ABOUT US
The CEASD aspires to be unrelenting visionary advocates in cultivating, shifting and solidifying equitable pathways for historically marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed community members.
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The
ACHEM
Pillars of Total health Equity
Economic Equity: The assuredness of:
1) economic repair and reciprocity,
2) access to opportunities and services that secure and grow economic resources such as income, savings, assets, and capital, and
3) possessing personal and collective agency over the flow of economic resources through a household or community.
Environmental Equity: The assuredness of access to and maintenance of:
1) clean air, water, land, and soil,
2) clean, natural, and safe outdoor spaces,
3) clean and safe indoor spaces,
4) clean, safe, and consistent housing options, and
5) clean, safe, and sustainable business practices.
Human Equity: The assuredness of access to experiences, opportunities, and resources that optimize:
1) an individual’s knowledge, skills, ability, capability, adaptability, introspection, empathy, enlightenment, self-regard, and self-actualization, and
2) their physical, mental, and spiritual fitness.
Social Equity: Fairness and empowerment through policy and regulation, as well as through the distribution of social resources and services to ensure that policy and societal infrastructures:
1) assure economic, environmental, and human equity,
2) demonstrate cultural respect and preservation, and
3) facilitate the social belonging, cooperation, cohesion, trust, participation, protection, and productivity of all people.
Equity Justice Advocates
The task of developing a cannabis industry that builds equitable outcomes takes not just a team, it takes a community. Meet some of your community members.
Andrea St. Julian
Andrea St. Julian is a San Diego-based attorney whose thirty-year practice focuses on state and federal appeals. Her work is dedicated to the representation of the indigent, many of whom are casualties of the war on drugs.
Andrea has a deep history of working with the community on issues that include crime, policing, cannabis social equity, and other social justice issues. She is the co-founder of a nonprofit impact litigation organization known as Community Advocates for Justice and Moral Governance (MoGo), as well as co-chair of San Diegans for Justice, a political action committee supporting police reform. Andrea is also a board member of the ACLU, San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Several years ago, at the request of community members, Andrea began working to ensure that cannabis social equity was woven into the framework of the local cannabis industry. In early 2021, Andrea became a founding member and the facilitator of the San Diego County Cannabis Stakeholders’ Group (CSG), a group comprised of dozens of local cannabis businesses, organizations, and individuals. The mission of the CSG is the creation of a healthy and rational cannabis industry with social equity at its center.
Khalil Ferguson
Khalil currently serves as the President for the United CORE Alliance (UCA), which engages populations and communities most harmed by the War on Drugs to create pathways for job placement in emerging markets, facilitates educational opportunities to increase economic mobility, and organizes legal support to formerly incarcerated individuals. Khalil’s focus on strategies for combating gentrification and supporting inclusive economic development programs has resulted in appointments to the City of Sacramento’s Measure U Tax Oversight Committee and the City Manager’s Inclusive Economic Development and Investment Committee.
Khalil’s work is guided by an intimate understanding of what inclusive economic development means, and why it is important to help level the playing field and increase market share for entrepreneurs of color. His data and research driven perspective - along with connections to Drug War impacted communities and millennials of color is exactly what the community needs. He can help bring extremely important data, relationship and resource-oriented solutions to achieving safety through carving equitable pathways into the legal market.
Under Khalil’s leadership, the UCA has been instrumental in helping the city of Sacramento in forming its cannabis equity policies. Recently, the city added 10 additional permits specifically for drug war impacted communities. Additionally, Khalil was integral to the establishment of the California Cannabis Equity Grants Program which provided $30 million in grant funding to jurisdictions throughout the State of California. He also serves as the secretary for the Democratic Party Black Caucus Legislative Committee and is the Chair for the Cannabis Equity Trade Certification Policy Committee.
Khalil holds B.A. degrees in International Relations and Economics from California State University, Sacramento.
Anthony Avalos
President & Co-Founder, Council of Equity Advocacy San Diego
Anthony Avalos is a 3rd and 4th generation San Diegan, a survivor of the War on Drugs, and a nationally recognized advocate for cannabis social equity. With over a decade of frontline experience, Anthony bridges grassroots organizing, policy reform, and healing-centered program design. He has supported legacy operators and MSOs with brand development, HR strategy, and C-suite operations—while simultaneously building community-led frameworks to repair historical harm.
Anthony has developed SOPs, curriculum, and educational programs that uplift the most vulnerable San Diegans. As co-founder and president of CEA*SD, he leads initiatives to transform local cannabis policy, reallocate cannabis tax revenue toward reparative justice, and design trauma-informed equity programs rooted in Total Health Equity: economic, environmental, human, and social.
From food sovereignty to public safety reform, Anthony’s cross-sector leadership reflects a deep commitment to building safe, thriving communities—especially for those historically excluded. He believes cannabis can be more than a product—it can be a pathway to healing, justice, and community wealth.
Margit Whitlock
Margit E. Whitlock AIA LEED AP | Principal in Charge of Architecture and Interior Design | Architectural Concepts
Inc. a San Diego, CA based design firm. Ms. Whitlock is responsible for creating the concepts that drive the
creative process. Her professional experience includes all aspects of architecture, design and the building
process including project programming and site analysis, interior design, custom FFE, construction documents,
permit processing and construction administration. She is a licensed architect in the states of CA, AZ, NY, PA,
TX, FL and HI. To foster her passion about the built environment and her community, Margit is a board member
and past President of SDAF (San Diego Architectural Foundation) a 501c3 non-profit. She is a member of the
County of San Diego Cannabis Stakeholders Group, BEEP volunteer and Habitat for Humanity and NEWH past
board member. For the past thirty years she has focused on commercial design and construction with projects
nationally and internationally. Her project list includes hospitality, retail, restaurants, historic and cannabis
facilities.
Ms. Whitlock is an accomplished speaker with engagements at multiple ARDA conventions, HD Boutique show,
Friends of San Diego Architecture as well as being frequently published in magazines such as Developments,
Resort Trades, Hotel Business, Hiatus, Vacation Industry Review and Resort Management and Operations.
She received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon with academic strengths in urban
planning and design and extended studies in Art History and Architecture at the University of Copenhagen,
Denmark.
Dr. Leroy Brady
Dr. Leroy Brady is a retired business professor, educator, and cannabis-industry thought leader based in San Diego. He served on the Business faculty at San Diego City College, where he chaired the Business Department and taught a pioneering course on the business of cannabis.
Beyond traditional academia, Dr. Brady brings his expertise to the emerging legal cannabis sector. He is the host of the podcast Cannabis Enlightened — an educational platform exploring cannabis business, policy, health, equity, and culture. Through this work, he aims to challenge stigma, promote informed consumption, and support equity-driven access to the industry.
Dr. Brady is also active in cannabis-related business consulting and industry governance: his professional background (per his profile) includes board and consulting roles in cannabis businesses and related ventures.
As an educator, he is recognized by students for clear grading standards, responsive feedback, and a supportive teaching style, whether in person or online.
Through his combined roles as professor, consultant, and public educator, Dr. Brady bridges commerce, academia, and advocacy — advancing cannabis equity, education, and community empowerment in San Diego and beyond.