Our Team

Deborah has published over 40 books through her publishing house Synergetic Press, Ltd. in global ecology, regenerative agriculture, ethnobotany, psychedelics, and social justice, since establishing it in 1984. In 1986, she was on the team that designed and built a large-scale closed ecological system, Biosphere 2, developing the publications and educational programs for the complex. In 1990, she started The Biosphere Press, an imprint of the Biosphere 2 project, producing a dozen books and a classroom curriculum for children on biospheres and biomes. While at Biosphere 2, Deborah met Richard Evans Schultes, the grandfather of contemporary ethnobotany. She went on to publish his two books of photographs he made documenting people’s use of plant medicine in the NW Colombian Amazonia. Deborah is a director and VP of the U.S. non-profit, the Institute of Ecotechnics, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico at Synergia Ranch. The Institute owns the RV Heraclitus, an 84-foot ferrocement Chinese Junk design that sailed 270,000 miles around Planet Ocean, with two years up the Amazon on an ethnobotanical expedition inspired by Schultes (1980-1982). Deborah currently lives at Synergia Ranch organic farm and retreat center where she lives, contributes to the farm operations when she can, and continues publishing books.

Douglas Reil is a publishing veteran whose work and activism focuses on sustainability, alternative health, and regenerative community and culture. His thirty-five-year career in publishing includes serving as publisher and executive director at the nonprofit publisher North Atlantic Books, in various management roles in book distribution at Publisher’s Group West and Inland Book Company, and as an independent consultant and book agent. In the cannabis industry, he co-founded CannaKeys which offers a platform that aggregates the science of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system for patients and practitioners. He was the Program Director of the compassion program Mission: Compassion which provided free cannabis medicine to low-income patients and was a founding member program of the California Compassion Coalition which drove the passage of SB34 which created compliant pathways for compassionate cannabis activities in California. Currently, he is proud to serve as Co-Publisher and CEO of Synergetic Press and is part of the team forming the nonprofit Shulgin Foundation to preserve the legacy and work of psychedelic pioneers Ann and Sasha Shulgin.

Omar Fayed is an entrepreneur, environmentalist, and businessman. He is CEO of ESTEE (Earth Space Technical Ecosystem Enterprises), based in Switzerland and Britain, that advocates human space exploration, space colonization, and sustainable human development within the biosphere. He is co-founder and CEO of EarthX, a data visualization and mapping company based on NASA’s World Wind Project. He is chairman of Synergetic Press and a fellow of the Institute of Ecotechnics.

Allison Felus is a twenty-year veteran of the publishing industry, with experience managing workflows and creating efficiencies across editorial and production departments. She has edited and/or prepared for print scores of titles in a variety of genres and is currently a proud resident of Chicago.

Jasmine Virdi (she/her) is a writer, educator, poet, activist, and harm reduction practitioner based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her writing centers on psychedelics, spirituality, and deep ecology and has been featured in DoubleBlind Magazine, Open Democracy, Psychedelics Today, Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, Psychedelic Press, Synthesis Institute and Lucid News. Jasmine has an MSc in Transpersonal Psychology and offers private coaching and mentorship to clients. She is an advocate for decolonizing healing practices, and integrates earth-based wisdom, trauma-informed, and somatic approaches into her work.

Since 2018, she has collaborated with the independent publisher Synergetic Press, where her passions for ethnobotany, consciousness, and regeneration converge. Additionally, she volunteers for Fireside Project’s psychedelic peer-support line, aligned with their mission to provide compassionate, accessible, and culturally responsive support to all. Often breaking away into the wilderness, Jasmine can be found wherever there are birds singing. You can follow her work and find out about her offerings here.

Guy Gaffney is a recovering banker who realized he would rather leverage his commercial lending experience by helping small businesses with all aspects of their day-to-day bookkeeping, as well as interpret financial information in a meaningful way.  So he established his bookkeeping & tax practice, FiscalGrit, to do just that.  He received his MBA from UMass and is new to the world of publishing but thoroughly enjoying it.

Fernanda is a transpersonal psychologist, marketing specialist, writer, and practicing Shaman.
Working with the Quero communities of Peru, she’s helping keep her ancestors’ traditions alive by learning from their ancient practices. Currently, she’s working as a Marketing Freelance Consultant for Synergetic Press, her passion moves her to create for organizations focused on the expansion of consciousness. She writes articles for the online magazine Psychic Garden and is pursuing an MSc in Spirituality, Consciousness, and Transpersonal Psychology at the Alef Trust with the aim of creating further research on parapsychological phenomena.

Chloe is a pivotal voice within the Ecovillage movement. For 10 years, she has traveled to ecovillages worldwide as a consultant. With her strength in organizational development, she has implemented clarity and infrastructure for 15+ organizations and communities. She’s involved with the Global Ecovillage Network, Austin Permaculture Guild, and more.

Faye Sakellaridis is an NYC-based writer and editor. She served as the managing editor for Reality Sandwich, the leading web magazine for the transformational community, from 2012 to 2019. She also managed the online blog for The Alchemist's Kitchen from 2015 to 2018. In 2016, she was a recipient of the Cosmic Sister Plant Spirit Grant, a merit-based scholarship that financially supports women as they experience the profound healing and empowerment of journeying with ayahuasca in the Amazon rainforest. She earned both her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and an M.F.A in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Queens College.