Dr. Alyza "Beast" Brevard-Rodriguez is a dynamic, unassuming and disruptive thought leader. She is a serial entrepreneur, decorated 2x combat disabled veteran, and the visionary leader who has founded several brands such as The Other Side Dispensary (TOSD), SW3AT Wellness, and the Coffee & Cannabis Podcast. She is also a professor in cannabis studies at Hudson County Community College and her area of doctoral research is womens leadership. Known as “Dr. Beast”, her personality is described as "The Kindest Asshole You'll Ever Meet."
A spiritual Aquarian, Alyza remains an unboxed contradiction as a mission-driven and evidence informed eclectic leader that emphasizes output and being a doer. She is a young, successful self-made entrepreneur that bulldozed her way to success while healing from a traumatic upbringing & life in the military.
Alyza began taking her entrepreneurial journey seriously in 2015, creating SW3AT in tandem with 10 years of military service from 2012-2022. The fitness apparel lifestyle line soon grew into a brick-and-mortar wellness studio with locations throughout Hudson County, NJ. A former U.S. Navy military police officer and policy expert for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Alyza used holistic wellness solutions and cannabis to materialize a soft life for herself after experiencing a career altering injury on her final military tour. She now leads SW3AT and her soon-to-come cannabis dispensary, "The Other Side."
Receiving an abundance of recognition on both educational, military and entrepreneurial fronts, Alyza is a champion for all things wellness, leadership, and diversity/equity/inclusion. John Jay College awarded Alyza with their Graduate Achievement Award and T-Mobile with their Veterans Graduate Award for all of her hard work in and outside of the classroom. On business fronts, Alyza has received Mindbody's Diversity and Inclusion Award, Classpass Wellness Business of the Year 2020, Hoboken Girl's Best in Wellness 3x years in a row, Hoboken Girl Women to Watch 2019 and NJ Biz Top 40 under 40 in 2020 and Veterans in Business in 2023. A decorated service member, Alyza was named Sailor of the Year in 2018. A creative spirit, Alyza has been seen on Manifest, Succession, Cash Cab, Carters, along with a shop local partnership with the New Jersey Devils. In relation to her trailblazing journey in cannabis, Alyza has been featured in Yahoo! Finance, Business Insider, High Times, PBS, and Benzinga, and is the 1st Black, LatinX, LGBTQ, Female, Disabled Veteran cannabis operator in New Jersey.
She is devoted to breaking the recurrence of generational adversity by empowering underserved communities with ownership, resources, education and motivation.Her niche areas of business & scholarly subject expertise are leadership, cannabis, health & wellness, technical writing, brand development & strategy.