(Image: Henry Cromett)
Age: 37
What does she do?
Why does she matter?
Day moved from Flagstaff, Ariz., to Oregon three years ago, and is a key player at Yerba Buena, a fast-growing farm in Hillsboro that received one of the state's first recreational licenses. The company is dedicated to supporting women and people of color in the cannabis industry and boasts one of the most diverse staffs in Oregon. Nearly half of its employees are women, and a little more than a quarter are people of color. In addition, they're growing some top-shelf bud. Yerba Buena is one of the only grows that meets the requirements to be both Certified Clean Green and Certified Kind, two stamps of approval for organic cannabis growers who can't use the term because it is governed by federal regulators. "We hand-trim always and hand-select every bud that goes on the shelf," Day says. "We ensure our flower when it's on the shelf is beautiful and smells good and feels good when you use it."
Favorite strain:
"I'm really enjoying the Blue Dragon Desert Frost. It's a high-CBD cultivar. It was a gift from a medical patient who loved this particular strain, and it helped her with her social anxiety. She tracked down one single seed and gifted it to me. It produced beautiful purple buds—just big purple baseball bats. It yields well, tastes like grapes, doesn't make me super-altered but maintains my level of creativity and focus while relieving my stress and anxiety. Running a cannabis company, I don't have time to be psychoactively altered."