Amplifying DEI in Communications: Introducing the Grasslands Diversity-in-Marketing Internship

March 26, 2021

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It’s my pleasure to introduce you to the Grasslands Diversity-in-Marketing Internship, a deeply personal endeavor for myself and my colleagues. Our goal with this program is to change the face of marketing and deepen the diversity within our own agency, and the marcom industry as a whole.

This unique opportunity is open to any students or recent grads who self-identify as members of an historically underrepresented group in marketing, public relations and communications—spanning LGBTQIA+ communities and BIPOC—who are interested in pursuing a career in natural products and wellness communications, including cannabis marketing and cannabis PR. These marketing and PR internships will pay a competitive hourly wage and include a housing stipend.

Learn more about the Grasslands Diversity-in-Marketing Internship on the Grasslands’ Careers page.

This is a full-circle moment for me. In 1995, I was approaching high school graduation with the uncertainty of not knowing where I was going next—when I got word I had secured a DEI-focused internship at the Rocky Mountain News. The internship would provide me paid full-time work as a journalist, hands-on training in a large newsroom and relationships that would help me after college graduation—a big deal for a lower-middle class Indigenous kid being raised by a single mother.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that internship would change my life forever.

The Rocky’s leadership recognized their responsibility to introduce people of color to careers in journalism, and after 20-plus years at newspapers, I’m still thankful for their purposeful dedication to representation. And now it’s my turn to make a difference—to give underrepresented communities the kind of transformative experience that could open new doors for them and elevate their professional potential in an industry that desperately needs their voices, their ideas, their perspectives.

My colleagues and I—who have a solid track record of hiring previous interns to full-time positions—cannot wait to get started. Thank you in advance for forwarding this blog to anyone who should know about this marketing internship.

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Ricardo

RICARDO BACA

FOUNDER & CEO

A proud Colorado native and one of Denver Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs, Ricardo Baca is a serial entrepreneur, three-time Marketer of the Year, 24-year veteran journalist, two-time TEDx speaker, and drug policy architect.

Ricardo launched Clio-winning PR and marketing firm Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® in 2016 to super-charge businesses throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe. Grasslands was awarded a Clio Award for its public relations program, two Emjays Awards for Public Relations Agency of the Year, and a Small Business Award from the Denver Business Journal.

In 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Ricardo to the state’s first-ever Natural Medicine Advisory Board to contribute to policy development around the state’s psychedelics framework. In 2025, Ricardo launched Buy Colorado Day in partnership with the State Legislature, creating a new holiday—and powerful economic driver—that celebrates innovative Colorado brands of all kinds via consumers all over the world.

Capping off a wide-spanning career in journalism, Ricardo made international headlines as The Denver Post’s first-ever Cannabis Editor in 2013, as seen in the feature-length documentary film Rolling Papers. Numerous accolades followed, including Ricardo being named one of Fortune magazine’s 7 Most Powerful People in America’s Marijuana Industry, one of Brookings Institution's 12 Key People to Watch in Marijuana Policy, and one of Time magazine’s 140 best Twitter feeds.

In 2022, Ricardo co-founded Colorado fine art biennial Biome with the mission of celebrating fine art via community, inclusivity and biennial exhibition. Before that, Ricardo co-founded Denver music festival The Underground Music Showcase, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025.

Ricardo is proud to sit on the Board of Directors for Colorado Public Radio, where he serves as Treasurer, and on the Board of Advisors for the reMind Psychedelics Business Forum.

A regular speaker at SXSW, Ricardo still contributes columns and op-eds to top publications, including Rolling Stone, Nosh, the New Hope Network and MJBizDaily. He has also been interviewed by The New York Times, The View, The New Yorker, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, The Colbert Report and NPR’s All Things Considered.

Ricardo lives in Denver with his wife, two dogs and two cats.