About
The Mission of PPA
Our mission is to reduce pain and improve health with psychedelic medicines. The Psychedelics & Pain Association (PPA) works to advance research, understanding, awareness and access to psychedelic medicines for the treatment of chronic pain, including headache disorders, autoimmune diseases, inflammatory conditions, mitochondrial dysregulation, spinal cord damage and traumatic brain injuries. PPA is a collaboration between Psychedelics Today, REMAP Therapeutics, and Clusterbusters, and it has received generous seed funding from The RiverStyx Foundation. All of the leaders of PPA are either directly or indirectly impacted by chronic pain.
Why PPA?
There is a robust ecosystem of funding, research and utilization support for psychedelics for the treatment of mental health. We need to start building the same support structures for psychedelics and the improved management of pain.
We are entering a new era of pain management — psychedelic medicines have the potential to offer relief across many pain categories.
Kevin Lenaburg
Executive Director, Psychedelics & Pain Association
For more than a dozen years, Kevin has worked to support people living with pain and advance policies that reduce suffering. He has led coalitions focused on responsible pain management and improving care for people with migraine and other headache diseases. Kevin’s experiences include driving public policy change, organizing stakeholder summits, engaging in regulatory issues, and supporting relationships with a diverse range of organizations. He concurrently serves as the Policy Director for Clusterbusters, a nonprofit that advocates for people with cluster headache, the most painful condition known to medicine. Kevin has seen the transformative power of psychedelic medicines to heal the people he loves, and he is passionate about advancing research and responsibly expanding access to new tools that can effectively help to manage pain.
Joe Moore
Co-Founder of Psychedelics Today
Joe Moore co-founded Psychedelics Today in 2016 with Kyle Buller. As CEO, Joe has created one of the world’s best-known psychedelic podcasts, blogs, and training platforms. Joe combines twenty years of avid research and training in psychedelics with twenty years of experience in software and multinational project management. Joe is an expert in transpersonal breathwork and a much sought-after international voice on the intersecting subjects of psychedelic medicine and healing, breathwork, drug policy, medical innovation, justice, and environmentalism.
After suffering from chronic pain for over 15 years, he finally found relief through the personal use of psychedelics, dancing, music and friends. Inspired by the incredible stories of others who resolved their pain with psychedelics, he developed close relationships with Cluster Busters and REMAP Therapeutics, eventually becoming a founding board member of the Psychedelics and Pain Association.
Eileen Brewer
Event Coordinator and Headache Diseases Advocate
Eileen is an event coordinator and advocate for those living with headache diseases. She is the Board President of Clusterbusters, Administrative Manager for the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy, Administrator for the Headache Cooperative of the Northeast, a member of the National Headache Foundation’s Patient Leadership Council, and a moderator for Move Against Migraine. As a wife and mother of two, Mrs. Brewer balances her life in the headache community with various personal commitments, including sitting as the Vice President of the local PTA, leading a Girl Scout troop, and managing several real estate investment properties. Eileen has devoted herself over the years to many volunteer opportunities including local and national political initiatives, and event planning and advocacy for local charities.
Bob Wold
Founder, Clusterbusters
Bob was diagnosed with Cluster Headaches over 40 years ago which eventually led to his founding Clusterbusters, Inc. in 2002. Since the founding of Clusterbusters, the organization has grown to the largest cluster headache support and advocacy non-profit organization in the U.S. Bob’s work with Clusterbusters has included research projects carried out at institutions such as Harvard, Yale and the University of West Georgia in the United States, McGill University in Montreal Canada and Hannover Medical School in Hannover Germany.
In addition to his work as founder and Executive Director of Clusterbusters Inc., Bob sits on a number of boards and councils including the Board of the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy, the National Headache Foundation’s Patient Advisory Council, the Eli Lilly Patient Advisory Board, and the governance committee of the Coalition for Headache and Migraine Patients.
Bob married his wife Mary in 1973 and together they raised 4 children and are proud grandparents of a growing family.
Court Wing
Cofounder
A former chronic pain sufferer, Court Wing is the founder and CEO of REMAP Therapeutics and a co-founder of the Psychedelics & Pain Association. REMAP Therapeutics is devoted to the development of formal psychedelic rehabilitation sessions and cohesive best practices for many treatment-resistant chronic pain conditions. Court is an accomplished performance and pain professional with over 14 years of formal Ki-Aikido study and 30 years of experience in maximizing the athletic performance of his clients, helping countless individuals overcome injury to return to competition and daily life. He is a certified Z-Health Master Trainer and was co-founder of CrossFit NYC.
In 2020, Court was a study participant in NYU’s clinical trial of Psilocybin for Major Depressive Disorder. By the end of his “dosing” day in the trial, he was in full remission, no longer qualifying for the diagnosis of depression. More astounding were the lateral benefits; he was also no longer suffering from low-to-moderate chronic pain and related neurological issues from previous injuries. Court’s commitment to further investigate the healing potential of psychedelics stems from his direct experience as a participant in this psilocybin trial. With his extensive experience in applied neurophysiology for pain & performance, he immediately realized psychedelics were going to completely change the way we are able to treat chronic pain.
Magali Brecke
Advisor
For more than 10 years, Magali Brecke, LAc MTCM has worked in the fields of Functional and Traditional Chinese Medicine, supporting those living with chronic disease to improve quality of life through diet, lifestyle, and behavior interventions. In working with the chronic Lyme disease community, Magali became aware of the potential role for psychedelics in catalyzing positive change and accelerating healing in even the most complex cases. Her training in both traditional and allopathic medicine positions her as a bridge between holistic healthcare and psychedelics, contributing to solutions for individuals seeking respite from protracted suffering.
In 2021, she joined the Riverstyx Foundation, a key PPA partner, and began contributing to the psychedelic field through her holistic health lens.
Joel Castellanos, MD
Advisor
Joel Castellanos, MD, is a board-certified physical medicine and rehabilitation and pain medicine physician, and serves as medical director of Inpatient Rehabilitation at UCSD’s Center for Psychedelic Research. Dr. Castellanos’ prime focus is improving function using an individualized approach. He is particularly interested in neuromodulation at various levels including spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation, interventional spine procedures, radiofrequency neurotomy, ultrasound-guided and fluoroscopically-guided procedures, and regenerative medicine such as platelet-rich plasma, stem cells, and Tenex (minimally invasive technology for treatment of chronic pain). He has specific clinical interests in pelvic pain, complex regional pain syndrome, phantom limb pain, and post-spinal cord injury pain syndromes. His research interests include altering nutrition as a means of treating chronic pain, neuromodulation for chronic painful conditions as well as the potential use of psychedelics for these conditions. An associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Dr. Castellanos instructs pain medicine fellows, as well as medical students, residents in their pain rotations. Dr. Castellanos completed his fellowship in pain medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. He completed residency training in physical medicine and rehabilitation at University of Michigan Medical School, where he also completed a two-year program in healthcare administration. Dr. Castellanos earned his medical degree from University of Toledo College of Medicine in Ohio. He is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and pain medicine.
Our Team
Court Wing
Cofounder
Joe Moore
Cofounder
Bob Wold
Cofounder
Kevin Lenaburg
Executive Director
Eileen Brewer
Advisor
Magali Brecke
Advisor
Joel Castellanos, MD
Advisor