Staff Profile: Rob Williams

Rob Williams has joined Heady Vermont as our Editor and voice behind the CannaCurious column – an exploration for anyone interested in learning more about the history, politics, culture and the many applications of hemp and cannabis, both here in Vermont and globally.

Rob is a Vermont-based musician, historian, consultant, journalist and media educator/maker who teaches F2F, global studies, media and communications courses at Champlain College and the University of Vermont, and leads student travel trips to China, the Middle East and other distant lands.

We in Vermont have an opportunity to get our relationship to cannabis right. A phased-in, legislated approach to a legalized, taxed, and regulated cannabis economy is a far better option for the health and safety of Vermonters, as well as the economic vitality of Vermont, than the continuation of a failed prohibition model, especially as Canada and many of our neighboring states look to legalize in the very near future.

The founding president of the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME), Rob focuses with his students on media education approaches and tools, and employs hands-on learning in his classes, with an emphasis on “blogocentric pedagogy” and use of social media platforms like Blogger, Twitter and YouTube to create class conversations and produce collaborative work, and to encourage students to find their individual voices in the emerging world of digital media convergence.

Outside of Champlain, Rob serves as publisher of Vermont Commons: Voices of Independence newspaper; co-manages Vermont Yak Company in Vermont’s Mad River Valley, a farm business raising grass-fed yaks for meat and agritourism; and performs pherocious pholk phunk music in the Phineas Gage Project.

Rob’s Interest in cannabis:

“I have never used cannabis, and don’t plan to in the future, but after 18 months of sustained study and conversation with Vermonters all over our state about cannabis, I am a firm supporter of a phased in, thoughtful legislative approach to cannabis legalization – the creation of a taxed, regulated, legalized cannabis economy.

We in Vermont have an opportunity to get our relationship to cannabis right. A phased-in, legislated approach to a legalized, taxed, and regulated cannabis economy is a far better option for the health and safety of Vermonters, as well as the economic vitality of Vermont, than the continuation of a failed prohibition model, especially as Canada and many of our neighboring states look to legalize in the very near future.”