“The Shortcomings of Wellness”

Ifetayo Harvey founded the People of Color Psychedelic Collective (POCPC). The POCPC educates and builds community with people of color interested in psychedelics and ending the war on drugs. In 2022, Open Society Foundations named Ifetayo a 2022 Soros Justice Fellow. POCPC has partnered with other psychedelic organizations to produce panel discussions and fundraising campaigns. In 2019, POCPC produced its first conference in Washington, D.C. Since the pandemic started, POCPC has held various online discussions and workshops, incorporated as a nonprofit, and received its first grant, raising $46,000 in 2021.

As a leader in the psychedelic field, Ifetayo is a member of the Federal Policy Guidelines for Psychedelics Working Group led by Healing Equity and Liberation. She was also a Research to Reality: Global Summit on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Medicine Advisory Committee member.

Most recently, Ifetayo served as the Social Media Manager at Caring Across Generations, a caregiver advocacy organization. At Caring Across Generations, Ifetayo collaborated with the Release of Aging People in Prison and FWD.US on the New York Elder Parole Justice campaign. The American Society of Aging published her piece “Prison Is the Antithesis of Care: It’s Time to Invest in a Care Infrastructure Instead of a Carceral One” in their Fall 2021 journal.

Ifetayo’s experience growing up with her father in prison brought her to drug policy reform work in 2013 as an intern at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). Ifetayo was the opening plenary speaker at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Denver, Colorado, in 2013. In 2016, Ifetayo joined DPA as a full-time employee. While at DPA, Ifetayo curated the psychedelic track for the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in 2019 and co-created the LGBTQ+ working group and Pride Month campaign. She penned the piece “Why the Psychedelic Community Is So White” for Psympsia Magazine in 2016.

In 2017, Ignite Caribbean named Ifetayo one of the 30 under-30 Caribbean Changemakers.  Ifetayo worked briefly at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in 2015. While at MAPS, Ifetayo presented at Kai Wingo’s Women and Entheogens Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Wingo’s Afrocentric and community-focused conference inspired her.

Ifetayo currently lives in New York City.