The short story: I am a clinical herbalist and grow a wide variety of medicinal herbs on my farm in Berea, KY, in the foothills of Appalachia. I have an M.S. in Therapeutic Herbalism from Maryland University of Integrative Health, am a member of the American Herbalists Guild and United Plant Savers, an organizer of The Kentucky Herbalism Alliance and The Whippoorwill Festival, and a member of the Kentucky Heartwood Forest Council. I offer educational workshops, naturally-grown medicinal herb products, and clinical herbal consultations with a mission to make herbal medicine affordable and accessible to all.
The longer story: While I have always loved nature, medicinal plants first sparked my interest after graduating with a B.A. in Anthropology from Centre College that led into an archaeological internship for the National Park Service at Montezuma Well National Monument in Arizona. While studying the artifacts of the ancient inhabitants, I became fascinated by their use of the desert plants, many of which had medicinal properties! This position, along with another in North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park, helped me learn plant identification while educating park visitors on their historical uses by indigenous people as well as European immigrants.
A search for more stable employment in my home state of Kentucky led me to corporate America, where I have held a variety of communication and project management positions over the last 12 years and also obtained an M.A. in Communication from the University of Louisville. In my free time, I continued to educate myself on natural health and managed a community garden in my neighborhood. Meanwhile, the plants kept calling me louder and louder until I realized I wanted to get serious! There are no herb schools in Kentucky, so the Therapeutic Herbalism program at Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) was a perfect fit. I supplemented my online education from MUIH with in-person and hands-on education at various herb conferences and workshops with respected herbalists. I am working toward becoming a Registered Herbalist (RH) with the American Herbalists Guild.
I share my herbal knowledge through holistic health consultations, educational workshops, planning conferences, providing GMP consultation services to small businesses, and creating products for Kentucky’s first “Community Supported Herbalism” business. In doing so, I share my passion for medicinal plant conservation, Kentucky’s natural resources, and herbalism as “medicine for the people” in order to expand knowledge and use of herbal products in Kentucky and grow our herbal industry in a sustainable way.