Dawn-Marie Steenstra LPN, SDC, IC, QA, SCC

Dawn-Marie Steenstra has always been a passionate patient advocate. At the age of 21, she opened an assisted living facility and spent 21 years caring for elderly, primarily deinstitutionalized psychiatric patients. She worked with Maryland state regulators during the crafting of the state’s original assisted living regulations and was the ONLY Licensed Practical Nurse in the State permitted to oversee her own facility as a Designating Nurse. Since 1996, she has also specialized in staff development, quality assurance, infection control, gerontology, hospice, and palliative care.

She completed her first Certification in  Cannabis Competency in  Nursing  Practice in  2012 through The Cannabis Training Institute and has actively been a liaison for  Americans for Safe  Access’s  “Patient  Focused  Certification”  that was adopted by Maryland’s Commission as a model for compliance and best practices for our program.  She completed the  ASA  training course for  Washington  DC  dispensary owners and Patient Focused Certification modules in testing and dispensary operations. She also has completed competencies from the American Cannabis Nurses Association in “Cannabinoid Therapeutics in Nursing Practice “and United Patients Group” Cannabis-Pharmacology & Toxicology” most recently.

In fact,  Dawn-Marie was an original board member of the  American  Cannabis  Nurses Association from 2012-2015, a founding member of The Cannabis Nurses Network and Speakers Bureau, and is currently  National  Ambassador for  “United  Patients  Group”,  the nation’s leading cannabis patient resource organization. In 2018, she was privileged to co-produce “The Sacred Plant” docuseries Season 2 with John Malanca, founder of United Patients Group.

Since its very inception, she has worked diligently with members of the Maryland Natalie LaPrade Medical Cannabis Commission in education and bringing top medical conferences to Baltimore to train physicians and pharmacists in cannabinoid therapeutics. She worked tirelessly to have Cannabis Nurses recognized for their unique qualifications as Clinical Directors of Dispensaries and was honored to be the very FIRST Cannabis Nurse approved in the State of Maryland along with 8 others to do so, alongside physicians and pharmacists! She is now CEO of Entourage Consulting Services overseeing multiple dispensaries in staff education and patient navigation with comorbid conditions and polypharmacy in their unique journeys.

Her vision is that nurses have a unique place in cannabinoid therapeutics to assist in the development of best practices, quality assurance, and continuity in processing medicines for patients. Dawn-Marie’s motto is: “Every patient Nature’s Healing Touch.”