Our Team
Sarah Farrugia
Executive Director
Sarah Farrugia (she/her) is the founding Executive Director of Decriminalize Maine. Sarah received her Bachelor's in Social Work with a minor in Education from the University of New England in 2020. She is currently in a Master of Public Health program at the University of Southern Maine where she also supervises The Campus Food Pantry as a Graduate Assistant. Sarah is a passionate harm reductionist, dedicated to community change that is collaborative, creative, and accessible. In 2015 Sarah formally began her work in harm reduction as a facilitator for the non-profit organization, Radical Recovery Leadership (now known as Dignity). For the past three years Sarah has worked in harm reduction consulting, a role that has included trainings at Maine Medical Center, University of New England, and more. Sarah currently serves on the American Liver Foundation Board of Directors as a Patient Advocate, drawing from her own experiences with Hepatitis C Virus diagnosis and treatment to amplify the values in medical research, education, and community building. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sarah now lives in Falmouth, Maine with her husband, two children, and their family dog Ruby.
Wendy Chapkis
Board Member
Wendy Chapkis is a Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of several books including Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine, an account of one of the first medical marijuana patient-caregiver collective in the United States in which members who were living with terminal and life-threatening illnesses, grew, processed, and redistributed cannabis to their membership free of charge. Her recent articles on drug policy reform include “Cannabis, Consciousness, and Healing” in the anthology Drugs and the American Dream, “The Trouble with Mary Jane’s Gender: gender politics in the marijuana policy reform movement,” in the Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, “From Harm Reinforcement to Harm Reduction” in the journal Deviant Behavior, and “Growing Pains: Marijuana Legalization in Maine,” in the Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Cannabis Research.
Tanya Dunn
Board Member
Tanya is a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide who is passionate about her work in helping people to wake up to their connection to the Natural World. Rooted in her practice of Animism, she believes that we are not separate from Nature and that it is our disconnection that is the source of dis-ease in humanity and our Planet. Tanya's re-connection to Nature, aided by sacred plants and fungi, has brought about deep healing on a mental, emotional and physical level and she feels that everyone should have access to these plant allies for their own personal healing, without the fear of punitive measures.
Tanya and her husband Brian are founders of Dirigo Psychedelic Society, a safe space to gather and discuss entheogens and psychedelics. The community welcomes all, from the curious to the psychonauts.
Selma Holden
Board Member
Selma Holden is an integrative family physician with public health experience who offers legal psychedelic assisted psychotherapy with the use of ketamine in Portland, Maine. Dr. Holden’s experience in treating people with mental health conditions, chronic pain, and substance use disorder raised her awareness of the traumatic histories we can share. Recognizing the published evidence and personal effectiveness of psychedelic assisted therapy for treating trauma, Dr. Holden believes that criminalizing this therapy and drug use in general only compounds trauma. She is dedicated to supporting the many paths towards recovery and health.
