meet the team.
Joy Hudson
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Joy Hudson is a visionary who sees Nimble as a drop of goodness that ripples from its colorful Milwaukie, Oregon headquarters into communities.
Her entrepreneurial spirit, rebellious thinking and passion for giving back motivated her to create Nimble with business partners Marissa Rodriguez and Scott Wright in 2020. They envisioned a place where misfits could feel at home.
​
A whimsical rebel committed to doing good
A rebel who dreams big and has bucked social norms since childhood, Joy journaled at age seven about electing a woman president.
​
Why can't I play in the workplace? Why can't we narrow pay gaps between frontline employees and senior leaders? Why can't we build our mission into the cost of our products to help Black entrepreneurs access capital? As Nimble's chief executive officer (CEO), Joy continues questioning paradigms in business and life today.
Joy creates and manages Nimble's colorful, whimsical, stick-it-to-the-man brand. She is the product developer behind Kites and Broomsticks, two Nimble brands that benefit local nonprofits serving women and entrepreneurs of color.
​
Joy oversees Nimble's financials and cultivates joint-venture opportunities. She represents Nimble and the cannabis industry in Salem as a board member of the Cannabis Industry Alliance of Oregon (CIAO) and chair of the CIAO Political Action Committee. Joy serves as Nimble's problem-solver in chief, calling on the experience she gained in her journey to become its CEO.
Marissa Rodriguez
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Every resource matters when you grow up chopping and hauling firewood to get through winter. Raised in a handbuilt cabin on 40 raw acres in the Emerald Triangle, Marissa Rodriguez appreciates the energy, love, attention, creativity and organization it takes to get a job done.
Daily, Marissa applies her experience growing up off-the-grid as Nimble's co-founder and chief operating officer (COO). As COO, she oversees the people, systems, equipment, processes and protocols that move Nimble's products from seed to sale. Marissa operationalizes the vision of Nimble chief executive officer (CEO), Joy Hudson with chief strategy officer (CSO) Scott Wright. She is Nimble's compliance officer, serving as liaison to regulators. Marissa has deep expertise in the complex nuances of regulatory environments and ensures Nimble's compliance with state rule and statute.
Last-minute decision opens doors to the regulated market
Marissa honed her systems and operations prowess working at Grand Central Bakery for 11 years. As cafe operations manager, she oversaw its logistics, human resources and customer service for retail. Marissa doubled the beloved bakery's footprint from three to six locations during her tenure.
Marissa went on to start a boutique consulting firm, helping small business owners get organized. She attended a National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) event on a business development whim in 2015 and met an aspiring Oregon dispensary operator. He offered her a three-month contract to open two locations that turned into 2 years and meeting Joy Hudson, her future business partner.
She was named vice president of compliance and operations at The Sweet Life & Urban Pharms in 2017. With Joy, she helped grow the company into one of the largest cannabis distribution and sales networks in Oregon.
An unwavering advocate who does the work
Marissa applies her get-it-done mindset to her lifelong fight for social justice. Growing up in a cannabis-producing community, Marissa is driven to heal the harm done by the war on drugs.
Keenly aware of social injustice even as a child, Marissa fights for racial and social equity, reproductive healthcare, transgender rights and climate justice, among many other causes.
She is also an active advocate for Oregon's cannabis industry, serving on Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) and Oregon Health Authority (OHA) rules advisory committees and workgroups.
Scott Wright
Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)
At an early age, with his first paper route, Scott knew he would have to hustle to make his entrepreneurial ambitions a reality. From blue collar to corporate to cannabis, Scott’s journey has been one of continual growth and evolution.
The bulk of his career was spent in the corporate world where Scott mastered the art of residential homebuilding for one of the country’s largest homebuilders and fortune 200 companies. Starting in the land department, Scott showed his incredible talent for doing “the impossible” with the development of a large master plan in California. His ability to understand each discipline, develop high performing teams, and successfully develop and execute strategic vision rapidly propelled him into greater leadership roles. Displaying proficiency in diverse domains such as land acquisition, development, finance, sales, construction, and customer service, Scott also steered the company's expansion ventures into Oregon, Colorado, and Utah.
Nurturing talent and fostering growth
He has been in the leadership circles with the highest-ranking corporate leaders in the country, oversaw the western United States and $6 billion in assets, and expanded the regional footprint to 8 markets in 9 states. Despite these accomplishments, the thing he is most proud of is the talent he developed along the way, exporting talent across the country. His belief that everyone deserves the chance to become as “big” as you want to get is a key driver in the entrepreneurs, he now invests his time and resources developing.
A pivot to joining the Nimble team
Scott’s journey from corporate boardrooms to Nimble began with his own family’s experience with the healing power of cannabis. When he saw Joy and Marissa’s vision for Nimble and it’s imperative to make the world a better place he was sold, becoming their first investor and quickly partner! The partnership between Scott’s strategic prowess, Joy’s entrepreneurial spirit, and Marissa’s operational acumen makes this a dynamic team. Amplifying the leadership of these two powerful women is part of what Scott loves about his contribution at nimble.
Since his exit from the corporate world, Scott now serves as the chief strategy officer (CSO) at Nimble. In his role as CSO, Scott bears the responsibility for formulating and executing Nimble's strategic blueprint and endeavors. Collaborating closely with the leadership team, he identifies, evaluates, and spearheads business prospects, while forging strategic alliances that amplify Nimble's footprint in the Oregon market and beyond.
​
Championing Social Equity and justice through investment
Equity and social justice stand as Scott's steadfast guiding principles. His commitment to effecting change finds expression as he invests in underserved entrepreneurs in his CSO capacity at Nimble and in his capacities as the founder and CEO of Whidbey Capital, a multifaceted firm offering business consultancy, coaching, mentoring, and financial support.
Katie Osborn
Director of Operations
Katie Osborn knows what it takes to get the job done: show up, take pride and never give up. It’s a lesson she learned at an early age working for her family’s dog boarding business. Rolling up her sleeves and getting her hands dirty as a kid instilled in Katie a strong work ethic that she calls upon today as Nimble’s director of operations.
Katie is integral to every aspect of Nimble’s business. She oversees its accounting, inventory management, fulfillment and delivery operations departments. You can find her in Nimble’s warehouse perfecting spreadsheets, leading fun yet focused meetings and mentoring members of her close-knit team. She loves that every day brings something unexpected, a need to pivot or a problem that requires looking at many pieces and figuring out how to put them together.
Katie joined Nimble in 2021 as its first employee. Co-founders Joy Hudson and Marissa Rodriguez hired Katie to help get the business up and running and quickly identified her as Nimble’s director of operations.
Katie is honored to work with Joy, Marissa and other women leaders who she says inspire and support her personally and professionally.
Terah Ebie
Director of Brands and Products
The 2012 election was emotional for Terah Ebie. She had spent years circulating petitions and advocating for the decriminalization of cannabis in Washington state. Voters responded that day, passing Initiative 502. Pregnant with her first child, Terah was overcome with gratitude as she realized her baby would never live in a world where cannabis was a criminal offense.
Terah continues to advance the industry today as Nimble’s director of brands and products. She oversees the company’s manufacturing pipeline, ensuring team members have everything they need to be happy, agile, empowered and productive. Terah also works with Nimble co-founder Joy Hudson to build Nimble’s growing suite of brands.
Terah knows the magic is in building a diverse team that enjoys working together to meet the company’s goals. She views each person on her team as an expert. When a challenge arises, she asks for their advice and works with them to make a plan.
The rapid-fire, rapid-growth atmosphere of a cannabis startup inspires Terah. Working in an industry’s infancy inspires her to create more equitable business processes that other companies in and out of the cannabis industry can adopt. Using her learned experience and Lean and Six Sigma training, Terah champions a culture of continuous improvement at Nimble.
Before joining Nimble, Terah started a political consulting agency where she directed progressive campaigns and advocated for cannabis access and inclusivity. She entered the industry full-time in 2018 as a leader for one of the country’s first cannabis extraction laboratories in Washington State. The work there introduced her to Nimble, where she found strong social values that aligned with her own, including Nimble’s operation as a social enterprise committed to giving back.
Terah continues to fight for a more inclusive world in her role at Nimble and in the community as an activist and board member for Vancouver’s Queer Youth Resource Center.
Haley Buttler
Warehouse Manager
Haley Buttler was working for a candy factory when she first learned to trust herself. Her dedication and work ethic impressed the owner, who kept giving her opportunities to move up and try new things. As she did, she proved to herself and others that she was up to the task. She brought that earned confidence with her to the cannabis industry, starting out as a budtender and quickly rising through the ranks.
Haley calls upon the skills she gained at the candy factory as Nimble’s warehouse manager. She oversees Nimble’s team that receives third-party products and fulfills orders for Nimble brands such as Kites, Broomsticks and Orchid, among others.
​
Her three shifts know their routines, collaborating with sales and production to ready orders for delivery. But warehouse operations are dynamic, so they can switch gears quickly to meet new challenges. Haley and her team can be found helping with everything from surges in production to sorting out inventory and orders for a major new brand. On the team’s busiest days, Haley enjoys telling surprised and happy customers that their last-minute orders will be ready earlier than expected.
Haley’s favorite part of the job is when her team is faced with something that seems impossible and doing whatever is needed to get it done.
