“Her mission is to integrate healing paradigms, in service to our collective thriving.”
Melissa Stangl holds a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. After several years conducting brain and lung cancer research and gaining managerial experience across a wide range of businesses, her path and personal journey led her toward the healing power and responsible use of plant medicines and psychedelics, and working with the wisdom traditions and cultures that steward them.
In 2015, she consciously chose to leave corporate America to live and work in the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous Peruvian Shipibo communities along the Ucayali River. Melissa has since used her background in engineering, science, and management to help advance the plant medicine and psychedelic movements – first by managing a top-rated Ayahuasca center in Peru, and since 2018, as Founding Partner and COO for Soltara Healing Center, working with Shipibo healers in Costa Rica, with a focus on preparation, integration, reciprocity, and community. She is also co-founder of a national alliance of Ayahuasca centers in Costa Rica to implement frameworks for ethical standards, ecological stewardship, reciprocity, scientific research, and harm reduction. Through Soltara, she co-developed a conscious community platform centered around holistic healing and plant medicines.
Melissa serves on the Advisory Board of the Civic Courage Lab, and collaborates with multiple organizations in the field, including the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, Thank You Life, the Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative, Imperial College, Johns Hopkins, the Amazon Rainforest Conservancy, VETS Inc, and others. She has completed projects in this realm including coordinating scientific studies, raising over $60,000 to support Shipibo families and Shipibo-led initiatives, developing educational content and resources, helping raise over $12,000 to fund solar panel installations for the Amazon village of Libertad, and co-producing the documentary Ayahuasca Now, about war veterans with PTSD and their healing journey with Ayahuasca. Having lived in Peru and now Costa Rica, she has also deepened her work with the plants through several master plant dietas.
Melissa is passionate about using her technical, managerial, and problem-solving skills to help bridge the gap between the Western world and the incredible healing potential of plant medicines, their traditions, and a holistic approach to health.
She is honored to be a part of Soltara and working with such a high-quality team that understands the importance and sacredness of this work. Her ethos is one of authenticity, professionalism, respect for tradition, reciprocity, and high-quality service. These mutual tenets are the team’s vision for Soltara as a whole, and she is grateful to take part in creating a space that is a strong conduit for healing, sustainability, and knowledge, empowering each guest to become global beacons for positive change.