Alumni Profile - Lucas Babando, MHIS'20

Current position: Training Lead, Tweed

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What is your current job title and place of work?

"I currently work at the Tweed cannabis shop in London, Ontario as the Training Lead. Among general leadership duties like supervising staff and meeting daily regulatory compliance, my primary responsibility is ensuring that my sales team is fully informed on new products, sales strategies, industry trends, and store initiatives. In a nascent industry as particular as cannabis, new research on chemical compounds, extraction techniques, product innovations and more comes out every single day, meaning that teams who aren’t continuously learning are seriously disadvantaged."

How did HIS help you get where you are in your career?

"The MHIS program helped me get to where I am today by teaching me how to think more critically about academic work, and also giving me the freedom to deeply explore topics at my own pace.

Additionally, the HIS framework enabled me to apply some order to an industry that’s constantly in flux: cannabis information is health information, so I ask myself, “How do various cannabis brands, products, and information resources fit into a customer’s lifestyle, identity and sense of health & wellness?” Utilizing the HIS lens helps me to help customers make sense out of the wealth of available product knowledge, simplifying the process of finding something that addresses their needs."

Fun Fact

Having Korean and Italian parents means that Lucas is just as comfortable going out for a steaming bowl of kimchi stew as he is for a hot plate of pasta alla Bolognese.

Q3: What would you say to a person considering the HIS program?

Firstly, I would say that this program is best suited for those students who like a highly theoretical curriculum and the liberty to fully unpack it. I don’t think that I would have been able to study cannabis nor find the opportunity at Tweed London had I been in a structured program with less time to be intellectually free. And secondly, I would remind incoming students that the essence of a graduate program is critical thought. You will get a lot out of HIS if you can think critically about the world; you will get the most out of HIS if you have the courage to think critically about what you are taught. Challenge your professors because they’re human just like you. Be intellectually honest. Don’t assume anything as given and leave no stone unturned. This is the purpose of being a graduate student.