Psychedelic Medicine
Association
President - Psychedelic Medicine Association
Chief Medical Officer
Corine de Boer, M.D., Ph.D. is the Chief Medical Officer at MAPS Public Benefit Corporation.
She received her medical degree from Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and completed residency and fellowship training in pediatrics and pediatric nephrology. Her Ph.D. was focused on peritoneal dialysis in children, and she joined the academic staff at the Radboud University after completing her training.
Before moving to the United States in 2000, she worked as a Pediatrician in the largest inner-city hospital (OLVG) in Amsterdam where she was responsible for in- and outpatient care in a multi-racial patient group including sickle-cell disease, thalassemia, and AIDS.
For the last 20 years, she has contributed to the development of meningococcal and hepatitis vaccines during her tenure at GSK vaccines (formerly Novartis Vaccines and Chiron Corporation) and Dynavax prior to starting her own consulting company where she provides strategic advice and support for a variety of clients working on biologics, small molecule/polymer therapeutics and vaccines.
She feels very fortunate to formally join the MAPS team after assisting them previously in the development of the Pediatric Plans for MDMA. The opportunity that psychedelics provide in the treatment of PTSD and other indications is an exciting scientific field where she feels honored to play a small part in.
Corine resides in beautiful Port Townsend, WA, with her husband and her Jack Russell Terrier where she can be found roaming the beaches, making (wearable) recycled art, and messing around in rowing shells and other boats.
Medical Director
Alia is a board-certified Family Medicine physician. She earned her B.A. in American Studies from Georgetown University in 2002, where she studied social and cultural influences on health care. Prior to medical school, she earned her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in 2004 from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked in clinical research and development at Chiron (later Novartis). She received her M.D. in 2011 from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and completed residency training in Family Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Tufts- and Harvard-affiliated Accountable Care Organization. Before joining MAPS, Alia worked as a primary care doctor in Berkeley. Alia holds a certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research from CIIS in San Francisco. As a family physician, Alia has borne witness to her patients’ struggles with the human condition and the effects these struggles have on their loved ones. She is passionate about helping develop better tools for psychological healing so that everyone may have the opportunity to approach themselves and others with empathy and love.
Medical Monitor
Sara J. Garcia Velazquez, M.D., is a general physician who obtained her medical degree from the University of the State of Michoacan in Mexico in 2012. In 2009, after finishing her medical internship at a state hospital, Sara worked as the lead social service physician in rural areas of Mexico for the Mexican Board of Health. She treated diverse indigenous populations, where she learned the importance of knowing their traditional medicines, including psychedelics, that have been used for generations for treatment of various illnesses and wellness. During this time, Sara used research as a means to improve the infrastructure for patient education, disease screening, and medications for the rural patient population, developing a protocol that outlined how cultural characteristics affect risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes.
Subsequently, in 2013 she moved to the Bay Area, where she studied music at the Pyramind Studios for two years, pursuing her interest in medicine and the healing properties of music. In 2016, she joined the San Francisco Clinical Research Center, where she gained valuable clinical and research experience as a clinical research coordinator and cognitive rater. There she spearheaded protocols in the therapeutic areas of mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, cluster headaches, Migraine, and posttraumatic persistent headache.
Sara continued her clinical research journey in 2018 at Science 37, a telemedicine and mobile technology company specializing in virtual clinical trials. As a clinical research coordinator, she assisted with patient eligibility, trial execution, peer, and participant training to bring trial participation directly to the participant’s home safely and efficiently. The therapeutic areas covered during this time were chronic degenerative diseases (Type 2 diabetes) and neurology (multiple sclerosis and migraines).
Sara followed MAPS’ work through the years as she grew up in a medical research household with the works of Dr. Albert Hoffman, Dr. Stan Grof, and Dr. Alexander and Ann Shulgin on the bookshelves. In 2020 she is honored with the opportunity to join the MAPS PBC team as a medical monitor, applying her experience and passion for biomedical knowledge to bring psychedelic medicine to all patients.
Sara is also a musician, a dancer, a traveler, and an avid hiker.
Head of Commercialization and Patient Access
Joy co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer of Groups, a venture-backed healthcare services company that is tackling the opioid epidemic in rural America. Groups operates more than 50 outpatient clinics in six states that is pioneering a value-based model for the treatment of opioid use disorder.
Prior to starting Groups, she helped launch GiveDirectly, a global nonprofit that gives cash to the ultra-poor with no strings attached using mobile payments technology and conducts rigorous, experimental evaluation to measure impact. She previously was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company in the healthcare and agriculture practices and Director of Operations at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), where she designed and implemented large-scale HIV treatment programs in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Joy holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.S.in international affairs from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
After 35 years of tireless work, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is knocking down the door of FDA approval for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD.
The Phase 3 trial results have been nothing short of astounding, and having this modality as an FDA-approved treatment will vastly improve the lives of so many who have been struggling with PTSD for too long.
But how will this affect your medical practice, and how can your patients get this life-changing therapy?
To answer those questions, we are honored to have four members of the MAPS team on this month’s panel to cover:
• Results of the Phase 3 trials
• Clinical practice guidelines regarding MDMA-assisted psychotherapy
• How this modality may look post-FDA approval
…and much more!
As always, there will be ample time for audience Q & A, so you’ll get to interact with the panelists directly!
So please join us for this live panel discussion on Thursday, June 24th at 5 pm Pacific, 8 pm Eastern. This is exclusively for members of the Psychedelic Medicine Association, so if you have not yet registered, please do so here. And for members, please register for the panel here. A link to the recording will be available afterwards if you cannot make it to the live event.
Hope to see you all on the 24th!
You can find the Psychedelic Medicine Association on Twitter at @Psychedelic_Med, LinkedIn and on Facebook.