact —with self, others, the natural world and with Spirit — inspires all that she offers.
Dr. Dan Engle
Co-Founder
Dr. Dan Engle is a psychiatrist with a clinical practice that combines aspects of regenerative medicine, psychedelic research, integrative spirituality, and peak performance.
Dr. Engle is an international consultant to several global healing centers facilitating the use of long-standing indigenous plant medicines for healing and awakening. He is the founder of Full Spectrum Medicine, a psychedelic integration and educational platform.
Dr. Engle is the author of The Concussion Repair Manual: A Practical Guide to Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injuries, as well as his newest book, A Dose of Hope: A Story of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy.
Yana Grammer
Board Treasurer
Yana Simone-Grammer is a social entrepreneur who co-founded the non-profit New Earth in 2004 and has played a key role in growing the organization from a vision to the impactful non-profit that they are today, having served more than 20,000 young people in Los Angeles County.
Prior to New Earth, Yana developed her business acumen in the consumer product and personal growth industries – managing and scaling organizations; building, leading, and training teams; and being involved in all areas of business development from marketing to sales to administration. She is a Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) Fellow.
“I am behind the TYL mission because it is my life’s work to ensure that all people have equal opportunity and access – especially when it comes to integrated medicine, healing and therapeutic services.” – Yana Grammer
Dr. Vincent Franze
Board Secretary
Dr. Vincent Franze is an anesthesiologist who has been on staff at Aspen Valley Hospital since 2014. Dr. Franze received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 2001 and four years later completed his residency at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
He is certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Franze taught as an assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson University, focusing on resident education and specializing in liver transplants.
He helped found, and was the anesthesia director of, the Jefferson Simulation Center — utilizing advanced simulation technology for the training and assessment of physicians and medical students.
Kelsey Kitsch (Ramsden)
Kelsey Kitsch has spent her life building and scaling businesses in unconventional ways. She was named one of Canada’s 100 most powerful women, won Canada’s #1 female entrepreneur two years in a row, and proudly serves as a Richard Branson Centre Mentor.
Kelsey also serves on the Entrepreneurship Council for the University of Western Ontario. An accomplished keynote speaker and bestselling author, she holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
“I support TYL because of the vision, the team, and the good I know we can do in helping to heal people who otherwise would not have access to revolutionary psychedelic assisted therapy. When one person heals, the ripple effect of the healing is immense.” – Kelsey Kitsch
Dave Davies
Dave is the COO and Managing Partner at Force Management. He brings a long-term track record of successful IT, Sales and Executive Leadership experience.
Dave was a Captain in the US Army (82nd Airborne Division) and managed training curriculum development for the US Army Engineering School. Dave received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy (West Point) and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.
“I am happy to serve on the Board for Thank You Life because I believe in the mission, want to help veterans with their struggles, and have enjoyed interacting with the enlightened folks at Thank You Life.” – Dave Davies
Veronica Ortiz
Veronica Ortiz is a dedicated mother, wife, and passionate advocate with a profound commitment to at-promise youth. Veronica honors a promise she made to her late mother by serving as New Earth’s Lead Care Manager, where she leads initiatives to support youth aged 12-25.
With over a decade of experience in the juvenile justice field across Los Angeles County, Veronica has devoted herself to uplifting vulnerable families and connecting with young people in need. Witnessing the overwhelming trauma that many young people endure, Veronica became passionate about advocating for KAP, particularly for those who need it most but lack access. She is determined to extend this lifeline to young people seeking solace and healing, helping them shed the layers of trauma and become who they were meant to be.
“So many incredible humans don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. I want to show them the light again!” – Veronica Ortiz
Kim Dudine
Kim spent 8 years as an International Business Development professional – managing, designing and winning over $1 billion of clean energy, environment, economic growth, food security, and resilience projects for her primary client USAID. In 2021, she pivoted to the plant medicine industry to merge her intersecting and deeply personal passion for elevating human consciousness via a new paradigm of doing business; driven by innovation and conscious community. Here, she was a partner and Director of Trailblazers Presents, a premier community and event series designed to bring executives, entrepreneurs, top innovators and thought leaders in the cannabis and psychedelics industry together in a way that is more reflective of an evolved consciousness.
Born and raised in South Africa, her upbringing was deeply rooted in serving as a Keeper of the Earth and holding the remembrance of the ancient ways. She humbly and honorably serves as a realm bridger with and for Medicines of the Earth, including master plants and fungi such as Santa María (Cannabis), Psilocybin, and Hapé.
“Access to psychedelic therapy is critical now more than ever — it offers a return to our interdependent relationship with our larger ecosystem, and a repairing of our hyper individualism which has cascaded countless diseases born from the hardened mind’s myopic viewpoint on life. We were never meant to live without ritual, ceremony and guidance through life’s greatest thresholds. Psychedelic medicine has supported mankind for eons in doing so. Access allows us to remember that the internal landscape truly is creating our external reality, and reacquaints us with that landscape with a grander perspective than we’re capable of without it.” – Kim Dudine
Elizabeth Rosenblum
Elizabeth Rosenblum is a Licensed Chemical Dependency – I, with nearly 30 years of experience in the fields of addiction recovery and mental health. She spent 15 years as the founder and executive director of a nonprofit that offered trauma-informed wellness programs—including mindfulness, movement, and yoga—for people experiencing homelessness and substance use disorders. She later served on the organization’s board for two additional years.
Elizabeth has worked across outpatient, acute, and residential care settings, with a deep commitment to client centered, and evidence-based healing. She is trained in psychedelic-assisted therapy and has provided ketamine-assisted therapy in clinical practice. She has experienced the remarkable healing benefits of ketamine both personally and professionally.
As a board member, Elizabeth brings vision, passion and a heartfelt belief that healing services should be both accessible and rooted in dignity. Outside of work, she enjoys family, movement, sunshine, pickleball, and anything that brings laughter and learning.
Asher Israelow
Asher Israelow, based in NY, is an award-winning designer, artist, and educator whose work spans bespoke furniture, interior architecture, and large-scale cultural projects. He is the founder of Asher Israelow Studio and cofounder of Project Immanence, a nonprofit (now joined with Thank You Life) providing fully subsidized, trauma-informed ayahuasca-based therapy to underserved communities.
Why I Support Thank You Life
“I believe deeply in the right of every individual to access transformative healing, regardless of financial means. Psychedelic care has the power to mend deep wounds and unlock new pathways of resilience. Supporting Thank You Life allows me to help ensure that this care is not a privilege for the few, but a resource for all who need it most.”
