Michele Ross

Michele Noonan Ross (née Michele Ann Noonan) is an American neuroscientist, author, and media personality. She is a noted drug policy reform activist, promoting cannabis, Psilocybin mushroom, and Mitragyna speciosa.
== Early life ==
Ross grew up in Iselin, New Jersey where she attended John F. Kennedy Memorial High School (New Jersey). Ross was the first member of her family to attend college and went to Boston College, where she studied Psychology. In 2008, she graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience.
== Media appearances == 
Ross was the first scientist to star on reality tv, appearing in the Big Brother 11 (American season)|eleventh season of the reality television series Big Brother (American TV series) in 2009, where she finished in fourth place. She claimed housemate and future Big Brother 22 (American season)|Big Brother All Stars 2 contestant Kevin Campbell tried to poison her on the show. She and Lydia Tavera were the first bisexual women to compete on the series. She won her episode of the dating competition reality show Baggage (American game show)|Baggage hosted by Jerry Springer as well as the dating competition reality show Excused.
== Career ==
=== Neuroscientist ===
Ross studied how drugs, including cannabis and cocaine, impacted the birth of new brain cells, a process called neurogenesis, and what role these newborn cells had in Addiction|drug addiction. In October 2017, Marijuana Venture Magazine featured Ross as one of their "Women To Watch" and highlighted her work as a cannabis scientist.
=== Entrepreneur ===
Ross received her Executive MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology in 2018. She has created several companies, including Infused Health, a platform for cannabis coaching and education, and AURA Therapeutics, a kratom company focused on women.
== Advocacy ==
=== Cannabis ===
Ross founded the Endocannabinoid Deficiency Foundation in Los Angeles, California, which later changed to the name IMPACT Network in 2016 after moving to Denver, Colorado. IMPACT Network, a 501c3 nonprofit which stands for Improving Marijuana Policy and Accelerating Cannabis Therapeutics for women worldwide, received grant funding from multiple sources including Drug Policy Alliance. IMPACT Network, which closed in 2018, was discovered to be the victim of several years of identity theft and fraud by Travis Singhaus in 2022.
=== Psychedelics ===
Ross is known as being one of the earliest scientists to advocate for Psychedelic drug|psychedelic medicine. A 2014 interview by Emmy Awards|Emmy-winning journalist Amber Lyon of Reset.Me about DMT (drug)|DMT garnered over 3 million views on YouTube|Youtube. She was a co-founder of Decriminalize Denver, which successfully decriminalized magic mushrooms in the first city in the United States in 2018. 
=== Kratom ===
After the FDA's attempts to ban kratom in the United States in 2021, Ross wrote the book Kratom Is Medicine and keynoted the Global Cannabis Intelligence Summit.
== Personal life ==
Ross resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. Besides having fibromyalgia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), she has struggled with severe pelvic pain and was once put in a Lanterman–Petris–Short Act|psychiatric hold because of it. Ross says without cannabis, she would have killed herself from pain and depression.
== Selected publications ==
* Boyd, Melinda with Michele Noonan (2012). Train Your Brain To Get Thin: Prime Your Gray Cells For Weight Loss, Wellness, and Exercise. ISBN 978-1440540158
* Ross, Michele N. (2018). Vitamin Weed: A 4-Step Plan To Prevent and Reverse Endocannabinoid Deficiency. ISBN 978-0692090664
* Ross, Michele (2020). CBD Oil For Health: 100 Amazing Benefits and Uses of CBD Oil. ISBN 978-1507213988
* Ross, Michele (2021). Kratom Is Medicine: Natural Relief For Anxiety, Pain, Fatigue, and More. ISBN 978-0578866468
Category:American neuroscientists 
Category:American authors 
Category:American media personalities