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Medical cannabis patients and caregivers experience the consequences of laws, healthcare policies, product standards, and regulatory decisions long before those consequences are visible on paper. The Patient Voice Award recognizes individuals who make sure those experiences are heard and carried into the places where change can happen.

This year’s nominees include patients, healthcare professionals, educators, advocates, and policy leaders who have helped bring patient concerns into hospitals, state agencies, legislative hearings, research projects, classrooms, professional education, and community conversations. Some draw from their own experience with medical cannabis. Others have built their work around listening to patients, supporting them, and making sure their needs are represented in systems that too often make decisions without them.

The 2026 nominees are Shonda Broom, RN, CLNC; Angela S. Weston, MS, MBA, MCST; Clifton Otto, MD; Jan Morton; Nyomi Barrick Womack, MS; Stephanie Davis; and Michelle Zang, BSN, RN.

Learn more about the Patient Voice Award!

Shonda Broom, RN, CLNC

Shonda Broom, RN, CLNC, has built her advocacy around a powerful idea: patients deserve healthcare environments where medical cannabis can be discussed through evidence, education, and open dialogue rather than stigma. As a nurse, educator, advocate, and founder of Coram Deo Holistic Center, she brings patient needs into healthcare, family education, and policy conversations where they can influence what happens next.

“I am deeply honored to be recognized by Americans for Safe Access as a nominee for the 2026 Patient Voice Award. For me, cannabis safety has never been about choosing between access and caution. It is about creating a healthcare culture where patients can have honest, informed conversations about cannabis without stigma, while ensuring that education, harm reduction, responsible policy, and patient safety remain at the center. As a nurse and patient advocate, I believe patients deserve both access and protection, and I am grateful to have this work recognized.”

Angela S. Weston, MS, MBA, MCST

Angela S. Weston has turned her experience as a medical cannabis patient into education, coalition building, research participation, and policy advocacy through the Georgia Medical Cannabis Society. She brings the patient perspective into classrooms, healthcare conversations, legislative hearings, and research forums so decisions about medical cannabis are informed by the people living with those decisions.

Clifton Otto, MD

For more than a decade, Clifton Otto, MD, has worked to keep the consequences of cannabis policy for patients in front of state and federal decision makers. His advocacy has focused on patient access, federal barriers, and the practical problems created when medical cannabis patients are caught between state programs and federal law.

Jan Morton

Jan Morton has ensured patients and caregivers are not simply subjects of cannabis research, education, and policy conversations, but active participants. Through direct support, community partnerships, research participation, and advocacy, she helps people turn lived experience into a stronger voice for safer and more meaningful access.

“I’m incredibly honored to be recognized for work that is so personal to me. I believe patients and caregivers deserve not only trustworthy cannabis education and practical support, but a meaningful voice in the conversations and decisions that affect them. Helping people feel informed, heard, respected, and empowered to advocate for themselves is at the heart of the work I do.”

Nyomi Barrick-Womack, MS

Nyomi Barrick-Womack, MS, brings an unusually broad view of the patient experience to cannabis regulation, shaped by experience in cultivation, dispensary service, education, and regulatory implementation. That perspective keeps the people navigating Oklahoma’s medical cannabis program visible inside the systems responsible for regulating it.

“I accept this nomination with deep gratitude. Over the past six years, I have committed myself to the patient experience from every angle—working hands-on in cannabis cultivation, serving patients directly behind the dispensary counter, engaging in academia as both a student and professor, and navigating the challenges of regulatory implementation. Each distinct perspective informs how I approach today’s regulatory and patient-care realities. Whenever bureaucracy creates obstacles, I am grounded by my core purpose: putting the patient first.”

Stephanie Davis

Stephanie Davis brings patient advocacy and regulatory compliance together, using what she has learned inside cannabis programs to identify the gaps patients can fall through. Her advocacy has included expanding patient eligibility, examining testing and labeling problems, participating in regulatory review, and giving policymakers practical information about how rules affect people at the dispensary counter.

“Every rule I work on comes back to one person: the patient at a dispensary counter, trusting that the medicine in their hand is safe, accurately tested, and honestly labeled.”

Michelle Zang, BSN, RN

Michelle Zang, BSN, RN, is helping bring cannabis care into nursing practice through case management, patient education, harm reduction, and care coordination. Her approach encourages healthcare professionals to understand why a patient is using cannabis, how it fits into the rest of their care, and what support can make that care safer.

“Patient safety is a priority in nursing care. It does not end with cannabis patients; rather, it needs to be recognized and amplified. I am grateful to Americans for Safe Access for this recognition.”

Keeping Patients in the Conversation

No single path elevates patient voice. It can mean speaking from lived experience, helping patients understand their rights, carrying their concerns into a legislative hearing, training healthcare professionals to listen differently, improving regulatory systems, or making sure research includes the people most affected by the questions being asked.

What connects these nominees is their commitment to keeping patients visible in decisions about medical cannabis. They help translate patient experience into better education, stronger advocacy, more informed policy, and practical improvements in care and access.

The Patient Voice Award honors people who make sure decisions affecting medical cannabis patients are not made without hearing from the people those decisions will affect.

Meet the nominees, read their stories, and cast your vote for the 2026 Patient Voice Award through October 25. 

Meet the Patient Voice Award Nominees!