Black Star Wellness is a minority-owned medical cannabis company applying for a medical cannabis license in New York. With a founding team that brings deep expertise in cannabis, labor, public health and medicine, Black Star Wellness is equipped to address many of the problems currently facing the medical cannabis market in New York and its patients, including:
Access: New York’s current medical cannabis dispensaries are located in predominantly white and affluent neighborhoods, forcing many existing patients to travel significant distances to purchase their medicine and discouraging prospective patients from joining the program entirely.
Cultural Competency: New York’s current medical cannabis operators lack ownership and leadership from people of color, impacting how patient care, community outreach, and education are approached.
Commitment to Labor: While New York’s cannabis legalization framework requires that cannabis companies acknowledge and work with labor unions, there is much more that can be done to ensure that the cannabis workforce is well trained and positioned for long-term career success.
Black Star Wellness has pledged to open medical dispensaries in communities of color and staff each dispensary with employees who understand and are equipped with the skills to provide medical care within those neighborhoods. Black Star Wellness also understands that for cannabis to be an economically stable and equitable industry, it must be pro-worker and will approach establishing its medical cannabis operations by providing family sustaining wages and benefits. Black Star Wellness is named after Black Star Line, Marcus Garvey’s shipping line. Inspired by Marcus Garvey’s activism and leadership, Black Star Wellness is driven to use medical cannabis to uplift communities of color.
Dr. Torian Easterling (he/him/his) is a Family and Preventive Medicine physician. Dr. Easterling recently served as the First Deputy Commissioner and Chief Equity Officer at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH), one of the largest and oldest public health agencies in the world with more than 6K employees and an annual budget of $1.6B. As New York City’s first ever Chief Equity Officer, he directed the city’s equity response to the COVID-19 and monkeypox pandemics spearheading efforts to address racial inequalities in vaccinations and testing, launching a citywide community health workforce program, and implementing a $100M network of community-based organizations to serve neighborhoods most impacted by COVID-19.
Dr. Easterling spent more than 5 years in a senior leadership role at the Health Department. Prior to serving as First Deputy Commissioner and Chief Equity Officer, Dr. Easterling served as Deputy Commissioner of the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness at the NYC DOHMH, where he focused on reducing premature mortality and closing the racial gap on the leading causes of preventable death through hypertension management, tobacco control, cancer screening, and violence prevention programs.
He also served as the Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Health’s Bureau of Brooklyn Neighborhood Health, where he launched the Brownsville Neighborhood Health Action Center and co-led the agency’s NYC Birth Equity Initiative, which works to eliminate racial inequities in severe maternal morbidity and infant health outcomes. Dr. Easterling is a community physician committed to health equity, social justice and movement-building to achieve the health outcomes that all people deserve both locally and globally.
Dr. Easterling’s work is regularly cited by national outlets including CNN, Bloomberg, Politico, Time, NPR, New York Times, and CNBC. Key recognitions include 2022 Distinguished Service Medalist at Columbia University; the Phi Award by the Gamma Iota Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, for which Dr. Easterling was recognized with a New York State Senate resolution; and Caribbean Power Jam’s Reset Appreciation Award for leadership during COVID-19.
Dr. Easterling holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Morehouse College (Atlanta), a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Icahn School of Medicine at Sinai in New York. He completed his residency in Family Medicine at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, N.Y., and a General Preventive Medicine residency at Icahn School of Medicine at Sinai in New York. Dr. Easterling is also on the Board of One Brooklyn Health System, which operates three major hospitals in Central Brooklyn.
Jahmila “JJ” Edwards (she/her/hers) is a dynamic leader with more than 15 years of experience working at the intersection of government, policy and politics in New York City.
After several years working as a registered lobbyist, Mrs. Edwards left the private sector to serve as Deputy Chief of Staff to Bill de Blasio and later as Executive Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs for the NYC Department of Education. In her current role, she is the Associate Director of District Council 37, New York City's largest municipal labor union where she oversees the union's approach to public policy, political operations, strategic campaigns, and community partnerships. Mrs. Edwards is both a pension and welfare fund trustee, where, as a fiduciary she manages fund assets in excess of $2B.
She has been recognized by numerous organizations and elected officials including Congressional leaders Yvette Clarke and Adriano Espaillat, the New York State Senate and Assembly, and both City & State Comptrollers for her contributions to the community at large.
In 2016, she was named 40 Under 40 by City & State Magazine and by 2021 was ranked in the Brooklyn Power 100 representing the biggest political players in the borough.
In 2021 took Ms. Edwards' entrepreneurial aspirations reached new heights when she launched Pack A Bag, LLC, a boutique group travel booking company reaching over $100,000 in sales within the first 6 months; and, Stash Queens, Inc. a cannabis brand she created alongside four other Black women across the East Coast. In 2022, she was accepted into and completed the Our Academy accelerator program for social equity applicants and independent BIPOC cannabis entrepreneurs in the US, and the brand is expected to launch in 2023.
Ms. Edwards, a native of Boston, MA, earned her bachelor’s degree from The New School University where she studied abroad at the Universidad de la Habana, Cuba. In 2016 she was selected for the cohort of Senior Executives in State & Local Government at Harvard University, and in 2021 she completed her Master’s Degree in Labor Studies at UMASS Amherst.
She has been an active mentor to young women in NYC since 2005 and serves on the board of Directors for the Broad Room and Movement: Black Youth Abroad. Ms. Edwards is a proud resident of Brooklyn, NY where she resides with her husband, Khari, and three stepchildren Ethan, Niah, and Myles.
Op-ed: Why New York must prioritize union jobs in cannabis
July 13, 2023
Jahmila Edwards & Saul Guerrero
Op-ed: Medical Cannabis access is disproportionately white; lets change that here
March 30, 2023
Torian Easterling
Dr. Torian Easterling reflects on his legacy at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
October 27, 2022
Heather M. Butts, JD, MPH, MA
Outgoing DOH equity officer on three ways to change the city's public health narrative
September 9, 2022
Jacqueline Neber
Opinion: Addressing Structural Racism in Public Health is Overdue. Here's How to Do it.
April 4, 2022
Torian Easterling, Michelle Morse, and
Dave A. Chokshi
February 22, 2022
Torian Easterling
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