OPENurses Founders Circle
Current Leadership:
Wendy Marussich RN, MS, PMHNP, PhD is a doctorally-trained academic evolutionary ecologist turned oncology nurse, hence her nickname, "Dr. Nurse." She is an Oncology Certified Nurse and a Blood and Marrow Transplant Certified Nurse and currently works as an adult inpatient clinical oncology nurse at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF). She trained in psychedelic-assisted therapy through the California Institute for Integral Studies Certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Research (CPTR), and has volunteered with the Zendo Project, and other psychedelic peer support and harm reduction organizations, for the past several years. She completed the 2-year Hakomi Comprehensive Therapist Training in somatic mindfulness psychotherapy in 2019, and served as a teaching assistant for Year 1 and Year 2. She is a recent graduate of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program at UCSF is currenttly a APP Psycho-Oncology Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is looking forward to transitioning to working as a psychiatric nurse practitioner with cancer patients and their families. Wendy is most interested in using psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to address end-of-life anxiety, depression, and existential distress, especially in cancer patients. She is a current founding member of OPENurses and currently lives in New York City.
Andrew Penn, RN, MS, PMHNP was trained as an adult nurse practitioner and psychiatric clinical nurse specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. He is board certified as an adult nurse practitioner and psychiatric nurse practitioner and completed training in Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy at the California Institute for Integral Studies. He was a study therapist on the MAPS-sponsored Phase 3 study of MDMA assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and a co-investigator at the UCSF site of the Usona-sponsored Phase 2 trial of psilocybin facilitated therapy for depression, published in JAMA.
Currently, he serves as a Clinical Professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Nursing where he teaches psychopharmacology and is an Attending Nurse Practitioner at the San Francisco Veterans Administration with the SFVA NP residency program. An internationally invited speaker at TEDx, SXSW, Aspen Institute, and the Singapore Ministry of Health, he has presented on psychedelic assisted therapy, cannabinoids, and the art and science of psychopharmacologic practice. His work has received the UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Award. He is a current founding member of OPENurses and can be found at Andrewpennnp.com
Liz Willis RN, MS, PMHNP has taken her emergency nursing experience obtained in the top-ranked emergency rooms around the country to disaster relief and international medical missions in six countries on four continents. She trained in psychedelic assisted therapy and research in the second cohort of the California Institute of Integral Studies program and has applied her knowledge to the Zendo Project, providing and supervising harm-reduction focused peer support at festivals both international and domestic. She recently completed her MS degree at the UCSF School of Nursing Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Program. She is a current founding member of OPENurses.
Emerita:
Angela Ward BSN, RN CPTR is Registered Nurse and Transformation Coach in Seattle, Washington. Her years of bedside nursing as a Labor and Delivery nurse and Perinatal Bereavement specialist, as well as her extensive training and experience in psychedelic-assisted therapies have allowed to develop a thriving private practice helping people move through difficult or challenging times in their lives. She is a graduate of the California Institute for Integral Studies Certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Research, and has worked with over 300+ patients with individual and group ketamine-assisted therapy sessions. She was a founding member of OPENurses and can be contacted through her website Guardian at the Gateway or her educational program Return to Roots.
.png)