2024 Dance With Your Heart Celebrity
Gabrielle Dion
Founder & Publisher MedicateOH & MedicateKY
Charity: MedicateOH
Pro Partner: Brandon Perpich
Gabrielle Dion was born and raised on Cincinnati’s east side, Gabrielle went to Turpin High School and graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a bachelor's degree in journalism and master’s in public administration. She has spent a majority of her career working in marketing, content creation and event planning.
Gabrielle founded her nonprofit organization MedicateOH in 2019 to help others like her who are overcoming opioid addiction with the aid of medical cannabis. A lover of dance since childhood, Gabrielle was a lindy hopper, founding SwingGallery with her friends in 2001. In her 30s, she was a popular Zumba instructor teaching classes all over town. Everything seemed to be going great in her life, but tragedy was right around the corner.
Diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in 2013 and harboring a secret growing addiction, she suddenly quit her job, hurriedly got married, and moved to Nevada. She went on to have several surgeries and unsuccessful procedures that propelled her further down a bad life path.
Now 2,000 miles from home and everyone she loved, her marriage was also crumbling, and her pain wasn’t improving. She couldn’t work, she relied on a walker to get around, and felt herself losing control of the vibrant life she once enjoyed so much. She cried out for help.
Luckily, an answer came. A Las Vegas surgeon recommended she try medical cannabis, which had just become state-legal in Nevada. Skeptical, she began a journey toward what she hoped could be better health. It worked. Now with a new powerful medicine to help her make better choices, she divorced and moved back home.
When Ohio opened its medical cannabis program, Gabrielle was first in line to sign up. In early 2019, she took her last opioid pill. She began writing and producing web content about how Ohioans use cannabis as medicine, and founded MedicateOH, which was accepted as a fiscally-sponsored project of Community Shares of Mid Ohio.
In addition to helping Ohio patients to find alternatives to opioids, MedicateOH was integral in the campaign to secure access to cannabis for all Ohioans in last year’s election. MedicateOH.com continues to report about changing cannabis laws in Ohio and recently launched MedicateKY to assist with the Bluegrass state’s new medical program launching in 2025.