INDUSTRY UPDATES
March 08, 2023
Celebrating Women Of The Roundtable
Today, we’re celebrating and recognizing the Women of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable! We are proud to have such an incredible, diverse group of women at the table leading our organization.
Brittani Cushman
Executive Vice President
Brittani Cushman is the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Turning Point Brands (NYSE: TPB), a Louisville, Kentucky-headquartered manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of branded consumer products, including alternative smoking accessories and consumables with active ingredients, through its iconic brands Zig-Zag® and Stoker’s®. Ms. Cushman is responsible for all legal, regulatory, and government affairs for the Company and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, providing commentary on the complex landscape surrounding heavily regulated industries. Ms. Cushman currently serves on the U.S. Hemp Roundtable Board of Directors Executive Committee, the National Association of Tobacco Outlets Board of Directors, the Women in Tobacco USA Board of Directors, the Coalition of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of America Board of Directors, the Coalition of Manufacturers of Smoking Alternatives Board of Directors, and the Food and Drug Law Institute Tobacco and Nicotine Products Committee. She also participates in the Cigar Association of America.
Ms. Cushman has a B.S.B.A. in Business Management from The University of Tulsa and a J.D. from Washington & Lee University School of Law. Prior to joining Turning Point Brands, Ms. Cushman spent five years at Xcaliber International, where she was most recently the General Counsel, responsible for all legal affairs.
Dawn Jarvis
Senior Vice President
Dawn is a Registered Dietitian and Licensed Nutritionist with over 35 years’ experience in the Nutrition Industry both in the UK and the US. Dawn started her career as a Clinical Dietitian working in London Teaching Hospitals. With a passion for sports nutrition, she became a pioneering accredited Sports Dietitian in the UK. Dawn was a lecturer for the Sport Nutrition Foundation in London and was invited to be a member of the Nutrition Steering Committee for the British Olympic Association. Over the years, Dawn has worked for many British Olympic Teams, as well as professional athletes, and was a guest speaker on BBC television and radio. Dawn also held the position of Chief Nutritionist for the Lawn Tennis Association in London, where she worked with British Wimbledon tennis players until 1996, when she moved to Florida with her family.
While raising her family in the US, Dawn obtained her Master’s in Nutrition and became a Registered and Licensed Dietitian in Florida running a private nutrition practice. During this time Dawn developed a passion for Natural Products working for local health food businesses. This led her to join Garden of Life in 2003 as Director of Product Support. Over the years Dawn has traveled extensively teaching for Garden of Life. Today Dawn is Senior Director of Nutrition Science and Educational Content for Garden of Life, now considered to be one of the leading brands in the Natural Products Industry.
Hannah Johannes
Secretary
Hannah is an associate at Frost Brown Todd where she is a member of the Business Combinations & Capital Transactions practice group and the Hemp Industry Team. Her practice focuses on general corporate counseling, business combinations, corporate governance matters, venture capital, and mergers & acquisitions. Hannah advises clients across a broad spectrum of industries, including sports & entertainment, health care, private equity, and startups & emerging businesses.
Hannah earned her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism at Texas Christian University and received her Juris Doctor from Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Hannah also serves as organizational counsel of the U.S. Hemp Authority.
Rend Al-Mondhiry
FDA Counsel
Rend Al-Mondhiry advises the dietary supplement, food, cosmetic, and over-the-counter medicine industries on a broad range of regulatory and compliance matters, with a focus on helping companies navigate the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape for hemp and CBD products at both the federal and state level. She is committed to helping companies responsibly develop and market products, drawing on her years of experience advising the nation’s leading dietary supplement and food companies on complex ingredient and labeling issues. She is also a frequent speaker and author on emerging legal and regulatory issues in the industry and is regularly quoted in the trade press.
Rend’s practice focuses on reviewing product labeling, ingredients, and advertising to determine compliance with federal and state regulations, and assisting companies in matters before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and National Advertising Division (NAD). She also advises clients on compliance with California’s Proposition 65, U.S. Customs issues, class action defense strategies, and FDA matters including Warning Letters, recalls, detentions, seizures, and import alerts.
Rend brings a unique perspective to these issues, having served as Associate General Counsel at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, one of the leading trade associations representing the dietary supplement and functional food industry. She has advocated on the industry’s behalf numerous times before FDA, FTC, Congress, and state attorneys general, and has substantial experience initiating and defending challenges before the NAD. In addition, she has over ten years of experience analyzing and responding to legislative and regulatory changes at the federal and state levels, working closely with scientific experts to ensure policy positions are not only legally sound but grounded in science. She has also assisted trade associations with non-profit compliance, strategic planning, and corporate governance matters.
When she’s not spending time with her husband and two very active boys, Rend enjoys running, practicing yoga, and reading historical fiction.
Brooke Parker Robertson
Chief of Staff
Brooke Parker Robertson, a government relations specialist at Frost Brown Todd, serves as the firm’s Kentucky lobbyist, registered both as an executive branch and legislative branch agent.
Since joining Frost Brown Todd in 2013, Brooke has worked to become one of the nation’s leading lobbyists for the US Hemp Roundtable. In her role directing the work of state lobbyists across the country for the US Hemp Roundtable, Brooke has developed an unparalleled knowledge of regulatory and legal regimes in all 50 states.
Further, Brooke also serves as the administrator of the U.S. Hemp Authority. In doing so, Brooke has developed keen insight in emerging standards for the hemp industry.
Prior to joining Frost Brown Todd, Brooke spent more than14 years of service as a senior state government employee, including six years as a top lobbyist for Governor Steve Beshear, Brooke’s policy expertise is necessarily broad, but her experiences are particularly deep in regard to energy policy. As a senior Beshear Administration official at the Energy & Environment Cabinet, Brooke was very involved in a wide range of issues including regulation of coal and natural gas generation and production, renewables, energy efficiency promotion, and clean air and water enforcement.
Katelyn Wiard
Director of Operations
Katelyn Wiard, a nationally recognized advocate for the emerging hemp and CBD industry, serves as the administrative manager of Frost Brown Todd’s hemp practice.
Katelyn joined Frost Brown Todd in 2016 as an administrator of the firm government affairs affiliate, CivicPoint. Initially, she worked to address a myriad of client interests, from agricultural lending to child marriage laws. In this capacity, Katelyn also spent much of her time learning about the needs of emerging markets and how they make space for themselves in their corresponding industries. Soon thereafter, she found herself deeply involved in the emerging hemp industry. Katelyn uses her role as Director of Operations to continue to develop as a subject and industry expert. In this capacity, Katelyn has learned about the barriers, regulatory and otherwise, that are often placed on new markets and how to effectively overcome them. Katelyn now serves as a point of contact for much of the hemp industry, with connections to various hemp groups across the country, and she is well-versed in the art of managing large, diverse teams to accomplish a single, mutually beneficial goal.
Prior, Katelyn graduated cum laude from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, and she earned her Executive MBA through the University of Kentucky’s Professional MBA Program in 2021. In 2016, Katelyn was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship by the J. William Fulbright Foundation in the Field of Public Policy. In 2019, Katelyn served on the Gubernatorial Transition team for Agriculture Policy. Currently, Katelyn is the Roundtable’s representative on the Hemp Industries Association Board of Directors. She is also the Consumer Representative for the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure, and she spends much of her free time volunteering in the Lexington Community through the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Alyssa Erickson
Public Affairs & Marketing Coordinator
Alyssa Erickson has spent nearly a decade as an advocate, educator, and spokesperson for the re-emerging hemp and CBD industries. She graduated from Murray State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and Mass Communications in 2014 and relocated to Lexington, Kentucky where she co-founded several hemp-focused entrepreneurial endeavors with the goal of advancing the local and national industry.
Through creative content and messaging, media strategies, special events and appearances, and coordinated efforts with local community businesses and organizations, Erickson grew grassroots initiatives that have reached millions of online users and thousands of Kentucky visitors or residents. Since 2016, she has faciliated hemp projects and events at Kentucky’s most renouned historic sites including Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate in Lexington, Farmington Historic Plantation in Louisville, and Shaker Village in Harrodsburg. As a spokesperson, she has been recognized as a state-wide expert and industry advocate, appearing in a 2019 Patagonia documentary and a live panel on hemp broadcasted by Kentucky Educational Television. She also worked closely with Kentucky Congressional leaders during the 2018 Farm Bill discussions and was quoted in Senator Mitch McConnell’s press release upon passage of hemp legalization. She joined the U.S. Hemp Roundtable in 2020 and has served as Public Affairs and Marketing Coordinator since September 2021.
