Allison Justice
When OutCo executives began mapping out the future of their company, they wanted to look beyond the common methods, techniques and faces that were staples within the cannabis community.
Bucking the conventional wisdom of needing a “master grower” with years of experience growing cannabis, the company hired Allison Justice as vice president of cultivation.
Justice didn’t have much cannabis experience, but she has a Ph.D. in plant and environmental science from Clemson University, where her dissertation investigated the effects of a beneficial mycorrhizal-type organism and showed that organic, sustainable growing can be easy and cost-effective when done properly. After graduation, she started a business teaching commercial greenhouse operators how to breed their own nematodes for pest control.
Justice joined OutCo as the company was transitioning from indoor cultivation to a 105,000-square-foot hybrid greenhouse in San Diego County. She was instrumental in designing the production facility, as well as ushering in a more science-based methodology for growing cannabis.
“It’s so much like growing poinsettias or tomatoes, and much of my work has been with poinsettias,” Justice says.