Jackie is a San Diego-based journalist and the content strategist at San Diego Magazine and its agency, SDM Studios. Prior to that, she was the magazine’s managing editor. Her freelance work is concentrated on cannabis business and culture but also spans travel, food, wine, spirits, arts/culture and organized labor. She lives in San Diego with her family and also teaches in the Journalism and Media Studies department at San Diego State University.

Currently, she’s also the host of The Plant Lady, a podcast about cannabis culture on San Diego Magazine’s podcast network. In addition to her cannabis culture newsletter, Cannabitch, which was previously a weekly column in the now-defunct San Diego CityBeat, she has written about all aspects of the ongoing legalization and professionalization of cannabis industry and its culture for the New York Times, MJBizDaily, Voice of San Diego, San Francisco Chronicle, Leafly, California Leaf, Different Leaf, High Times, Sierra, Playboy, Cannabis Now, Healthline, Uproxx, SF Gate, Forbes and more. To see what she’s up to in real-time, click here (it’s much more up-to-date than this website ever will be). She’s also the co-host of SDM’s Happy Half Hour podcast.

Her work has been selected for inclusion in the Best American Travel Writing anthologies twice (2020, 2021) and was selected for honorable mention in the NYU American Journalism Online Awards in the “Best Solo Newsletter” category in 2022. Her work has won several San Diego Press Club and San Diego Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awards over the years. She was named the 2023 Benzinga Cannabis Lifestyle Reporter of the Year, as well as 2024 Journalist of the Year by the San Diego Writers Festival.

She’s been profiled a few times by other journalists, like in this San Diego Reader feature, this High Times article, another High Times piece about the time she successfully beat federal banking regulations in a free speech dispute, this Grasslands spotlight, this Riverside City College Viewpoints feature, and this Alfa Charlie series.

Jackie is a frequent panel speaker and moderator at various conferences and events, like at the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference (2022), Voice of San Diego’s Politifest, Trailblazers, Roth Capital’s Women in Cannabis conference, Coldwell Banker’s CBC Chatter: Cannabis & Commercial Real Estate, and many others. She has been asked to speak about her journalism by the Southern California Journalism Association of Community Colleges, Connecticut College’s alumni society, the San Diego Press Club, San Diego Travel Massive, The Farmers Cup, and other organizations; she has also appeared as a guest on many podcasts and has guest lectured at San Diego State University and the University of Nevada–Reno.

Her commentary and insight has been featured in/at: The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, CNN, GreenState, CBS 8, KPBS, PBS/NOVA, Good Beer Hunting and many more media outlets.

She has been qualified by a federal judge to give expert testimony on the cannabis plant and the cannabis industry in Southern California.

Previously, she was a restaurant reporter for Eater San Diego, a cannabis columnist for San Diego CityBeat, the San Diego reporter for Bisnow, the film festival reviewer for The San Diego Union-Tribune, a cocktail columnist at Ranch & Coast Magazine, the lifestyle editor at JustLuxe, and the editor of Luxury Living International.

Originally from Long Island, New York, she graduated from Connecticut College once upon a time, where she double-majored in U.S. government and new religious movements (otherwise known as cults). In previous lives, she earned her 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher certificate, used to hold a Series 7 license to sell securities, once lived in Hanoi and Barcelona and walked the Camino de Santiago by herself.

She’s also got a cute earrings collaboration with cannabis accessories brand, High on Plants.

Her work has appeared on the web and in print at The New York Times, Forbes, MJBizDaily, Voice of San Diego, Uproxx, Eater, New York, Cosmopolitan, Food & Wine, SF Gate, AFAR, Leafly, High Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Harper's Bazaar, Gear Patrol, California Leaf/Leaf Magazines, Cannabis Now, San Diego Magazine, Sierra, Playboy, Yoga Journal, Healthline, VICE, Travel + Leisure, WeedWeek, Glamour, Roads & Kingdoms, Different Leaf, Huff Post, The Independent, Mic, Private Clubs Magazine, Hemispheres, Atmos, Rhapsody, Robb Report, American Way, Edible San Diego, Well+Good, Wine Enthusiast, Green Market Report, KCET, Atlas Obscura, The Dales Report, Civil Eats, Sprudge Wine, New Worlder, Tasting Table, Explore Parts Unknown, Life & Thyme, Cowboys & Indians, The Infatuation, PROHBTD, Thrillist, Bisnow, USA Today, Marriott Traveler, Contract, Modern Luxury San Diego, Long Island PULSE, Modern Luxury Interiors California, Ranch & Coast Magazine, Pacific San Diego Magazine, and Salt & Wind, among others.

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