Beckley Retreats PBC Launches Fund in Honor of Founder Amanda Feilding to Advance Mental Health Through Psychedelics

New York, New York – May 21, 2026 – On the first anniversary of her passing, Beckley Retreatsannounces the formal launch of the Amanda Feilding Memorial Fund, a scholarship and fellowship program honoring the life and legacy of its co-founder and a commitment to making transformative psychedelic experiences accessible to those who need them most.

Amanda Feilding founded The Beckley Foundation in 1998, pioneering global drug policy reform and forging research partnerships with some of the world’s most prestigious scientific institutions. Widely recognized as a foundational figure of the psychedelic renaissance, she co-founded Beckley Retreats with her son, Rock, and CEO Neil Markey in 2021 and passed peacefully at home surrounded by family in May 2025. The Amanda Feilding Memorial Fund carries forward her 55-year commitment to scientific rigor, cognitive liberty, and an unwavering belief in the healing potential of psychedelics. 

Today, Beckley Retreats offers world-renowned, professionally guided retreats in Jamaica and the Netherlands, supporting personal growth and wellbeing through the legal use of psilocybin alongside science-backed holistic practices. The launch of the fund is the formalization of a program already in motion. To date, Beckley Retreats has awarded more than $300,000 in fellowship value, sponsoring 67 individual fellows, including 22 veterans in partnership with Heroic Hearts Project and Imperial College London, and 28 women of color across two dedicated programs (Source). Scholarship recipients are selected based on financial need and demonstrated potential to lead change in their communities. They participate alongside full-paying guests in Beckley’s 11-week program: four weeks of virtual preparation, a 4-to-5-night immersive retreat with two psilocybin sessions, and six weeks of integration support with ongoing alumni access. Many go on to become facilitators and advocates in their own communities.

“Beckley Retreats stands as a living expression of everything Amanda Feilding championed, and we are at a critical moment in mental health,” says Neil Markey, CEO. “As a Public Benefit Corporation, Beckley Retreats has a dual mandate to be sustainable and increase accessibility. At the heart of the Amanda Feilding Memorial Fund is a commitment that psychedelic use must be grounded in science and best practice. Beckley Retreats is advancing that standard in the real world, and this announcement marks the next chapter of a named, scalable fund with a $400,000 goal for 2026 to fund 100 scholarships and two speciality programs.”

Every Beckley Retreats program is accompanied by rigorous outcome research conducted in partnership with leading researchers from Yale and Harvard University. Participants are assessed before and after each program using validated instruments measuring burnout and stress, mystical and emotional breakthrough, spiritual well-being and life satisfaction. For veterans specifically, programs also include cognitive performance testing and EEG brain scan data. 

“This real-world evidence base is precisely what the mental health field has been missing,” says Dr. AZA Allsop, Head of Research at Beckley Retreats, a Harvard/MIT-trained neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and Yale professor and lab lead, who oversees a rigorous data collection framework across every retreat. “As Clinical trials demonstrate psychedelics’ promise for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and addiction, Beckley’s ongoing programs are generating the diverse, population-level data needed to refine approaches, inform policy, and build the case for broader access — including for the communities the Amanda Feilding Memorial Fund serves.”

How to Give

The Amanda Feilding Memorial Fund operates through Reconsider, a 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor. 100% of donations go directly to fellowship recipients’ program fees and overhead is fully covered by Beckley Retreats’ commercial operations.  All donations are tax-deductible.

• $2,500 sponsors one individual scholarship participant seat
• $75,000 funds an entire specialty cohort (veterans, women of color, first responders, or cancer patients) with research and specialty facilitation and programming as required 
• Other ways to engage: advisory committee, fellow mentorship, cohort co-creation

To donate or learn more, visit www.beckleyretreats.com.

About Beckley Retreats: 

Founded in 2021, Beckley Retreats offers research-informed, legal psychedelic wellbeing programs inspired by over 25 years of pioneering science from the Beckley Foundation and the legacy of Amanda Feilding. Co-founded through Beckley Waves and led by CEO and co-founder Neil Markey, the retreats take place in Jamaica and the Netherlands, combining guided psilocybin experiences with integrative practices and long-term integration support—where science meets ancient wisdom to support lasting personal transformation.