COHIA Board Member Election
Voting for the COHIA board is now open!
There are currently four positions available. If you are a voting member of COHIA you should have received an email with a link to vote on February 3rd from evote titled Voting Invite for COHIA Board of Directors Election. Please place your vote as soon as possible so the new board can get to work.
We are so fortunate to have such a talented slate of candidates.
Andrew Bish
Andrew is the COO of Bish Enterprises and the founder of Hemp Harvest Works. Since 2015, he has been focusing on identifying and resolving the many issues currently facing hemp harvesting and processing. His goal is to provide equipment that helps standardize hemp farming practices while allowing growers to increase their scale of operation and decrease costs.
Andrew’s relationship with Hemp began in 2015 where Andrew participated harvesting 180 acres of hemp for grain & fiber purposes near Fort Morgan, CO with the SuperCrop® header. Andrew is affiliated with the Hemp Industries Association, the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, the US Custom Harvesters Association, the 21st Century Agricultural Opportunities Coalition, the U.S. Hemp Authority Technical Committee, the Hemp Industries Daily, the US Hemp Conference & Expo, WAFBA (NOCO), and others.
JD Garrick
I am the owner of 3 Colorado Limited Liability Companies that work directly with Hemp businesses all around the United States and Internationally. My company Illuminated Extractors manufactures certified extraction equipment involving the extraction, distillation and isolation of cannabinoids, terpenes and other oils. We do facility design and extraction consulting across a very broad spectrum of products.
I also am the Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Grown Consulting where we advise clients on all aspects of hemp production.
Thirdly, I own a hemp processing license and facility to extract oils from industrial hemp. We wholesale many different products including crude oil, distillate, non-detect distillate, isolates, terpenes and more. We utilize our own oils to manufacture several products including a full spectrum hemp oil lotion under the name Illuminated Apothecaries.
Margaret MacKenzie
Co-Founder, Salt Creek Hemp
Co-Founder, Eleven Acres
Margaret is a bold pioneer in the hemp industry. She convinced her mother to plant hemp on their family ranch in 2015, Colorado’s second legal harvest. As one of the first growers on the Western Slope of Colorado, her experience and knowledge of the hemp plant is exceptional. She uses regenerative farming practices to grow potent, pure hemp that is used in her two retail lines, Eleven Acres and Salt Creek Hemp.
Margaret is immersed in educating and elevating the hemp industry, including educational speaking across the US and Caribbean, fundraising for the Hemp Feed Coalition, sitting on the board of the Colorado Hemp Industries Association since the chapter formed, and consulting new hemp growers on best practices.
Her greatest passion is helping small, independent farmers become hemp growers, empowering the farm economy while also creating all natural beneficial hemp products.
Bethleen McCall
McCall is a fifth-generation ag producer from the Northeastern Plains of Colorado. She currently serves as the President of the Colorado Hemp Industries Association. Her farm, Hemp Farm Colorado was on the ground floor of Colorado’s hemp industry & is one of the original hundred registered & legal industrial hemp producers in the nation, growing since 2014. They specialize in year-round greenhouse production of high CBD feminized seed & trimmed flower. The farm also has grown hemp under center pivot for biomass, traditional seed as well as grain and fiber. Prior to farming full time, she worked in government & natural resource conservation. She also serves her community on various boards including Yuma City Council, Yuma County Economic Development Corporation & Water Authority and the Colorado Agriculture Preservation Association.
Pamela Orth
Masters Organizational Development.
12 years Managing Health Clubs
10 years Managing Surgical Centers.
Partner Restorative Botanicals, 3.5 years actively working as Director of Business Development.
1 year COO WholeMade Bath And Body Care, active Partner.
Advisory Board Breckenridge Grand Vacations and Summit County Department of Tourism.
Member COHIA
Member NHIA
Member Colorado Woman’s Chamber
Past treasurer Colorado Wolf Dog Society.
I believe Hemp is the way to economic prosperity for Colorado, the United States and beyond. This crop has not simply been overlooked, it has been purposely repressed and “Verboten”.
Cindy Sovine
Cindy has over 22 years of government relations experience working on local, state and federal issues. She is very effective at helping highly regulated industries achieve their goals and successfully navigate ever-changing legislative, regulatory and political environments. She is a Colorado native who grew up farming and ranching in eastern Colorado. After spending much of her career working for the pharmaceutical industry and seeing firsthand how cannabis alleviated his suffering and provided a quality of life that traditional treatments could not provide, Cindy now works in hemp, marijuana, and psychedelic policy and speaks all over the country helping states create sound policies. In addition to passing numerous cannabis industry and social justice bills, Cindy was the Lead Political Strategist on the Decriminalize Denver Campaign, the nation’s first successful campaign to Decriminalize Psilocybin (aka Magic Mushrooms). She also successfully led the statewide effort to amend the Constitution in 2018 (Amendment X) to ensure Colorado’s hemp laws remain competitive nationwide.
This is the link to the voter guide:
