Tracy Vittozzi has been in the business of cannabis for almost five years.

She was working in the compliance department for the Cannavative Group — a Nevada cannabis company — but started thinking about seeking a promotion in 2023.

That’s when she heard about UNR’s online cannabis certificate program from her partner, who works in the medical field and was told about the courses by a coworker familiar with Vittozzi’s career.

Within two months, Vittozzi had become a UNR student, joining one of two online cannabis certificate programs located in Nevada and the first to be established in the state.

“I wanted to just, like, move up a little bit more, so I decided to do the certificate program to just have that on my résumé and it definitely helped, especially being on the business side of it,” Vittozzi said. “It made a lot of things make a lot more sense. It just lit a fire in me to keep growing with the industry.”

UNR offers five online cannabis certification programs in the areas of cannabis health care and medicine, cannabis agriculture and horticulture, the business of cannabis, cannabis compliance and risk management, and cannabis product development and design.

The six-month program consists of three eight-week courses, including “Cannabis 101,” and two more focusing on the subject area of the student’s choosing. An instructor provides course materials weekly, but students can complete the curriculum at their own pace and interact with their professor for questions, coaching or other guidance.

Green Flower, a California cannabis curriculum company, provides the teaching materials to UNR through a partnership that began at the end of 2021.

Max Simon, CEO and founder of Green Flower, started this business about 10 years ago and works with experts in the cannabis field to develop curriculum spanning from the basics of growing the plant to navigating regulations.

Though the program isn’t tailored to Nevada specifically, it does include content that would apply to the state, such as talks of rules and how to grow cannabis plants in arid environments.

Over 250 students have achieved a certificate through this program, said Simon, adding that “it’s just been an overall positive thing for the school, the students and for us.”

The programs begin March 3. Each course starts at $499 a month. No prior experience is required for the course, and early careerists or those looking to cultivate their skills can apply so long as they’re at least 18 years of age.

“Most of the time, people don’t really understand how the cannabis industry really works, and so the programs are basically this deep dive education into the different sectors that actually power the cannabis industry today,” Simon said. “People are coming into this industry and needing training, guidance and expertise. It makes sense why a school whose job it is to develop the next generation of every workforce can participate in the cannabis sector.”

Along with the curriculum and certificate of program completion, UNR also offers students career support and resources through the GF Institute Employer Network, a program established by Green Flower to help connect people with jobs in the cannabis industry.

Nevada has hundreds of cannabis businesses, including cultivation facilities, production sites, independent testing laboratories, consumption lounges, retail cannabis stores and distributors.

Vittozzi said having the certification from UNR has not only helped her learn more about the business of cannabis but allowed her to be “taken a little bit more seriously” in this male-dominated industry.

The annual demographic study from the Cannabis Control Board showed 60% of 14,582 active agent card holders were male.

Simon said UNR has “just been great partners” since the online program was established about three years ago.

Online cannabis courses could be growing in other Nevada college campuses as well. The College of Southern Nevada recently added this certification program to its curriculum, and Simon said he is open to working with other universities to bring the courses to students. For Vittozzi, it was life changing.

She finished her course in November 2023 and was able to get another job cultivating before landing in her current position as a compliance lead in one of Ayre Wellness dispensary’s Reno branches.

“The course is worth taking if you’re serious about the industry, because there is a lot of good information in there, for sure, especially because of how regulated it is in Nevada; they cover it all,” Vittozzi said. “I would say that you have to be focused because it is based on how you want to go about it, so if you’re not serious about it, you could fall behind very quickly.”