Genine Coleman
Executive Director
Origins Counsel
Genine Coleman is the Founder and Executive Director of Origins Council, a nonprofit education, research and policy advocacy organization. Origins Council is dedicated to sustainable rural economic development within legacy cannabis producing regions and establishing nationally and internationally recognized, legally defensible, standards-based, geographic indication systems for cannabis. Genine lives in Mendocino County and has over 20 years of cannabis cultivation experience. In 2012, she stopped cultivating cannabis to take up cannabis patient and policy advocacy. She is the co-founder of the Mendocino Appellations Project, which is now a regionally sponsored project of Origins Council, and serves on the Board of Directors for the 420 Archive which is devoted to collecting, preserving and sharing the history of cannabis culture and prohibition in the United States. Genine is also a founding board member of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, formed in 2019. From 2017 – 2020, she served on the Board of Directors of the California Growers Association. Genine has a background in fine art, marketing, communications and education. She has studied traditional arts from around the world including Ancestral Earth Skills, West African and Zimbabwean music, Internal Chinese Martial Arts and Kriya Yoga.