Sacred Plant Traditions
STAFF

Kat Maier RH, (AHG) is the founder and director of Sacred Plant Traditions, a center for herbal studies in Charlottesville, Virginia. One of her greatest accomplishments has been to train many clinical herbalists who have gone onto to begin other schools, apothecaries or open practices. In clinical practice for over 30 years, Kat teaches internationally at universities, conferences, and herbal schools. She is a founding member of Botanica Mobile Clinic, a nonprofit dedicated to providing accessible herbal medicine to local communities. This grew out of her school’s free clinic which was one of the first on the east coast and went on to be a template for other schools. She began her study of plants as a Peace Corps volunteer, and her training as a Physician’s Assistant allows her to weave the language of biomedicine into her practice of traditional energetic herbalism. She is coauthor of Bush Medicine of San Salvador Island, Bahamas. As a passionate steward of the plants, Kat also served as president of United Plant Savers and was the recipient of the organization’s first Medicinal Plant Conservation Award.

Angel Shockley is a gardener, medicine maker and perennial experimenter. She began gardening as a teenager in her rural Virginia home and has been exploring the green world since. She is the creative force behind Herb Angel and is conspiring with the universe to have as much fun as possible.

Suzanna Stone is an herbalist in Scottsville VA. She founded Owlcraft Healing Ways where she offers clinical herbal consultations and teaches nine-month herbal apprenticeships and day classes in herbal medicine, traditional foodways, and plant spirit medicine. She is a graduate of Sacred Plant Traditions’ clinical training program and now serves as a guest lecturer there and at other herbal schools and conferences throughout the East Coast. Suzanna is also a co-facilitator of rites of passage for young girls with the Living Earth School in Afton, VA. She lives on five acres of plant filled land with her artist/writer partner, their three homeschooled children and various chickens, goats, cats and the canine herbalist Artemis.

Mimi Hernandez, MS, RH(AHG), comes from a background as a clinical herbalist, educator, and ethnobotanist. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the American Herbalists Guild and formerly held the position of Coordinator of the Appalachian Center for Ethnobotanical studies at Frostburg State University. With roots in Asheville, NC, Mimi mentors community and clinical herbalists through One World Healing Community network and her formulas are featured through Mortar and Pestle Apothecary. Mimi’s courses balance scientific understanding with traditional reverence and intuitive awareness and she draws upon her rich ethnic background & the Granny healers in her life. Aside from her Latin American Grandmothers her important mentors have included James Duke, Rocio Alarcon, and Simon Mills. Mimi believes that the handing down of plant wisdom is essential and it is her life’s work to advocate for traditional and professional herbal pathways while building cultural bridges of understanding.

Lorna Mauney-Brodek is a traveling herbalist, medicine maker, wildcrafter and teacher.  Much of her herbwork supports organizations dedicated to promoting diversity, environmental responsibility, and social justice. Growing up “americana,” her health practices reflect the abundantly diverse influences of these lands to blend western medical herbalism, traditional chinese five phase, Ayurveda, and southern folk.  Early barefoot adventures in the Appalachian foothills and global wanderings with tent-packing parents led to more formal trainings in plant medicine.  She completed an herbal residency with Michael Moore at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine and her clinical internship at the Blue Ridge School for Herbal Studies. She offers a sliding scale herbal clinic in East Atlanta and leads the Harriet Tubman Free Foot Clinic, and The Herbalista Free Clinic (also known as the Herb Bus.) Lorna teaches at various venues around the southeast, including BotanoLogos, the Blue Ridge School, the Homestead Atlanta, and The Herb Kitchen.

Rosita Arvigo, Doctor of Naprapathy, ethnobotanist, spiritual healer, author of six books on traditional healing of Central America, co-founder of The Belize Ethnobotany Project with Dr. Michael Balick of the New York Botanical Garden , international speaker, founder of Ix Chel Tropical Research Centre in Belize, founder of the Rainforest Medicine Trail, Terra Nova Medicinal Plant Reserve, children’s Bush Medicine Summer Camp in Belize, thirteen-year apprentice to the one of the last Maya shamans, Don Elijio Panti, recipient of The Earth Award, 2007, founder of The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy and courses in Maya Spiritual Healing.

Phyllis D. Light is a fourth generation herbalist and healer, consultant, and author. She has studied and worked with herbs, foods and other healing techniques for over 30 years. Her well-established reputation and knowledgeable expertise has allowed her to travel far a field of her Southern Appalachian home, lecturing and teaching about herbs, integrative and complementary healthcare and traditional folk healing techniques. Consequently, she has taught and lectured at herb schools, universities, medical schools, hospitals, conferences and natural health food stores across the country. Phyllis is an American Herbalist Guild professional member, a national CEU provider for nurses through Diversified Nursing Services, and Director of Herbal Studies at Clayton College of Natural Health. She is contributing writer to several consumer magazines, has co-authored a paper for a medical journal, and is currently working on her book Southern Folk Medicine: Yesterday and Today which explores the principles and practices of Appalachian Folk Medicine.

In 1994, jim mcdonald’s life changed when he drank tea from a wild plant he harvested from the land he lived upon. Since those first sips of strange tea, his life in the woods and meadows of southeast michigan has been centered on the plants & ecosystems of that land, and how he might share their virtues to restore wellness with those around him. jim’s approach to herbcraft is deeply rooted in the land he lives upon, and blends traditional european folk influences with 19th century eclectic and physiomedical vitalism, which he conveys with story, experience, humour, common sense and lore to students, clients, random passersby and readers of his websites www.herbcraft.org & herbcraft.podia.com.

Holly Poole-Kavana is a practicing herbalist, medicine-maker, and educator based in Washington DC. An early affinity for plants eventually led her to earn a bachelor’s degree in botany from Cornell University, and she continued her obsession by studying herbal medicine at the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine, apprenticing with herbalist 7song, and completing the clinic 2 program at Sacred Plant Traditions. In 2010 she started Little Red Bird Botanicals, offering an herbal CSA, sliding-scale practice, and frequent classes on sustainable herbalism and botany. Holly also works as an out-of-hospital birth assistant at two DC-area birth centers.

Tammi Sweet, a passionate and energetic teacher, brings 28 years teaching experience into the classroom. Her amazement and wonder of the human body and how it works shines through as she presents the material in ways people can understand and utilize. She loves integrating the wisdom of the body with all aspects of living. Presently she co-directs her Herbal Program at Heartstone Herbal School, and teaches Anatomy and Physiology and herbalism at Herbal schools and conferences throughout the country. Her learning of the body has come through many paths including traditional Master’s level college studies in Neurobiology, teaching College Anatomy & Physiology, Massage School, Yoga Teacher Training, Herbal studies, collegiate athletics and most importantly, an ever-growing love of understanding who we are in relation with this wonderful home we call the earth

Matthew Wood has been a practicing herbalist since 1982. While Matthew believes in the virtue of many other healing modalities, he has always been inspired to learn, preserve, and practice the tradition of herbal medicine descending to us from our European, Anglo-American, and Native American heritage. He is a member of the American Herbalists Guild (registered herbalist) and has earned his Masters of Science degree from the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine (accredited by the University of Wales).