Linnae Ponté, Director of Harm Reduction
Linnae earned her BA in Biological Psychology from New College of Florida where she defended her thesis, which investigated the impact of sleep disturbance in the pathogenesis of depression in a sample of 360 students. Linnae oversees MAPS' harm reduction program, the Zendo Project, and has traveled internationally to coordinate and train volunteers to offer psychological support to individuals having difficult psychedelic experiences, in order to reduce the number of drug-related hospitalizations and arrests. For Linnae, psychedelic harm reduction is an essential service for festivals, capable of transforming potentially traumatic experiences into opportunities for growth and showing that safe, expansive experiences are possible without the need for law enforcement-based policies. She is currently completing her Master's in Counseling Psychology at CIIS and is a co-therapist intern in MAPS' MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety associated with life-threatening illness study in Marin, CA.
Shannon Clare Petitt, Executive Assistant
Shannon Clare Petitt is a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern and received her Master’s in Integral Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She works with individuals and groups on addiction, trauma, and spiritual growth. As Executive Assistant at MAPS, Shannon supports founder and Executive Director Rick Doblin with scheduling, communications, speaking engagements and administrative coordination. Shannon often travels in order to network and spread the word about MAPS’ work as well as engage in Harm Reduction with the Zendo Project.