Dr. Dennis McKenna, PhD is an American ethnopharmacologist, research pharmacognosist, lecturer, and author with a long-standing focus on the study of natural medicines. He is a founding board member and Director of Ethnopharmacology at the Heffter Research Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to investigating the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the American Botanical Council, is Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Natural Products Research, and works as an Independent Research Consultant to the phytomedicine and nutraceutical industry. He previously served on the editorial board of Phytomedicine, International Journal of Phytotherapy, and Phytopharmacology. In addition, he is an adjunct professor in the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. McKenna earned his Master’s degree in Botany from the University of Hawaii in 1979 and his Ph.D. in Botanical Sciences from the University of British Columbia in 1984. He went on to complete post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology at the National Institute of Mental Health and in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research has explored the pharmacology, botany, and chemistry of ayahuasca and oo-koo-hĂ©, alongside extensive ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brazilian Amazon. He organized and served as co-investigator on the Hoasca Project in 1992–93, a biomedical investigation of sacramental ayahuasca use among members of the UDV, a Brazilian religious group. From 2004 to 2008, he was Principal Investigator on a study examining Amazonian ethnomedicines as possible treatments for cognitive deficits in dementias and schizophrenia, funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute. In 2010, he also served as co-Principal Investigator for the Botanical Dimensions/UNAP Digital Herbarium Project, a three-year effort to scan and digitize more than 100,000 specimens in the AMAZ Herbarium at the Universidad Nacional de la AmazonĂa Peruana in Iquitos, Peru.
Dr. McKenna’s work has contributed to the development of natural products for the Aveda Corporation and to broader public awareness of plant-based medicines. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has written books including The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna. He is also a co-author of The Invisible Landscape with his brother Terence. His publications have appeared in journals such as the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, European Journal of Pharmacology, Brain Research, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Neurochemistry, Economic Botany, and Alternative and Complementary Therapies. Together with two colleagues, he co-authored the widely recognized reference Botanical Medicines: The Desk Reference for Major Herbal Supplements. In the early 1970s, he developed a technique for cultivating psilocybin mushrooms and, with Terence McKenna, published Psilocybin – Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide under the pseudonyms O.N. Oeric and O.T. Oss.
In 2017, Dr. McKenna collaborated with colleagues to organize and present ESPD50, a landmark ethnopharmacology conference held at Tryingham Hall in Buckinghamshire, UK. The event marked the 50th anniversary of the first ESPD conference, which was sponsored by NIMH and held in San Francisco in 1967. The 2017 conference was livestreamed on Facebook to more than 285,000 people, and the proceedings from both the 1967 and 2017 conferences were published in January 2018 by Synergetic Press as a collector’s edition two-volume boxed set, with a matching interactive ebook released at the same time. Dr. McKenna joined the advisory board for Soltara Healing Center, where his experience supports work in cultivation, permaculture, eco-initiatives, and education related to the pharmacology, ethnopharmacology, and therapeutic applications of psilocybin and other psychedelic medicines.