teachers
The 2017 Herb Faire line up of teachers is going to be phenomenal! We are so blessed to have so many amazing teachers in our Great Lakes region!
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7Song is an herbalist, teacher, wildcrafter, botanist, clinician, medicine maker and photographer who began studying herbal medicine around 1981. He is the director and main instructor of the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine, which he began in 1994. He is a founding member and clinical herbalist at the Ithaca Free Clinic an integrative free clinic. He has also practices at a free clinic in Ometepe, Nicaragua. 7Song specializes in herbal medicine for first aid situations and practices at first aid stations and clinics.He is commonly found with a backpack heavy with technical plant identification books, botany tools, wildcrafting gear and photography equipment,He lives and practices in Ithaca, NY. Contact information can be found at his website 7Song.com. He also keeps an active Facebook page ‘Sevensong’ where he posts herbal information on a variety of topics as well as photographs and the occasional snarky comment. website
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Betzy Bancroft serves as a co-director and core faculty of the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism in Montpelier VT. VCIH offers a sliding-scale herbal clinic where she also practices and is a supervisor for the students’ clinic. Betzy is also a United Plant Savers Advisory Board member, and previously served as that organization’s office manager for a decade. website
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jim mcdonald offers a knowledge of herbalism that blends western folk and indigenous views with the Vitalist traditions of the 19th century, presented through story, humor and common sense. He has taught classes throughout the US, hosts the website www.herbcraft.org and has written for Plant Healer Magazine, the Journal of Ontario Herbalist Association and Llewelyn's Herbal Almanac. He is currently writing a "Great Lakes Herbal" and "Foundational Herbcraft". Jim is a manic wildcrafter and medicine maker. website
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My name’s Leslie Alexander and I’m interested in practicalities. I enjoy bending ideas and shaping protocols to make them accessible and interesting. I think this is most apparent in my clinical work, the mentoring I do and the Round Tables we teach. I work holistically and also have an interest in many aspects of the mouth. I work with others in response to sustaining well-being as well as addressing chronic and acute challenges. I also like food, kitchen medicinals and I’ve a very cute dog!
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Althea Northage Orr is dedicated to interweaving the knowledge of both the East and the West. In 2000, Althea founded her school, The Chicago College of Healing Arts, where she created curriculums for Bodywork, Chinese Medicine, Herbalism, and Psychophysical Re-education. She served on the governing council of the American Herbalists Guild and sits on their professional admissions committee. Althea has an 80 acre country sanctuary where she cultivates medicinal herbs. website
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Esstin McLeod is a member of the Mississaugi First Nations. Esstin has been studying and practicing Aboriginal Healing Methods for the past 30 Years. She has facilitated “Traditional Healing” workshops promoting the benefits of Spiritual plant therapy a program designed with reference made to The Medicine Wheel Teachings. As a Traditional Medicine Practitioner she provides clinical consultations to various health organizations in northern and southern Ontario, her practice for herbal medicine stems from a spiritual energetic perspective
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Kathleen Wildwood is the founder and director of Wildwood Institute in Middleton, WI, providing health consultations and education in herbalism and holistic healing, including a comprehensive Herbal Apprenticeship Program. Kathleen has studied and practiced in scientific, shamanic and Western herbal traditions for over 20 years. The former President of the Madison Herbal Institute, she has taught workshops at Meriter Hospital, UW Medical School, and Edgewood College. She has been in private practice and teaching herbalism since 1996.
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Adela Nieves is a Traditional Community Health and Healing Arts Practitioner. She is deeply committed to her Taino (indigenous peoples of the Caribbean) practices and integrative wellness approaches, practicing Acudetox (ear acupuncture), indigenous traditional medicine, cupping therapy, whole person natural care, and Reiki for individuals and groups struggling with addiction, PTSD, stress and trauma. Adela co-founded Homemade Healing, a small neighborhood wellness center in Southwest Detroit. Where she practices supporting those in their journeys to tell their own stories and define health, healing, and wellness for themselves.
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Jo Feterle- I've always been enchanted by my natural surroundings!! I consider myself a forever student of the plants and all critters that I share this planet with. I was fortunate to have a great aunt and great gram who taught me a bit about plants for food and medicine as a kid. I worked for 6 years at Summit Metro Parks Nature center, Herb gardens and Arboretum and that's where I started a more " formal" study of plants and Bee keeping. I am a current Student of Leslie Williams and Leslie Alexander. I'm also a East West School of Planetary Herbology student. I'm a community herbalist and bee keeper in Ohio who basically swaps herbal "potions" for eggs, butter, produce, and opportunity to wildcraft on neighbors land. 😎🌻🐝🍁
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Ben Cohen is owner of Small House Farm; a small homestead business located in Sanford, MI. Small House specializes in cold pressed oils and a number of other unique products for the health conscious, Earth friendly consumer. Ben is a practicing herbalist and hosts workshops throughout the state teaching about the many benefits of locally grown and wild harvested plants. Ben has also worked tirelessly over the past couple of years developing a network of seed libraries and seed stewards across his home state. “In today’s world it is more important than ever for every community to have an independent and reliable source of fresh food. A localized seed bank is essential to making this possible. Every neighborhood needs to stand up and reclaim these traditional skills that were once vital to our existence.” Over the past few years Ben has grown seed crops for the Botanical Explorer Joseph Simcox and Ben is also an active part of the Gardens Across America project where he serves as a grower as well as a regional coordinator for eight states. website
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John Redden RH is a medical herbalist with over 35 years of experience growing herbs, wild crafting, making products, teaching and working in the clinic. A founding member of the Ontario Herbalists Association, John ran A Celebration of Herbs herb festival for a decade and was the editor of The Canadian Journal of Herbalism. John co-authored Government Canada, CGSB Standards of Organic Food Production, the first laws governing organics in Canada. John teaches courses in his classroom at Viriditas Herbal Products where he manufactures tinctures and salves for professional dispensing. website
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Talitha Johnson Combines both culture and health in the center of her herbal practice, as she studies Western Herbalism and incorporates Caribbean and indigenous techniques. An avid learner, she has studied with Wildflower Herbal School of Botanical Medicine, herbalist Jim McDonald and Sam Coffman. She has facilitated skill share workshops for youth, organized holistic health events like the Detroit Healing Tour, the Urban Apothecary and founded Amour All Naturals. While exploring the world through a continually blossoming herbal lense, she includes LOVE at the center of her work. With love, she empowers others to join her in exploring herbalism and connecting to one's immediate bio-region. She creates natural body care products via her company Amour All Naturals, and blogs about her herbal adventures, discoveries and learnings.
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Joyce Wardwell has been a practicing herbalist in northern Michigan for 40 years, and an herbal teacher and writer for the last 30 years. Her herbal work reflects her background with Native Aanishinaabe plant understandings, Chinese medicinal protocols and western empirical based research. Her emphasis is on self-reliant herbalism, and to keep the knowlege and applications of plants available to all.
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Katherine Novotny is a herbal educator/practitioner, an urban homesteader, and an artist. She believes in accessible, and affordable health care and empowers students to pursue healing through backyard gardens, kitchen potions, and deepening their connection to their local forests. Novotny is a Professional Member of the American Herbalist Guild, taught as a core faculty member at the Ohlone Herbal Center in Berkeley, CA and currently has a private herbal practise in Bloomington, Indiana. She loves weaving stories of herbal folklore into lectures and teaching about different body systems.
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Lottie V. Spady Detroit Food and Media Justice Activist, has been studying herbalism formally for over 3 years although she has been an advocate and user of herbal supports for decades. She is currently working with Exhalation Integrative Wellness Center where she co-hosts herbal education sessions, plant identification walks, and medicine making workshops. She is on the founding team of the Urban Apothecary, a seasonal pop-up shop which features local, handcrafted teas, tinctures, vinegars, butters, salves, and salts. She creates a variety of herbal products for health and wellness under the Detroit Elixir & Salve Company brand. Lottie blogs at Earthseed Detroit, which chronicles her evolution as an urban farmgirl as she learns about and adapts to the challenges of living a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. She can be found wandering with her dog, Riley, and a camera.
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Jared Bogdanov-Hanna is a passionate educator, organizer, designer, and market gardener in Oakland County, MI. He has been studying and engaging with permaculture and food systems since 2007 and received his Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) through Midwest Permaculture in May 2008. Jared has worked with various non-profits, businesses, organizations and homeowners in designing, building and educating on permaculture based organic gardens and community gardens, most recently with Oakland University as Special Lecturer, Farm Manager and Organic Farm Coordinator. In his free time enjoys hiking, biking, camping and learning from Michigan’s diverse ecosystems.
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Merri Walters The creator and director of Great Lakes Sacred Essences, Merri is a true Sensitive: a core quality guiding her through over 35 years of experience as a holistic healer. Known by some as a “healer’s healer," she is well practiced in herbology, homeopathy, flower essences, essential oils and native spirituality. The mother of eight children, she is also well practiced in life. Merri is a powerful teacher. Her wisdom transcribes the spiritual into the practical, easy-to-understand language that inspires new ways of working and addressing problems.
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Based out of Troy, IL (20 minutes away from St. Louis, MO), Kristine Brown, RH(AHG) is a tradi- tional community herbalist and homeschooling mother of 4 children and 2 bonus (step) children. She has studied with Rosemary Gladstar, Isla Burgess and her mentors Leslie Alexander and Leslie Williams as well as spent countless hours in research and study. She offers an herbal product line, in- cluding her handmade herbal goat milk soaps, sees clients, teaches classes, hosts a study group focus- ing on the use of local herbs, and writes and illustrates the popular ezine for children, Herbal Roots zine. In the past Kristine has facilitated a summer herbal workshop out of her home for children as well as coordinated the kid's camp for 4 years at the Midwest Women's Herbal Conference. She has also taught both adults and children around the country at conferences such as Traditions in Western Herbalism, Montana Herb Gathering, and Great Lakes Herb Faire. Currently she and Leslie Alexander co-facilitate the Herbal Activity Hub for kids at the annual AHG Symposiums. website (another website for Kristine)
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cheré suzette bergeron (rere) is a white, chronically ill, trans/non-binary/GNC femme, herbalist, witch, & cajun transplant currently living on occupied Dakota & Anishinaabe land in Minneapolis, MN. In 2006 they began working directly with plants for their own healing + survival & they've been supporting their friends, family, & community members by connecting them with herbs since 2012. They create herbal elixirs & botanical body care products with wild foraged, locally, & ethically sourced plants crafted in harmony with the seasons & infused with gem & astrological essences. Currently, they’re completing a Master Clinical Herbalism Program through the Green Wisdom School of Natural and Botanical Medicine. They founded Herbalists for Racial Justice to collect, create, & redistribute herbal supports to indigenous folks & people of color in the Twin Cities & beyond in the wake of sustained, relentless, & state-sanctioned violence against first nations people & communities of color. They are also an energy worker, a full spectrum doula, & co-founder of the SPIRAL Collective, a reproductive justice collective which provides free, compassionate, non-judgemental support to the full-spectrum of people across all pregnancy outcomes & reproductive experiences. website
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Stacey Quade is a Certified Healing Touch Practitioner and Instructor (CHTP/I), Herbalist, and Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA/L) living and practicing in Duluth, MN.
“I have been studying and practicing herbal medicine since 2002. I teach a variety of herbal and wellness classes in the Duluth area and surrounding region. I began my journey in Healing Touch in 2002, and became certified in 2004. I became a level 1 workshop instructor in 2014. I use Healing Touch in private practice, offer services in the Duluth Essentia Health system and teach regional classes. I have worked since 1988 in the field of Occupational Therapy at a medical rehabilitation facility. My area of specialization is in Traumatic Brain Injury recovery. I have assisted people of all ages (from less than one year old to over 100) recover from various traumas.” |
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Chris Wright is a researcher in mycology and a mycological entrepreneur. He received a Ph.D. in fungal ecology from the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University, and a B.Sc. in Psychology from Northern Michigan University. His primary research interests are focused on mushroom producing fungi, lignolytic soil fungi and fungi living in the human microbiome. He is also an avid mushroom cultivator, and is the president of Easygrow Mushrooms and Composting LLC. Chris conducts mushroom cultivation programs all across Michigan, including an annual class at Michigan State University's Student Organic Farm. website
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Jess Krueger works with families to develop wellness through nourishing and dynamic herbal education according to their individual needs. She loves to teach people about plants: how to ID them, how to utilize them and how to make home made remedies. While in college many moons ago she happened upon an herbal conference at the now defunct Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies and it's been a love affair ever since. Following the winding path she's then taught & attended numerous workshops, studied with many of our herbal gems, facilitated first aid/wellness tents at gatherings, co-owned two different herbal CSA's, edited a few herbal zines and in general had a real honest time of it. Owl & Crow Herbal CSA is her most recent endevour, co-owned with herbalist Tracy Mangold in Viroqua, WI. website
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Heather Irvine: Finding nature everywhere and getting at the trickier questions in herbalism are two of her inclinations. For ten years she grew, gathered & tinctured a variety of up to three hundred plants for her small Vermont based business Giving Tree Botanicals. She is originally from the Buckeye State. Her current projects are teaching "Actions and Chemistry" (a comprehensive course about herbal actions and phytochemistry) at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism and offering an array of public classes in herbalism.
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Cali Janae is a plant and nature lover with a passion for accessible and empowering healthcare for self and community. Cali’s love for the wild was sparked early in life on plant and bird walks with their father in central Iowa. Cali’s training includes a Bachelor’s degree in Ethnobotany from Drake University. Following this up, Cali studied for three years at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine, completing the Community Herbalism Intensive and two years of apprenticeship alongside 7Song. During this time Cali worked as a volunteer clinical herbalist at the Ithaca Free Clinic in Ithaca, New York. Cali is currently works as a community and clinical herbalist and botanist in their own practice. In their free time they enjoy celebrating time with friends, beer-brewing, fermentation, gardening and bird watching.
“Cali Janae” on Facebook |
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Lynn Abbey Zukowski is the owner of Blue Lake Botanicals LLC. A lifelong interest in gardening and natural history, a background in infectious disease research and experience as a counselor were all helpful, when she decided to become an herbalist. Lynn was blessed to learn first experientially from the plants by growing, harvesting and wildcrafting herbs and using them. She has also studied with Aviva Romm, Pam Montgomery, Cathy Skipper and others. She frequently speaks to groups and is passionate about sharing her love for plants. website
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Joseph Quade of Great Lakes Therapies is a Physical Therapist specializing in manual and movement therapies for chronic and acute pain, injury prevention and rehabilitation, and overall physical/mental/emotional healing.
“I provide an integrative approach, tailored to fit your needs to get you empowered, moving, and connected to your body. I incorporate Manual Therapy techniques and modalities, education in basic system principles of therapeutic exercise/activity; psychosomatic influences, nutrition/herbs, and energetic fields. This approach is for everybody and requires full, active participation in the healing process. Your health and well being is in your hands and it can be fun!” |
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Since 1981, Janice Marsh-Prelesnik, owner and director of Creative Health Arts, has been a community healer from beginning of life care to the end of life care! For 35 years she worked as a home birth midwife (now retired as of 2016) while incorporating herbs and massage therapy into her practice. Currently Janice offers expressive arts/music therapy for those in end of life care and dementia care, and sound healing and acupuncture. Throughout all the changes of Creative Health Arts the healing plants have always been a foundation of Janice’s work in creating nourishment and wellness.
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Angela McElroy has her Bachelors Degree in Science and Human Services and is also Naturopathic Practitioner with a special interest in herbal remedies and children’s health. Angela is the founder of Dorr To Eden (animal assisted naturopathy and holistic counseling), which focuses to support, encourage, balance, and bring healing to children and families struggling with ADHD, anger, anxiety, and other emotional imbalances using a holistic approach with herbs and horses.
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Tina Stone is a community herbalist who is grateful for all that herbal wisdom has done to nourish her life and family. Herbalism, the medicine of the people, is fun, affordable, approachable, and makes every day rituals steeped with wonder and love. She is a student of jim mcdonald’s herbal intensive and other great teachers and she loves to read and study on her own. Her focus is on educating children (she has 8) to have a love of nature, art, history, music, handcrafts, and herbalism. Handmade remedies from her kitchen shared with friends is her passion - sharing the empowerment and ancient knowledge of Western Herbalism.
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Tricia Bellew is a Traditional Naturopathic Herbalist, who is passionate about empowering others to take charge of their own health. A homeschooling mother of two young wildflowers, Tricia is dedicated to helping the sacred healing traditions that she has studied to take root once again; planting seeds of knowledge within her community, as she tends to her own herbal garden of life & love. |
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Rowena Conahan is a certified Montessori teacher, with background as a homeschool parent and as assistant in a Waldorf-based forest kindergarten. She has attended Tom Brown’s Tracker School in New Jersey, Wilderness Awareness School and the 8 Shields Institute’s Art of Mentoring, and Kamana Naturalist Training program. She is also a founder of Nature Learning Community, where she teaches nature connection and outdoors skills classes for people of all ages, and consults with educators seeking to increase outdoors experience for their students.
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Sara Evans is a homeschooling mama that lives in Leonard, MI.
She loves building and creating all types of magic. |
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Linda Conroy is a bioregional herbalist. She is inspired by the plants and the feminine. She is the founder of Moonwise Herbs as well as the Midwest Women’s Herbal Conference. Linda has apprenticed with and studied with world renowned herbalists and has herself offered workshops and apprenticeship programs for 2 decades. Her passion is herbal nourishment through community, wild food and wild medicine.
http://moonwiseherbs.com/ www.midwestwomensherbal.com |
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Leigh Ann Phillips-Knope, MA, RYT loves sharing her passions for Yoga and connecting with the Earth! Through 15 years of teaching Yoga to diverse populations, she has cultivated an inspiring and empowering approach--inviting students to connect to the teacher within. Leigh Ann's classes are a healing journey, filled with deep exploration, emotional release, therapeutic breath work and earth-based practices. She artfully weaves in poetry, freedom and curiosity--teaching accessible themes for taking Yoga off the mat and into our daily lives. The Co-Director of Roots of Change, Leigh Ann integrates a wonderfully diverse background in the healing arts, social action and community development. She's lives in Ann Arbor with her wife, in a purple farmhouse, where she learns from the wisdom of the plants and Nature with their 5-year-old wood-sprite son. website
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Lisa M. Rose is an herbalist, forager, and author. With a background in anthropology and a professional focus on community health and local food systems; she has gathered her food, farming, and wild plant knowledge from many people and places along a very delicious journey. Beyond the Great Lakes, Lisa’s interest in ethnobotany and herbal medicine has taken her across the United States and into the Yucatan, mainland Mexico, Nicaragua, and Brazil to study plants, people, health, and their connection to place. When she is not in her own gardens or kitchen; Lisa can be found in the fields and forests, leading foraging plant walks and teaching classes on edible and medicinal wild plants. As a distance runner, she likes to often combine marathon training with her harvesting excursions. Lisa forages for her own family, herbal apothecary and community herbalism practice with her favorite harvesting companion – her dog, Rosie.
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Leslie Williams has deep family roots in Illinois farm country and UP Michigan. She lived several years in Cincinnati as well as NE Ohio and did volunteer naturalist work in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, as well as work helping set up free clinics in Cleveland, OH. She a working herbalist for 30+ years combining many strands of herbal tradition and real life practice with people dealing with chronic conditions, economic realities, addictions, disempowerment. Her teachers have been Radical Faeries, TCM herbalists, Ayurvedic physicians, grannies and the Lloyd Library - and especially her clients and students. She also works with dogs and horses. www.ordinaryherbalist.com
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Victoria Voges is of Potawatomi descent with ties to the “ Three Fires People “ here in MIchigan. She is the Educational Director of Nokomis Native American Center in Okemos Michigan. She has been a teacher at Lansing Community College for 40 years in the field of Health and Wellness and is a traditional dancer and now an Elder. Victoria has taught at many retreats over the years on numerous subjects related to good living and Native American Teachings. She has her own gardening business known as “ Redtail Gardening and Landscaping Services". She is here to help as long as Creator sees fit for her to be alive.
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