Monitor Our Progress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2026
CONTACT: [email protected] |
WWW.PATIENTSOUTOFTIME.ORG

Patients Out of Time Enters a New Era of
Leadership
Scheril Murray Powell, Esq. named Executive Director; Dr. Bridget Cole Williams, MD
named Medical Director — as the organization that trained a generation of cannabis
clinicians prepares to define the standards for the next one. Dr. Tony Ferrari and Rami
Taha have been added as Board Members.

HOWARDSVILLE, VA —
Patients Out of Time (POT), the nation’s longest-standing clinical cannabis education institution,
today announced new executive leadership appointments and the expansion of its Board of
Directors: Scheril Murray Powell, Esq. has been appointed as Executive Director, and Bridget
Cole Williams, MD as Medical Director. The appointments mark the formal transition of Patients
Out of Time’s leadership as the organization steps into the most consequential period in the
more than thirty-year history of cannabis medicine.
Founded in 1995 by Al Byrne and Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, as the direct continuation of Robert
Randall’s Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, Patients Out of Time spent three decades
building the most credible body of clinical cannabis knowledge in the United States — training
thousands of healthcare professionals and thousands of patients, convening 16 National Clinical
Conferences on Cannabis Therapeutics, and partnering with UCSF to deliver CME-accredited
cannabis education when no medical school would. The organization’s board has included the
surviving federal Investigational New Drug (IND) patients — the only Americans who legally
received government-grown cannabis while everyone else was being arrested for it — since its
founding.
With the April 23, 2026 DEA/DOJ order placing FDA-approved and state-licensed medical
marijuana in Schedule III, the clinical education Patients Out of Time has championed for more
than thirty years is no longer fringe. It is federally recognized. The standard-setter is now Murray
Powell Esq. and Dr.Cole Williams’ to lead.

SCHERIL MURRAY POWELL, ESQ. — EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR &
CHAIRPERSON

Scheril Murray Powell Esq. brings to POT a rare and specific combination: the legal authority of
a practicing cannabis attorney, the policy architecture experience of someone who has helped
fourteen states legalize cannabis, and the international reach of a practitioner whose work
extends from American courtrooms to the Jamaica Bureau of Standards Cannabis Committee to
United Kingdom Novel Foods Registration.
A cannabis, agricultural, dietary supplement, regulatory, immigration, and trade attorney at
Doumar, Allsworth LLP, Powell chairs the ASTM International D37 Committee’s Diversity,
Equity & Inclusion Subcommittee — the international body that sets cannabis industry
standards. She has been recognized as a Top 12 Cannabis Attorney in Florida by the Daily
Business Review and named to the High Times 100 in 2022 and again in 2026. She is the
International President of The Ethiopian World Federation, Inc. and was appointed by His
Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile Selassie as the Special Representative
to the African Diaspora for The Crown Council of Ethiopia.
She has been a sitting member of POT’s Board of Directors. This is not an outside hire. This is
the organization recognizing what was already true.
As Executive Director, Murray Powell Esq. assumes full strategic leadership: conference and
certificate programming, institutional partnerships, sponsorship development, and the clinical
education infrastructure POT anchors as the country’s apex cannabis credentialing institution.
“Patients Out of Time has always stood at the intersection of courage and
clinical truth. What Mary Lynn and Al built is not a legacy to be managed
— it is a platform to be deployed. The industry we have dedicated our
lives to is turning the corner. We intend to meet it.”
— Scheril Murray Powell, Esq., Executive Director, Patients Out of Time

BRIDGET COLE WILLIAMS, MD — MEDICAL DIRECTOR
Dr. Bridget Cole Williams is a board-certified family physician, Johns Hopkins adjunct faculty
member, Forbes Health Advisory Board member, and a published expert in cannabis medicine.
She has served on POT’s Board of Directors and arrives in this role with full knowledge of the
organization’s mission, its clinical standards, and the practitioner community it serves.
As Medical Director, Dr. Cole Williams provides clinical authority across POT’s expanding
certificate program — signing off on CME content, representing POT to medical associations
and hospital systems, and serving as the scientific voice of the institution as it moves from
conference-based education to a national clinical credentialing infrastructure.
Her appointment carries a specific signal to the healthcare community: POT’s education is not
advocacy dressed in clinical language. It is medicine, held to clinical standards, signed by a
physician who has staked her career on the evidence.
“Cannabis is medicine. The endocannabinoid system is real. The evidence
is decades deep. My role is to ensure that every credential POT issues
reflects that standard — and that every provider who completes our
programs leaves prepared to serve their patients with confidence.”

— Bridget Cole Williams, MD, Medical Director, Patients Out of Time

MARY LYNN MATHRE, RN, MSN — FOUNDER
Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, MSN, is a respected Leader whose role honors the more than thirty
years she spent building Patients Out of Time from a small organization into the country’s most
credible cannabis clinical education institution. As the Founding member and First President of
the American Cannabis Nurses Association and a thirty-year relationship-builder with every
major figure in cannabis medicine, Mathre’s voice does not leave this organization. It becomes
its permanent foundation.
Her leadership transition to Scheril Murray Powell, Esq. is not a departure… It is a deliberate act
of institutional design: freeing the founder to do what founders do best — carry the history, hold
the relationships, and represent the proof that what POT is building now is the direct
continuation of what Robert Randall gave his life to begin.
“I did not build Patients Out of Time to hold it. I built it to hand it to people
who would carry it further than I could imagine. Scheril and Bridget are
those people. The work continues.”
— Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, Co-Founder, Patients Out of Time

DR. ANTHONY “TONY” FERRARI, PHD — BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Anthony Ferrari is a scientist specializing in cannabinoids, botanical therapeutics, and
translational research strategy. He earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Florida State
University, where his research focused on analytical techniques that would lead to future
botanical analysis work. His work has centered on bridging academic research, regulatory
strategy, and clinically relevant cannabinoid science.
Dr. Ferrari is a cofounder of Sym Science, where he supports university researchers and
multidisciplinary collaborators working across a wide range of therapeutic indications involving
cannabinoids and botanical compounds. His efforts include helping develop standardized
investigational materials, coordinating research infrastructure, and supporting projects related to
oncology, anxiety, pain, PTSD, addiction, sleep, and other important health conditions. He
works closely with academic institutions, clinicians, and research organizations to help expand
high-quality evidence generation and translational opportunities in cannabinoid science.
Prior to Sym Science, Dr. Ferrari served as the Chief Science Officer at Sunflora Inc., where he
contributed to product development, quality systems, formulation strategy, and research
collaborations supporting cannabinoid-based wellness products and clinical initiatives across 43
states with the second largest hemp manufacturer by volume in the country.

RAMI TAHA — BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Patients Out of Time further announces the appointment of Rami Taha to its Board of Directors.
Taha is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine candidate at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
candidate at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York and an emerging researcher
in Orthopedic and Emergency Medicine Epidemiology. His academic and clinical research
portfolio includes multiple studies analyzing injury trends across Sports Medicine and
Emergency Department populations in collaboration with the ICAHN School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai.
As a next generation Medical Researcher and Healthcare Advocate, Taha brings a strong
commitment to clinical education, patient care, and interdisciplinary research. His appointment
reflects POT’s continued investment in developing future physician leaders who understand the
evolving role of cannabinoid therapeutics within modern medicine.
Dr. Ferrari and Mr. Taha join existing Patients Out of Time Board Members Michael Green, Deb
Malka and Robbin Levin. This Team will be building setting a high bar regarding support for the
Medical Industry that is reconfiguring under Federal legalization.

ABOUT THIS MOMENT
The April 23, 2026 DEA/DOJ scheduling order is not the end of a thirty-year fight. It is the
beginning of the infrastructure that fight always required. Federal rescheduling creates pressure
for standardized clinical education, verified credentialing, and institutional accountability in
cannabis medicine — across hospital systems, medical schools, nursing programs, and
regulatory bodies — that did not exist before.
Under Scheril Murray Powell’s leadership, Patients Out of Time is inducting the first class of the
Cannabis Research Hall of Fame and the Psychedelics Research Hall of Fame. Nominations
can be submitted at www.cannabisresearchhalloffame.com and the Inductees were announced
on May 30 th at the Florida Cannabis Conference and Exhibition at the Omni Rosen Hotel in
Orlando, Florida. Later on in 2026, we will tour the United States with a series of events titled
the “Patient Round Up”. The first event will be held in Philadelphia in collaboration with Black
Cannabis Week (www.patientroundupphilly.com) and the second event will be held in New York
City in collaboration with CUNY and the Office of Cannabis Management
(www.patientroundupnyc.com )
Patients Out of Time has more than thirty years of accredited conference proceedings, CME
infrastructure, and clinical relationships that no competitor can compress into any timeline. The
organization is positioned to become the national standard for cannabis clinical education at the
exact moment a national standard is required.
For healthcare professionals, institutions, sponsors, and partners ready to engage this new
landscape: the door is open.
TO SUPPORT PATIENT OUT OF TIME’S MISSION, MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION
ON WWW.PATIENTSOUTOFTIME.COM.

ABOUT PATIENTS OUT OF TIME
Patients Out of Time (POT) was founded in 1995 as the direct continuation of Robert Randall and Alice
O’Leary-Randall’s Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics. For thirty years, POT has delivered CME- and
CEU-accredited clinical cannabis education to thousands of healthcare professionals and thousands of
patients through its National Clinical Conferences on Cannabis Therapeutics and university partnerships.
POT’s board has included federal IND patients — among them Irvin Rosenfeld, the longest-surviving
recipient of federally grown cannabis — since its founding. Patients Out of Time is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organization based in Howardsville, Virginia.
Website: www.patientsoutoftime.org
General inquiries: Scheril Murray Powell, Esq. [email protected]
Media inquiries: include “Media” in subject line