Andrew Penn
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and Psychedelic Therapy Researcher, UCSF
UCSF psychiatric nurse practitioner and clinical researcher who has become a leading voice on integrating psilocybin therapy into clinical nursing and psychiatric practice.
Biography
Andrew Penn is a psychiatric nurse practitioner at UCSF and one of the most visible clinical voices in psychedelic therapy outside the physician community. Penn's significance lies partly in his discipline: as a nurse practitioner, he brings psychedelic-assisted therapy into a clinical workforce that will ultimately need to provide most of this care at scale, and he has been a consistent advocate for expanding psychedelic therapy training across nursing and advanced practice nursing programs.
At UCSF, Penn is involved in psychedelic research through the UCSF Psychedelics and Health Research Initiative (PHRI), one of the most active clinical research groups in the West Coast academic psychedelic space. He has served as a facilitator or co-investigator in psilocybin trials and has contributed to developing clinical protocols for psychedelic-assisted sessions in licensed settings.
Penn is also one of the most prolific public communicators in the clinical psychedelic space. He co-hosts 'The Psychiatry & Psychedelics Podcast' and writes regularly about the intersection of conventional psychiatric practice and emerging psychedelic therapies — covering topics from SSRI interactions to the training competencies facilitators need to work safely. His practitioner-level perspective fills a gap between academic research papers and lay-audience content.
Organizations
Why They Matter to the LearnShrooms Community
Penn represents the integration of psychedelic therapy into mainstream clinical psychiatric practice, particularly through the nursing and advanced practice nursing workforce. His UCSF affiliation and public communication make him a key bridge between research and clinical implementation.
Legal Context
For the legal landscape where Andrew Penn operates, see psilocybin laws in California.