Shannon Donnelly, Professor of Cannabis Hospitality at MSU Denver – Interview Series

One of the largest ancillary markets created by adult-use cannabis legalization—and the industry’s subsequent boom—is cannabis tourism. Across state markets and quiet corners of America, tailored excursions and activities center around cannabis cultivation, education, and conscious consumption. What was once a niche cottage industry has expanded so rapidly that universities, including Metropolitan State University of Denver, now offer dedicated courses in the field.

To explore the surge in cannabis tourism and the academic programs emerging alongside it, mycannabis.com spoke with Shannon Donnelly, Professor of Cannabis Hospitality at MSU Denver.

What were the most interesting courses you took while earning your bachelor’s at Metropolitan State University? With climate change being such a pertinent issue now, what were the most relevant topics you studied as part of that degree plan?

My favorite course was a whole class on lakes. Limnology! I was getting my Bachelor of Science in Land Use with a Resource concentration, and I was a climate champion while I was in school, focused on things like co-generation and turning trash into power. I was really into meteorology, fog especially, and then finally Environmental Injustice, which resonates with the work I do today.

What is relevant now is actually that I am a Town Trustee in Lochbuie. Working with a municipal government comes with a whole different set of land use issues and water rights issues, and I have to say, I did ace my 4000 level water class. So I am grateful for the time I had at MSU Denver as a student. I worked hard to get the most out of it, and when I graduated I had the tough decision of do I continue on in cannabis or go work in environmental science. I chose cannabis, for many reasons, and I am glad I did. I love how my path has brought me right back to land use.

When did you first enter the cannabis industry? What roles did you hold, and how did your studies at MSU become relevant and helpful throughout your roles?

I started in the regulated market in Colorado in 2007, making edibles for a dispensary, and all through college I worked at different dispensaries. I worked at Wanda James’ first dispensary, and then became General Manager of a shop that actually got shut down during the federal government’s crackdown on Colorado dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools.

Unfortunately, at the time my studies were not that relevant, outside of me asking the growers who sold to the dispensaries about the soil they were growing in.( Back then you could still purchase from caregiver). What college did let me do was start building community around a shared love of cannabis. I am still friends with the folks I started smoking with in college. That community let me get entrepreneurial outside of cannabis too, which was great, because all the friends I made in college then showed up to my fashion shows and kickball games, and that drove sales right back to the dispensaries I was working at. College taught me I have a real knack for talking to folks, getting to know them quickly, and communicating between different groups of people. That became a skill set I still use to this day.

Also, I am a total weather nerd and I did my internship at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. Let me know if you ever want to go.

As a dispensary consultant, what issues did your clients most often face? Especially during the first few years of the Colorado cannabis industry’s existence, how widespread were those issues?

I was a general manager and budtender from 2008 to 2013, and during that time I got to experiment with my own cannabis use and work with over 30,000 medical patients. Everyone is stressed, and nobody realizes cannabis is the coping mechanism they are using for their stressful life. And dang, this was before the 2016 election.

Then from 2014 and to now, my clients have had similar issues. Front line workers drive your business, your sales, and your compliance, and they are usually the lowest paid people on your org chart. I have seen theft and mismanagement of product in almost every single case, from the beginning of my management days all the way through a call I took yesterday. We need folks to realize the license must be protected at all costs, and then we put it in the hands of someone who does not really care what you have to say, or maybe did not even get to eat dinner last night.This is why i always ensure for liveable wages and record sealing and training for front line cannabis workers. This can really have a dramatic effect on your business and top and bottom lines. 

What continues to amaze me, and it is great for my business, is that both seasoned operators and brand new folks come to me after other consultants have not delivered, or when they are finally ready to take a really long look at their business. Both want the same thing, a place in the Colorado market, and I am happy to help. In all this time I have never done a bit of marketing as a consultant; everything is word of mouth. Twelve plus years and still up and running.

What all went into ensuring the launches of ioVia, Verra, and Whoopi & Maya were all well received by the Colorado cannabis industry and consumers? How did you effectively connect with customers throughout all those brands?

Running RMZ was a blast, and consumer education was a huge part of it. For Verra we were selling nasal sprays. At Whoopi & Maya it was period products. And ioVia was a name nobody could say and a cream that could get you high. So education was key. One thing I loved at RMZ was creating the budtender training for each of the products, creating connections between direct sales, budtender trainings, incentives and in-store experience.. That ended up driving me even further into teaching and set me up for my work at MSU Denver. All three were received really well by the market, consumers bought them, but each one hit its own wall. Verra’s nasal spray was stopped in its tracks by CDPHE, Whoopi & Maya had packaging issues, and ioVia had dosing issues. Great brands, real need for continual touch points to be well received.

How did you use your direct experience in the Colorado industry, and your consulting experience in that same industry, in your role as Cannabis Process Navigator for the City and County of Denver? What were some professional and personal highlights you have from that role?

My experience and I are one, so every single project and conversation I had at the City of Denver came with my operations experience. I feel like this role was truly a guide on how to support social equity operators and licensed businesses. I was able to bring that experience into rooms at the city with people who looked at operators negatively, and I could break down walls, answer questions, and give clarity when it was needed.

One of my favorite highlights was throwing what I know of as the FIRST legal poly-consumption government event, probably ever! We had an open bar and a legal consumption bus at the launch of the Cannabis Cares program. Cannabis Cares is another highlight from my time at the city, along with the 21 social equity businesses I was able to license while I was there.

And the personal highlight is one I still cannot believe happened. I got to go to Spannabis in Barcelona as a City of Denver employee and learn about the underground consumption lounges there. I was hanging out with the coolest folks from around the world who understand social equity and are focused on how we move community spaces forward. A government employee learning from the underground. I am so grateful the city let me do that.

What interested you about taking the role as Professor of Cannabis Hospitality at your alma mater? How did you hope to use your years of industry experience to teach future industry professionals and those interested in cannabis hospitality?

I grew up making margaritas and serving tables at my mom’s restaurant. That gave me the working bug, and I took it with me into cannabis and then to MSU Denver. I remember walking through the halls as a freshman at MSU Denver thinking, maybe I could teach a cannabis class here one day, having no idea that could ever happen. But I manifested it.

The thing about my work at MSU Denver and my work in the industry is they are very similar, because I have always mentored folks and helped them see the best in themselves. That is exactly what I am doing at MSU Denver. Just today I met with a student who moved to Denver from New Orleans to learn about cannabis, and within an hour I had a job for him at a dispensary. I did the same thing in the industry, helping folks up-level in their current jobs. Seeing the best in people is a skill of mine, and being a professor lets me use it every day.

Hospitality is where our cannabis curriculum lives because it lets us cover the business side, the entire supply chain, and end with responsible sale and consumption. So students do not only have to be interested in the consumption businesses, they get the business as a whole. I hope students leave with a really well rounded understanding of the cannabis industry and can see their ability to impact it, and people’s lives, just by working one on one with folks in customer service. And I hope they see the light I see in them. We are all special and we all bring unique knowledge and skill to this ever growing industry.

What are some useful courses in the Cannabis Hospitality certificate program? How does the curriculum of those courses draw directly from the Colorado cannabis industry experience of both yourself and other esteemed industry professionals as well?

We have four different cannabis courses, and I teach Cannabis 101 and Cannabis in the Kitchen, both for credit and non-credit. This semester I have 32 MSU Denver students, and anyone from around the world can take my non-credit course. Both classes have at least 10 executives from the cannabis space giving feedback throughout the course, so that is one way real experience gets built in. My international knowledge of cannabis supply chains and products is also always a delight to share with students, like which products are different in different parts of the world. And one big part of Cannabis in the Kitchen uses recipes I worked with inside different manufacturing facilities. Topicals and tinctures, as well as pastry creams and infused chocolates.

On the legal and regulatory side of the program, what compliance-related topics are commonly discussed? How has the subject matter of that course changed as Colorado cannabis regulations themselves were changed or otherwise amended?

Jordan Wellington now teaches our Cannabis Laws and Regulations course, which has been great for the program as a whole. We cover compliance topics like employment law, product tracking, and compliance basics, but what students really get is a unique understanding of how to interpret regulations and how to be part of the rulemaking and stakeholder process. We run Cannabis Laws and Regulations in the fall on purpose, so students can actually take part in the MED rulemaking process and watch how laws get changed and implemented in real time. Pretty cool, I would say.

We also dig into the hospitality laws specifically in Denver. How could you create a cannabis restaurant, or even a cannabis wedding venue or an infused pastry company? Students create CBD infused dishes and learn infusion math, SOPs, and testing standards.

What are some very beneficial examples of hands-on learning experiences that students can have from the Cannabis Hospitality program? Where are some worthwhile cannabis-centric field trips that the classes take throughout the program?

We take students to different licensed locations grow, manufacturing and store, and we get there on a licensed consumption bus, which is part of the lesson because the bus itself is a licensed hospitality business. We have done Med Pharm and The Social Cannabis, so students see a real grow, a real dispensary, and a real consumption space and can ask the owners anything.

Beyond field trips, students attend our Cannabis Advisory Board meetings with 20-plus companies in the room, get free tickets to industry events like IgniteIt, and have access to internships and job placements. We also host on-site events like our Green Frontier conference, which is coming back in April 2027.

For those interested in becoming edible chefs/producers, what are some vital lessons they would learn in the Cannabis in the Kitchen course? How are the many types of cannabis edible products (gummies, chocolates, hard candies, troches and tinctures) included in the course material?

Math, math, math. There is unfortunately so much more math in Cannabis in the Kitchen than you would ever imagine, and students do not love that part of the class. Batch dosing versus serving size, homogeneity of your infusions, and the density of your oils. Students learn the basics, gummies, chocolates, hard candies, troches, and tinctures, but we go above and beyond that.

The class is 16 weeks long so we cover a lot. We start with infusions and then move into terpene infused appetizers, like a pumpkin soup with a pinene pepita seed topper, or “Grape 3 Ways,” which is infused sugar spun into cotton candy, infused frozen sweet and sour grapes, and Kool-Aid. We focus on recipe development, and on how to work with the bitterness from isolates or the earthy taste of cannabis flower. We want to use terpenes in all different ways. Students walk away with a brand new toolkit of cannabis techniques.

What inspired you to create New Lavender? What gaps in education and services for cannabis brands and professionals did you hope to fill with the company?

I have been saying I want to be the Oprah of the cannabis industry since I was 18. That was because I loved to talk about cannabis. Heck, an ex’s mom once said it is all I talk about. The New Lavender fills what I think is a real gap, which is consumer story driven education. Brands cannot legally say what their product does medically, but the folks who use those products can, and they want a way to tell people who are suffering the same way they were. I want cannabis education to be relatable and real. That is the gap I am here to fill.

From your own experience with the organization, why is the work of Expunge Colorado so meaningful? How does the organization do great work in attempting to right the many wrongs of previous drug policies?

My first experience with Expunge Colorado was working intake at a clinic. My whole job was to hear how a record had impacted someone’s life, and gosh darn it, that was eye opening. I knew it was hard to get a job with a record, but every other part of your life is impacted too. We are the only nonprofit in Colorado focused on record sealing within Colorado. We have an amazing Executive Director, Melanie Rose Rodgers, who is so community minded, and she has built great programming to connect more clients with records to attorneys. Where in the past we sealed 25 records a year, we are moving to 25 a quarter. It changes folks’ lives.

How do you envision the Cannabis Hospitality program at MSU Denver expanding in the future? What are some extra relevant topics in the Colorado cannabis industry that you think need to be discussed as part of the program?

Between you and me and the readers, I would love to see us keep changing the stigma around cannabis in higher education. These next few are my own dreams, not anything the school has approved yet, but I will share them anyway. A possible Europe study abroad so students can learn community minded and harm reduction strategies from emerging markets. Or being the first school to partner with an on-campus consumption lounge and restaurant maybe called Wakin Bakin. Again, these are my ideas, but they are ways to keep pushing in-person education opportunities and continue the traditions of the MSU Denver School of Hospitality with partnerships and workforce development.

What I know for sure is we will have our Green Frontier conference in April, a few scholarships for justice impacted students, and more opportunities with our amazing Cannabis Advisory Board. The industry needs to keep investing in its employees with education and MSU Denver is here to help with that.

Thank you for joining us, Shannon! For more information on MSU Denver’s cannabis hospitality programs, please visit its website. For more information on The New Lavender, please visit its website.