Rick Doblin

Doblin obtained a psychology degree from New College of Florida in 1987 and earned a doctorate in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in 2001. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner.

Doblin is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a non-profit research organization established in 1986.

He co-founded Earth Metabolic Design Laboratories in 1984 to support psychedelic research and Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in 1986 with the goal of making MDMA an FDA-approved medicine.

From 1975 until 1982, Doblin owned and operated a company called Braxas Construction, located in the Sarasota, Florida area, which specialized in relocating houses. He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master's thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. He currently resides in Boston with his wife and three children.

Richard "Rick" Doblin (born November 30, 1953) is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

Born in 1953, Doblin grew up in a Conservative Jewish family in suburban Chicago.