Board of Directors:
Anthony Morelli
Director of Cultivation and Seed Care
Anthony is a founding member of SACRD. Anthony Morelli is a Welder/fabricator, CNC Machinist and Production Manager that also has twelve years of experience as a cactus cultivator, focusing almost exclusively on peyote cactus cultivation. He has also exclusively documented all procedures, outcomes, and resources used for reproduction in educational materials and for scientific analysis.
Estrella V. Castillo
Executive Director
Estrella joined SACRD in 2022. She is committed to helping SACRD grow into an esteemed organization that provides guidance and assistance at the intersection of public engagement, ethical medicine cultivation praxis, and interfaith community health. Estrella has over a decade of experience as an environmental, cultural, and spiritual community organizer and project manager. As an aspiring scholar and Ph.D. student at Yale University’s History of Science and Medicine, she studies relationships between Indigenous peoples and nineteenth through twentieth-century psy- sciences, international climate science research, and the diaspora of North American Indigenous religions and doctoring practices–with special focus on the p/Peyote. Estrella is dedicated to guiding the ethical and thoughtful development of projects and grants received by SACRD as it carries out its mission.
Greg Lake
Fundraising Representative and Legal Advisor
Greg is a trial and appellate attorney, author, and entrepreneur, having assisted over 40 entheogen-based religious groups enshrine their rights under the free exercise laws. Greg is a prolific writer, having written three books: “Psychedelic in Mental Health Series: Psilocybin,” “The Law of Entheogenic Churches in the United States” and “The Law of Entheogenic Churches (Vol. II): The definition of religion under the first amendment.”, and his work has been featured in numerous articles and podcasts, on a variety of topics pertaining to entheogenic, religious and cognitive freedom. He is the CEO of EntheoConnect and a Co-founder of the Church of Psilomethoxin, where he holds the position of Lead Oracle.
Willie Nelson
Board of Advisors:
Alex F. Wilson
Fundraising Representative and Co-Founder of SACRD.
Alex holds a Associates degree of Science and Sustainable Landscape Design from Portland Community College. He also has years of experience in political campaign organizing and policy reform in psychedelics and sacred medicines. Alex co-founded SCCI with Anthony Morelli in 2021 as a coalition of individuals and organizations fighting to preserve and perpetuate vulnerable peyote populations in the wild.
Leo Mercado
Cultivation
Lead Botanist for Morningstar Conservancy.
Leo Mercado is a lifelong cultivator of peyote cactus and is currently the lead botanist for Morningstar’s Seedling Sanctuary Project. Leo will be overseeing the seedling project and will be supplying the majority of the man hours needed to provide care to the young plants while living on site. Leo has over 40 years of direct cultivation experience, as well as experience dealing with the complexities of the legal landscape surrounding peyote cultivation in Arizona.
Joey Santore
Advisor
Joey is a freelance botanist and the producer of the weekly YouTube series and podcast (italics) Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t. He is also an artist and a loud-mouthed advocate of the Kill Your Lawn movement, which directly encourages people to acknowledge and cultivate the native plant species of their region.He has extensive experience studying Lophophora and numerous other cactus species in habitat with an emphasis on ecology and evolutionary relationships as well as as geologic setting. He currently resides within the natural distribution of Peyote in South Texas.
Sarie Bettineski
Advisor and Co-Founder of SACRD
Sarie is a multi-disciplined visual artist and storyteller. Sarie has been painting for over 20 years, studied at PNCA for her BFA in Fine Art, minor in Creative Writing and minor in Art History and PCC where she studied Philosophy, Art & History. The context behind all works created are heavily influenced by personal experience, trauma and healing, along with a deeper reflection of how she views herself in the environment she shares. Sarie served on the Board of Directors with the Portland Psychedelic Society as the Events Coordinator/Chair, hosting monthly talks Psychedelic Scholars: Art, Religion & Philosophy and Empowering Voices: Integration for Survivors of Sexual/Domestic Abuse. Co-Founder of Decriminalize Nature Oregon, and advises for Decriminalize Nature.
Martin Terry & Deirdre Terry
Board of Elders:
Margaret Behan
Margaret is a Native American woman who is a citizen of the Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma. She is a fourth generation descendant survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre. Behan is a former member of the International Council 13 Grandmothers. She believes that cultivation & education should be highest priority and has a dream learning to grow her own greenhouse full of medicine to tend and care for while teaching others how to nurture this sacred cacti far away from the vulnerable state it’s in.
Don Ramher
Suzanna Vasquez
sacrdnet.org 