Women to Watch: Elle Hinnah
Elle Hinnah has spent more than 16 years helping people thrive in the workplace. A lifelong cannabis advocate, single mother, and spiritual practitioner, Hinnah has built her career on empathy, integrity, and a deep connection to the plant.
She grew up in Missouri and began using cannabis as a teenager to treat the chronic pain that came with Endometriosis and PCOS. After years of ineffective treatment, Hinnah found real relief through plant medicine. Today, she is a licensed personal medical cultivator and grows cannabis alongside her father, who she credits as an early role model.
Professionally, Hinnah entered the cannabis industry four years ago. She helped get Glaze cultivation up and running, served as head of HR at CLOVR, and now serves as Director of Human Resources – Retail for Good Day Farm. Since joining the company, she has been promoted twice and now leads HR operations for retail employees across the state.
“I’m so fortunate and thankful to work with and for so many AMAZING people,” Hinnah said. “This company prioritizes their people. We offer immense amounts of professional development opportunities. We listen. We make conscious changes based on the feedback we receive from our people.”
Her path is personal, her purpose is people, and her passion is cannabis. We caught up with Elle for a deeper look into her story, her role, and her outlook.
How did you get into cannabis?
“I’ve been around cannabis my whole life. In my childhood, I grew up with a mom that suffered from alcoholism and struggled to be a healthy/functional parent. My dad only utilized cannabis and was an amazing parent and role model. Seeing that stark side-by-side comparison, and witnessing my dad’s ability to utilize this plant in a way that was beneficial to him, allowing him to show up as a loving, healthy, present, and functional parent, was incredibly impactful in my developmental years.
“I personally started utilizing cannabis pretty early on (at age 17) to help manage chronic pain from an Endometriosis and PCOS diagnosis. I would be curled up in excruciating pain 3 weeks out of a month. My pain flare-ups would be so intense it wasn’t uncommon for me to pass out/ lose consciousness due to the severe levels of pain I was experiencing. I was essentially incapacitated and unfunctional in most aspects of life. No ‘modern medicine’ or procedures proved to be beneficial or provide any type of relief, despite years of trying everything Dr’s recommended. But with the use of cannabis and a couple of other naturopathic remedies and practices, I have completely ‘healed’ both diagnosis and no longer show symptoms of either condition. My dad and I are now licensed personal medical cultivators, and we grow together.
“Being so personally passionate about cannabis made it an easy choice to decide to pursue a career in this industry. I started working in the industry 4 years ago, when Missouri was just medical – I helped get Glaze cultivation up and running. For someone that’s passionate about the plant, working in a commercial cultivation was epic and I truly miss being surrounded by that many plants on a daily basis, but other opportunities beckoned and I don’t regret the path I’ve chosen. After that, I was the head of HR for CLOVR for a bit of time before eventually making my home here at Good Day Farm, where I foresee myself devoting many years of service to the growth and development of the amazing people here.”
Tell me about your role at the company.
“I started with the company a year ago as a SR HR Generalist on the retail side- I was mostly employee facing then, traveling to different retail locations to assist in employee related matters in a specific region of the state (leave, benefits, offering resources to help navigate life’s challenges, etc). Since then, I’ve been promoted twice, once to HR Manager – Retail, and again recently to the Director of HR – Retail (for the state of Missouri.) Now my role focuses on supporting the rest of SR HR Generalists on the retail side to serve the employees and operations leaders we have in whatever ways that requires.”
What does your role entail?
“My best friend affectionately refers to my role as ‘priestessing in the corporate trenches’ as we’re constantly meeting people in whatever challenge is present for them and helping guide them through it as efficiently, consciously, and healthily as possible. It’s an art of being able to communicate in whatever way will reach people in whatever space they’re in. HR is a unique role in which we wear many hats to do the job we do, as we meet many people in varied ways across this human experience. It also requires us to be ethical, accountable, organized, and the ability to remain calm in highly stressful situations. We help guide leaders in navigating hard conversations and situations with empathy and respect, while also ensuring we hold the vision of what’s best for the collective at the forefront of our actions and decisions.”
What makes your company special?
“We’re dedicated to investing in our amazing people. We foster an environment of collaboration, where team members can provide suggestions on how to address challenges and devise solutions to those challenges together. I love the immense amounts of professional development/ training opportunities we offer. I love that our leadership takes pride in supporting the development of their team members along their career paths. And with being a large company with a wide reach, we can offer a lot of growth opportunities to the team members that want them. I’m a great example of this, with being given development opportunities and promoted twice within my first year here. We also offer great resources and benefits to help our employees thrive. The employee relations groups we partner with to foster a sense of inclusivity and belonging for our folks, like WOW, BOLD, and Pride, are some of my favorite benefits I’ve seen offered from this company.”
Can you talk about the general industry obstacles or hurdles you and or your company have faced?
“I think with navigating in an industry that is still forming the legislative landscape in which we operate within will always present challenges. Rulings from the state can change rather quickly and getting an employee population this large to pivot that quickly will pose challenges. The recent DCR changes regarding fingerprinting have been interesting and challenging to help employees navigate; a lack of communication from the state to employers, missed communications from the state to employees directly, and the company trying to help bridge those communication gaps to help avoid having employees’ agent licenses revoked has been a unique challenge. I’m so thankful for a robust team that has pulled resources together to collaborate on a solution for navigating this change.”
Why cannabis?
“I sort of answered this in my last response, but Cannabis has been a lifelong passion of mine. It has shaped and impacted my life in the most positive ways and I want to be a voice that helps remove the stereotypes and stigma around this plant and this industry. Working in this industry and working towards a mission that I’m personally passionate about helps me weather the stressful and challenging moments, because working towards this mission makes all of the strife worth it. I get to work with like-minded people, which is the best – I can always find common ground with those I work with!”
What’s your favorite way to consume?
“I’m old school and simple. I’m a ‘flower in glass’ kinda girl because I love to be able to taste a good terp profile.”
What’s your favorite cultivar?
“My old school favorite from back in the day is Sour Diesel. My favorite from my days working at Glaze is Tropicana Cherry. My current favorite that I love personally cultivating and smoking is Ayahuasca Purple – it’s not super common in this state, but I love it for its meditative and insightful qualities.”
What is it like being a woman in your field?
“I feel like my experience in this industry as a woman has been like my experience in any other industry as a woman – it is what we make of it, and that looks unique to each woman. There are data driven studies that women generally make less money than men in equivalent roles because women are generally less inclined to ask for what they want than men are, so the key to women having equality in workplaces lies within their ability to speak up for what they want. For the ladies reading this (working in any industry) – work hard, focus on driving actions that have measurable results/ impacts, be outspoken in asking for what you want, and bring the data/results to back up what you’re asking for, and (most importantly) never be afraid to walk away from an environment that doesn’t align with your values and goals.”
What, if any, challenges have you faced that you feel men in the industry don’t generally deal with?
“I’m really fortunate to have worked for 3 different cannabis companies in this state that have valued the expertise I bring to the table, and I haven’t felt constrained by my gender in any of them – so I personally haven’t felt this gender division in this industry, in this state. But my simple advice to any ladies that may be feeling that division in their company – leave. There are so many amazing companies in this industry, in this state, that will listen to you and value your unique contribution; don’t waste your time on a company that participates in expanding the division between genders. I think my lack of experience with this type of division is simply a result of not tolerating that to be my reality – I’m not afraid to leave environments, relationships, cultures, or spaces that don’t align with me or my value system. And I hope everyone reading this finds the courage to unapologetically live and move in a similarly authentic way.”
What are you passionate about?
“Cannabis! Expanding legal access to all varieties of plant medicine through activism and advocacy efforts. Being benevolently impactful to the human collective by sharing my plethora of knowledge pertaining to natural remedies and practices for healing the mind and body. Plants > Pills.”
Where do you find inspiration?
“Through the people I work with, being of service to them. And by being an example of what it looks like to be a thriving professional while living unapologetically, authentically, and utilizing cannabis daily to help eliminate the stigma surrounding this plant and industry.”
What motivates you?
“My greatest motivation is to always be benevolently impactful in any environment I’m in. I love to be of service, at work, and in my personal life outside of work – I find an immense amount of joy in serving the growth and expansion of the human collective.”
What do you consider your greatest professional accomplishment?
“Working with the team to get the recreational use ballot initiative (Amendment 3) passed in 2022. I was a part of this group through the company I worked for at the time. We were literally able to change history, and the legislative landscape in which this industry operates in, in a huge way through the collective effort of that group. Not only did this expand access of this wonderful plant to a greater population of Missouri citizens, but it also passed much-needed protection for medical cardholders as well. Companies can no longer hold medical cannabis use against job candidates in pre-employment drug screens. And parents that hold medical cards in this state have protection for those rights in family court and that’s something I’m deeply personally passionate about it.”
What advice or encouragement would you give to other women in the cannabis industry?
“Tenacity, perseverance, grit, integrity, and passion. This is the recipe for success in this industry. Take it one day at a time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Not every day is going to be easy – there will be incredibly hard moments that make you question your decision to join this path – but let your passion for this plant, and serving people that share in that passion, be what carries you through the challenging moments.”
