The Team
Who We Are
Kipp L. Stroden
Executive Director
Dedicated to connecting people with nature as the source of healing. Founder/CEO of Essential Living Foods, leading superfood brand (Acquired by Nestle in 2018). Founder of 501c3 Ancient Future Medicine. Natural products market maker and one of the superfood industry’s pioneers.
Founding member of the B Corp. Developed transparent, social impact supply chains, creating livelihoods for thousands of farmers and Indigenous communities in Amazonia.
Currently focused on bringing new natural medicines inspired by ancient botanical medicine knowledge to market.
Eric Watson
Director of Marketing and Content
at AFI where Watson first collaborated with director Darren Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique, marking the beginning of a long, productive partnership.
In 1995, Watson moved to New York City to produce his first feature, pi (1998). The movie debuted at the Sundance Film Festival to a standing ovation and was snapped up by Artisan Entertainment for distribution. When p was released in theatres, it received rave reviews, box office success, and was named one of the Top 10 Films of 1998 by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Washington Post and the Seattle Times, among other major dailies.
Dennis Mckenna
Advisor
Dennis McKenna has pursued interdisciplinary research in the study of Amazonian ethnopharmacology and plant hallucinogens for over 30 years. He has conducted extensive ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brazilian Amazon, recently completing a four-year project investigating Amazonian ethnomedicines as potential treatments for cognitive deficits. His doctoral research (University of British Columbia, 1984) focused on the ethnopharmacology of ayahuasca. Dr. McKenna completed post-doctoral research fellowships in neurosciences in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health (1986-88), and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine (1988-90). He joined Shaman Pharmaceuticals as Director of Ethnopharmacology in 1990, and subsequently joined Aveda Corporation as Senior Reseach Pharmacognosist.
Tyler Gage
Advisor
Tyler Gage is the cofounder and CEO of RUNA, a social enterprise that makes energizing beverages with guayusa, a rare Amazonian tea. RUNA now supports more than 3,000 farming families in Ecuador who grow guayusa
organically, and RUNA products are sold in over 10,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada. For his work on RUNA, Tyler has been named a Forbes “30 Under 30 Entrepreneur” and the Citizen Leader of the Year by the Specialty Food Association. He is also the founder of PlantMed, an organization dedicated to building the world’s first centers for the practice, research, and preservation of Amazonian plant medicine. Gage and RUNA have been featured by ABC’s Nightline, National Geographic, Fast Company, and in Richard Branson’s book Screw Business as Usual.
Rudy Randa
Advisor
Rudy, son of Chief Justice to US District Federal Courts, grew up with a passion for creating a better world. He studied business and won three consecutive awards in production at a Fortune 100 corporation before turning his efforts to charity and working with the indigenous in January 2013. Rudy has studied closely with the Huni Kuin, Yawanawa, and Ashaninka people and firmly believes these ancient traditions have a lot to teach us in creating a sustainable future in which humanity thrives.
Dr. Andrew Dattila
Chief Medical Advisor
A primary care provider with a California based private medical practice, Dr. Dattila uses
Integrative Medicine, Functional Medicine, and Osteopathy to serve the needs of a diverse patient population. With training in complementary and alternative medicine modalities that incorporate the practical applications of mind/body medicine, food as medicine, and tonic herbalism from both eastern and western traditions, Dr. Dattila provides excellence in continuity of care and deeply transformational healing protocols for clients dealing with complex and chronic disease states.
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