CannaBronx is a bold, multi-strategy vehicle that was founded to ensure that the communities most impacted by the war on drugs are at the forefront of realizing equity and truly benefit from this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape New York’s cannabis industry from the ground up.
We believe in a future where the very community members who have been most impacted by the criminalization of marijuana can heal from generations of trauma and be at the front of the line to build community wealth, economic and immigrant justice, health, and beyond.
our journey.
CannaBronx is the brainchild of Wanda Salaman, Executive Director of Mothers on the Move, a visionary leader in the Bronx for decades. For nearly a decade, Wanda has been working with leaders in the Bronx and beyond to advocate for the decriminalization of cannabis and envision a new future for community members who were incarcerated as part of the war on drugs, along with their families. Founded in 2022, CannaBronx has built a foundation of partnerships with the local community, cannabis industry, government agencies, regulators, academic institutions, philanthropy, and activists across social justice issues to develop real-world transformation for our beloved Bronx.
Kavita Pawria-Sanchez
was the founding CEO of CannaBronx and a civil rights attorney with 30 years of experience as a community organizer, government leader and social justice consultant. Kavita has designed and implemented over $100M in social equity programs serving New Yorkers. Kavita studied public policy at Cornell University and human rights law at CUNY Law School.
Wanda Salaman
has been the Executive Director of Mothers on the Move since 2002 and has been organizing with low-income tenants and marginalized youth and undocumented women in the South Bronx for 3 decades. An Afro-Boricua powerhouse, Wanda hails from Puerto Rico, arriving in the US when the Bronx was burning in the 70s where she started organizing the girls on her block to clean up an abandoned lot to form the neighborhood’s first girls’ baseball team. Wanda is passionate about developing leadership among people of color at the intersection of education, environment, housing and economic justice.
Rose DeStefano
is a social worker with an MBA in Sustainable Business, driving systems change in the Bronx. She has over 20 years of experience organizing and working with the community to support greater economic mobility. She’s also a grower, lover of plants and generational wealth-building models.
Simran Noor
is a strategist and embodied leadership coach deeply committed to transformation and values alignment. She brings over 2 decades of experience working directly with and in community, in and on policy and advocacy with a racial justice lens and as staff within the philanthropic sector.
Taleigh Smith
is a strategic planner, grant writer and environmental consultant with over twenty years of experience in the non-profit sector, including shaping international climate change policy and negotiating with developers to integrate environmental standards, local hiring and opportunities for youth. She launched the Bronx Green Contractor Association and the Bronx Youth Green Jobs Academy, promoting environmental literacy, climate science and renewable energy.
Photo Credit: Eddie Garcia Conde
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