Jushi Holdings Inc. Joins Green Flower's New GF Institute to Promote and Establish Cannabis Credential Program

VENTURA, Calif. and BOCA RATON, Fla., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Flower announced Jushi Holdings Inc.  ("Jushi") (CSE: JUSH) (OTCQX: JUSHF) and Nichole Upshaw, Jushi's Executive Vice President of Human Resources are joining GF Institute ("GFI") as Founding Members of the Inaugural Steering Committee advisory group.

Founded to promote industry-approved and adopted credentials for cannabis professionals backed by a rigorous standardized education curriculum, GF Institute wants to promote key values of credibility and equity in its mission to boost professionalism in the cannabis space. GFI is overseen by an independent Steering Committee, composed of 30+ leading cannabis employers who approve the curricula for each job role, champion education, and professional development, support social equity and community initiatives, and are committed to raising the overall knowledge and quality of professionals in our industry.

"It is very encouraging that our industry has recognized the need for training and development opportunities for its work force. GFI is helping cannabis align itself with other scalable industries in providing this core function," commented Nichole Upshaw.

Nichole Upshaw will represent Jushi throughout the ongoing GFI program development process, providing input, oversight, and valuable expertise from the human resources angle of the cannabis industry. Bringing a background in human resources to the Steering Committee development process is invaluable insight as committee members work to ensure GFI's professional credentials are both relevant and up to date with industry-accepted standards and operational expectations.

"The cannabis industry's exponential growth makes the establishment of true, powerful, research-tested standards like what GFI will provide even more important," said Gil Christie, the inaugural chairman of GF Institute. "Jushi's scope, scale, and spirit of innovation in our field presence provides the GFI Steering Committee with a critically-important perspective as we work with the largest accreditation agency in North America to standardize the industry like never before."

A growing trend of recruiting external candidates to work in cannabis from other similar industries often requires each new employee to be trained from scratch because they have little or no formalized cannabis experience backed by science and/or rigorous instructional design teams. And, building out a robust training and instructional design team often introduces a number of sharp operational complexities that result in lost profitability and focus on other strategic business imperatives.

For companies like Jushi, where education isn't just a valued idea, but instead an institutional priority, introducing standardized education through professional credentials is both common sense and good business practice.

"Providing educational and training opportunities are core to investing in your people to make them feel valued. Along with our own internal training program, the certificates help us to fulfil this responsibility and create a high-performance learning culture throughout the organization, said Nichole Upshaw. "Our vision is to create an integrated global community of wellness, mindfulness, and connections through superior retail experiences and products. As a multi-state and vertically integrated operator, it is a strategic necessity to ensure our people meet the highest standards of knowledge as well as have skills that drive our vision forward."

To encourage industry-wide adoption, GF Institute invites every Licensed Cannabis Operator across the United States to join this historic push to bring credibility, equity, and professionalism to our industry and become Founding Members of GFI.

The deadline for Founding Member applications is December 31, 2021, with an added financial incentive for brands who act early -- Founding Member brands are granted access to deploy the GFI certificates across their organization as part of the standard licensing fee for Green Flower's enterprise learning and development platform at no additional cost.

For more information on GF Institute or the GFI Cannabis Credential program, please visit the GF Institute website and download the complete program documentation, review course syllabi and find answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

About Jushi Holdings Inc.
We are a vertically integrated cannabis company led by an industry-leading management team. In the United States, Jushi is focused on building a multi-state portfolio of branded cannabis assets through opportunistic acquisitions, distressed workouts, and competitive applications. Jushi strives to maximize shareholder value while delivering high-quality products across all levels of the cannabis ecosystem. For more information, please visit jushico.com or our social media channels, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About Green Flower:
Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

Contact: Adam Summers
e: adam.summers@green-flower.com p: 708.223.2336

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SOURCE Green Flower