I am very excited about the Portland chapter of the new Women Grow organization. Portland, Oregon is going to be a very popular place for marijuana consumers and businesses in the near future with legalization coming online. Portland already has a thriving medical marijuana industry, and I’m happy to say, there are more women that are a part of it than many other cities I’ve been to. Portland’s Women Grow chapter is co-chaired by one of my favorite people, Leah Maurer, and while I haven’t met Sara yet, I know she is going to do big things. Below are biographies of the women behind Portland’s Women Grow chapter:
Sara Batterby
Co-chair, Women Grow Portland Chapter
Sara is a recent Venture Capitalist and early-stage technology veteran with 20 years of marketing, operations and business development experience in high growth, innovative environments. She has a long history of empowering women through culture change, mentorship and innovative, diversifying models. Prior to entering the cannabis industry, Sara co-founded an early stage venture fund in Silicon Valley with the goal of helping investors understand the powerful business case for investing in women as part of a well-diversified portfolio. She volunteers as a C-Suite Advisor for Astia, an angel group that invests in a majority of women founders. Now as the CEO of an early stage cannabis cultivation company, Sara’s priorities are diversity, sustainability and organics. She is excited to bring her past experiences to bear supporting women who wish to enter this industry, ensuring that cannabis becomes a market that enriches and empowers women in Portland and throughout the US.
Leah Maurer
Co-chair, Women Grow Portland Chapter
Leah was thrust into activism in 2009 after she and her husband, Travis, experienced a traumatic paramilitary-style home invasion for growing medical cannabis in Columbia, MO. After moving to Portland, she began working to change the failed Oregon and Missouri cannabis laws. Leah was a founding member of New Approach Oregon, which drafted, funded and ushered through Measure 91, effectively legalizing cannabis in Oregon in November of 2014. She is also a founding member of the leading cannabis legalization campaign in Missouri, Show Me Cannabis; and even found time to launch Moms for Yes on Measure 91, a Facebook group that gathered over 1000 members through grass-roots outreach alone and proved to be influential in the passing of the measure. Leah’s commitment to just and balanced laws supporting the cannabis industry is unquestionable, and she is excited to expand it in support of greater diversity in an industry greatly in need of women leaders.
