Fatima Abdallah Bloom Series "I'm a birth doula, childbirth educator, Innate Postpartum Provider and traditional postpartum doula who has a deep interest in traditional postpartum nutrition, bodywork and rituals from a traditional lens and a deep interest in collecting stories of postpartum traditions that I come across through my work with my community. I'm based in the DMV region and am a mother to 4."
Brenda Amaya Birthkeeper Series Brenda Amaya is a NOVA birth photographer, doula and mentor. Her mission is to offer wholehearted support for birthing people and Birthkeepers, especially Latino folks. She was born in El Salvador and raised in Virginia. Her traumatic first birthing experience brought her into birth photography and little by little she realized that with support, resources and birth education. Birth outcomes can look very different. Postpartum support is specially important to her as she has had night and day experiences in her own postpartums. She is currently studying traditional midwifery with an amazing Salvadorian traditional partera. And hopes to keep sharing her mix of Salvadorian roots and US upbringing into her birth work. Follow on social media: @the_doulatog
Qiddist Ashé Bloom Series Qiddist (she/they) is a womb healing coach, radical birth keeper, and clinical herbalist for reproductive health. She is the co-founder of Ashé Living, where she supports people from menstruation to menopause in reclaiming authority over their health and learning to radically care for their physical, emotional and spiritual womb. Qiddist is committed to the interweaving of ancestral work and womb health sciences with the work of liberation, and seeks to create more opportunities for Black and Indigenous people of color and queer and trans folx to remember and reclaim their own lineages of healing power.
Divine Bailey- Nicholas Birthkeeper Series Divine Bailey-Nicholas is a Trained Birth Assistant, Doula, Certified Lactation Counselor and Master Herbalist in the Southern Tradition. Originally from Chicago, IL, she is proud of her Delta Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia roots. It is that cultural foundation, that breathes through her plant medicine and birth work. Divine is also the Founder and Executive Director of Community Birth Companion, a non profit organization working to decrease infant and maternal mortality rates through childbirth education, breastfeeding support and community doulas in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana where she resides with her husband and 4 children.
Charmaine Bee Bloom Series Memory and ancestral lineage pay a vital role in my herbalism work. I often think back to my grandmother, Lucretia Bee and her home in South Carolina that was filled with so many things that I could just sit and stare at all day - like the big pecan tree in front yard and a red well pump in her backyard - the image of that pump has stayed with me and whenever I think of and have dreams about the land my grandmother once owned the red well pump handle is there. I learned to process and interpret my dreams while growing up in South Carolina and this was pivotal to the development of listening to my intuition. The process of intuitively listening and supporting others in hearing their intuition is [deeply grounded in my memories on that land and incorporated into the creation of my teas and tinctures. In 2009 Gullah Girl Tea was born with the mission to create small batch healing tea blends that honored my Gullah Heritage. After starting Gullah Girl Tea I studied medicinal and spiritual herbalism in the Sacred Vibes Apothecary apprenticeship program with Karen Rose, it was important for me to study with a teacher who emphasized the spirituality of plant energy. Within my studies I learned how to make tinctures! I loved the process and began to make tincture formulas alongside my tea blends, to support my emotional healing, dream work and depression. I began to share them with friends and people who loved my tea. It is my absolute joy and pleasure to share my line of tinctures with you and to support you in your journey in whatever way that I can!
Yuma 'Docta Yew" Bellomee Herbal Program Yuma "Docta Yew" Bellomee is a Certified Holistic Health Consultant, herbalist, wellness advocate/educator, and musical artist, who has been featured in numerous radio programs, natural hair, health & beauty expos, magazine articles, and community and school programs as a speaker and workshop facilitator on wholistic wellness. He is also the founder of Yew-360 Wholistic Health & Wellness- https://www.yew360.com/, co-founder of Ni Dembaya African Drum & Dance Ensemble, and a member of the Collective Health Initiative (CHI) and African Wholistic Health Association (AWHA).
Molly Meehan Brown Bloom Series, Birthkeeper Series, Herbal Program & Home Cooking Series Molly Meehan Brown (she/her/hers) is an herbalist, gardener, and organizer passionate about community based herbal and food systems and specifically working cooperatively to keep the knowledge of our food, herbal medicine, seeds, and our healing traditions alive and vital within our communities! Molly and her family manage Wild Ginger Community Herbal Center programs while they live half the year in the DC Area and the other half the year in Talamanca, Costa Rica. She coordinates and teaches as part of the community based herbal apprenticeship program, facilitates youth programming, and coordinates the annual Chesapeake Herb Gathering, Ylang Ylang Gathering & more! Molly enjoys spending time with her family and kids in the garden or at the beach, facilitating workshops as well as connecting people and plants, and building in community.
Alda Cook Bloom Series & Home Cooking Series Alda Cook loves sharing her Costa Rican traditions through her cooking classes and medicinal plant walks. She keeps her ancestral healing and foodways alive in her village in Costa Rica by passing on the medicinal plant knowledge taught to her by her grandmother.
Ellenie Marie Cruz Birthkeeper Series & Herbal Program Educator, Poet, Student Midwife, Doula, Asc3nding Herbalist, Reiki Master, Food Literacy Educator, Artist, Designer and Founder of Ac3nsion Art LLC- Ellenie Marie Cruz uses her given and learned talents to promote the art of ancestral practices to heal self, family and community. Motivated by social justice, she has shifted from being a high school English teacher to a free agent and entrepreneur promoting radical change through holistic wellness, self-care and community building.. Ellenie serves and impacts her community through birthwork work and Atabey School of Cultural Healing by offering courses and care that centers Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. She is the SOUL Organizer of the NOLA Herb Gathering, and author of the poetry book Saturn Return I: Glimpses of the past. Ellenie teaches with the Samara School of Community Herbalism and Wild Ginger Herbal Center and travels to teach and lecture on the subjects of radical full spectrum birth work, herbalism, community care, and more in small intimate group spaces and larger conferences.
Karen Culpepper Herbal Program Karen L. Culpepper is a clinical herbalist and licensed massage therapist in the DMV. She is the founder of The KLCC Collective, a healing arc that is a container for us to reimagine what healing, wellness, vitality and reclamation can look like for every body. She works in Maryland and holds space for herbal consultations, bodywork, runs a closed end apothecary and is the creatress of small batch organic herbal products and potions that keep folks, communities and movement spaces well and thriving. Karen can be found on Facebook Karen L. Culpepper, IG @klcccollective (you can find all the handles there) and she can be reached at [email protected].
Sarah Damian Bloom Series Sarah Damian is an outdoor educator who loves supporting kids and adults explore their inner artist. With a background in creative storytelling and herbal medicine, she builds curricula to inspire an interactive and seasonal connection with the world around us. Sarah was a student of Wild Ginger Community Herbal Center’s pilot herbal program in 2012 and has been on a path of rediscovery ever since. Through experiential and playful curiosity, she holds space for others to explore and reconnect with their intuition, natural rhythms, and creative capacities. Music, movement, and the more-than-human world (including plants, birds, the moon, and Mercury) are her most powerful muses and creative collaborators. You can find her on Instagram @sedamian and her collage creations @magpiemuze.
Raven Davis Bloom Series Baltimore born and bred, I've lived here all my life. I come from a large, loving and close-knit family whose ancestors migrated to Baltimore from the North Carolina and the Eastern Shore; the Drews and Scotts. I love to cook and create new recipes with the food that I grow. I've been married for three years to Ramadan, and I have two nieces whom I adore, Yuri and Oyana. I graduated from the University of Baltimore with a Bachelors in Health Systems Administration. Later I studied at Towson for a bit in the Health Science: Community Health Program and that is where my interest in farming began. Since then, I have been a part of several urban farm teams, learning from Master Gardeners and experienced farmers. More recently, I've completed the first half of the Future Harvest CASA Beginner Farmer Training Program and now I'm fulfilling the 200 hour apprenticeship at Whitelock under the Master Gardener, Ms. Kimberly. I have been a teacher in the Baltimore City Public School system as well as on the farm. I've taught 5th grade Science, food apartheid lectures, seed starting, and a host of other food and farm related material. My goals are to become financially free, live on my own farmland, and continue to build toward black liberation through controlling the land and our food systems.
Geoff Edwards Bloom Series & Herbal Program Geoffrey Edwards is an educator and healing artist whose practice encompasses herbalism, community acupuncture, urban farming, and the expressive arts. He is the Owner of Nu Grain & Pestle, an herb apothecary based in Rockville Maryland. In addition to his practice, Geoffrey also holds positions at Maryland University of Integrative Health as Dispensary Supervisor, Teaching Clinic Supervisor, and Guest Lecturer in the Chinese herbs and acupuncture programs, respectively. While completing his studies in acupuncture Geoffrey began the process of cultivating what he now calls the “Healing Arts Garden” which includes a wide selection of perennial herbs and continues to expand each year. Nu Healing Arts Garden is a teaching home garden that primarily functions as a space for the preservation of a variety of medicinal North American, African and Asian perennial medicinal herbs. The garden features an herb nursery for rare, niche ethnic crops and grows plants which are processed (dried, tinctured, powdered) and sold in small batches as teas, tinctures, extracts, oil infusions, and compresses.
Sun English Herbal Program Sun (Bobby) English Jr. (they/them/she/her) is a QTPOC herbalist, farmer, educator, and ritual performance artist of African and Accohannock descent from Baltimore. They spend their days creating with Earth, Wood, Voice, and Metal; whether that be in the garden, wood shop, metal shop, or the apothecary. Community care and transformative justice are extremely important to them; and this passion has led them to found Melanated Medicinals and the Liberation Seed Farm.
Olivia Fite Birthkeeper Series & Herbal Program Olivia Fite (she/her) is a herbalist momma living in Portugal. She is the founder of Oherbals, an apothecary and teaching space in Baltimore, MD. Olivia is overjoyed to be a forever student of medicinal plants!
Kara Fleshman Bloom Series Kara is an artist, a teacher, and long term plant nerd always deepening and strengthening her relationship to herself, to her body, to the earth, to history, and to all beings. Kara currently designs curriculum and teaches Art and Science at an Elementary School in East Oakland, passionately building curriculum that centers healing, interconnection, historical understanding, systems thinking, and hands-on skill building. She also runs her own small businesses formulating custom herbal remedies, silkscreening custom textiles, and designing accessible interdisciplinary critical, culturally relevant, hands-on curriculum for both teachers and homeschooling families. Kara earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems where focusing on sustainable alternatives to the extractive and exploitative nature of textile and food systems. While in school she engaged in deep self study of farming and textile arts, working as a teacher for both adults and preschoolers teaching farming, weaving, natural dyeing, sewing and more. She developed a passion for creating beauty and change within the education system, later earning her Multiple Subject teaching credential and then Masters of Education focusing on decolonizing science curriculum and teaching literacy through hands-on project based units in Early Elementary. Her greatest peace and growth have always been found in hands on-action, creation, service and community.
Muneera Fontaine Birthkeeper Series Muneera Fontaine is mother to three children 22, 14, and 6. She first became interested in birth when planning her own VBAC. After successfully reaching her goal with the help of a supportive midwife and her husband, she realized that she wanted to help others learn more and reach the same goals. She learned about being a doula and immediately began studying and attending births. She has been attending births since 2008. She has served over 500 people and families across the services she provides. She currently practices as a Birth and Postpartum Doula, Child Birth Educator, Peer Lactation Consultant, and Womb Healer.
Moss Froom Birthkeeper Series Moss Froom is a nonbinary doula and childbirth educator living in Baltimore, MD. Moss offers trans and queer centered support services for people at all stages of their family building journeys, and teaches other birth workers how to provide support that's affirming and celebratory of trans and queer families.
Lindsay Gary Bloom Series Lindsay Gary, M.P.A., M.A. is a professor-scholar, multidisciplinary artivist, and social entrepreneur whose mission is to inform, connect, and empower the African Diaspora. She achieves this mission through her scholarship, art, and social entrepreneurship.
Tyler Keegan Grigsby Bloom Series Tyler Grigsby is an educator, artist, youth worker, photographer, community organizer, herbalist and yoga teacher from Washington, DC. Tyler’s work focuses on social-emotional literacy, youth leadership development, restorative justice, harm reduction, holistic health & wellness, artistic expression and connection with nature. As an activist Tyler has contributed to various initiatives for against oppressive policing, school to prison pipeline, environmental injustice, transgender violence and gentrification in Washington, DC.
Caroline Rose Helm Bloom Series A grower, maker, creator, food lover and outdoor adventurer, Caroline is a lifelong learner whose interests continue to evolve; inspired by community and creativity. Caroline has worked as an herbal intern at Fox Haven Farm and Learning center in Frederick MD, as well recently completing Wild Ginger Herbal Apprenticeship program Year 1 at Wild Ginger Community Herbal Center.
Liz Henke Bloom Series Liz is an herbalist medicine-maker, and artisan. She currently resides in Charlottesville, VA with her husband, two children, and her lovable pup. Liz has a passion for plants, as well as crafting and creating. She enjoys finding ways of honoring the sacred in her daily life and sharing that love with her community.
Namita Kulkarni Bloom Series I'm an Indian yoga teacher, writer and artist. I've been teaching Yoga for 11 years. I've taught in 4 countries, primarily India. I used to be a full-time artist before I began teaching Yoga professionally, and now I'm indulging in both of these passions - art and teaching Yoga - and finding a nice synergy between the two. I also love writing and a lot of my writing is up on my website www.radicallyeverafter.com, ranked one of the top 50 Yoga blogs worldwide.
Brita LaTona Bloom Series Brita LaTona is a Clinical Herbalist and Eco-Wellness Practitioner in Northern Colorado. Her deep interest and passion is in Intuitive Plant Healing approaches, Ecotherapy, and Nature-Connection practices. She currently works as a Clinical Herbalist at Golden Poppy Herbal Apothecary in Fort Collins, CO. Brita has worked as an Instructor for Plant Medicine Workshops and community over the past 6 years and has taught classes on over 40 different topics in herbalism and holistic wellness. Over the past 3 years she has facilitated full-day and weekend-long Wild Plant Medicine Workshops in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Brita enjoys working with clients and teaching from a holistic perspective, using plants as healing allies to aid in achieving balance on physical, spiritual and emotional levels.
Calyx Liddick Bloom Series Calyx is a bioregional clinical herbalist and nutritionist and director of the Northern Appalachia School. Upon graduating from the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism, she returned to the mountains of central Pennsylvania where she was born and raised. She integrates the long, rich history of traditional herbalism with modern science to help others heal themselves and their communities through reconnecting with the land and cultivating relationships with the flora around them.
Christina Lynch Bloom Series Christina Lynch has over thirteen years of experience with small businesses and entrepreneurs. She has worked in and with businesses in a wide range of industries including information technology, public relations, high tech start-ups, media broadcasting, construction, beauty, insurance, non-profit organizations, and religious institutions. Her passion is assisting and elevating small businesses through her expertise in accounting, human resources, and risk management. She prides herself on the flexibility and non-judgmental approach she has with her clients and business partners. She can bring calm to a chaotic situation and order when things are getting out of hand. Besides serving as the managing owner of Trydent Consulting, she is also a community herbalist located in Tallahassee, Florida, the founder of The Ginger Tea Company, and Founding Co-Coordinator of Herbalists Without Borders of the Big Bend.
Madison Mccoy Bloom Series Madison is an activist, healer, organizer, lifelong-learner, peacemaker, plant lover and connector. She is deeply passionate about creating and supporting spaces that celebrate and empower people. She is the founder Of Earth and Sea, a liminal space for the soul and the physical to meet.
Jay Michonski Bloom Series Jay Michonski is a horticulturist, farmer, seed keeper, “dirt wizard”, educator, and naturalist with a passion for plant-mineral relationships, vinegar, and grape vine baskets. He operates Mycodynamics, a holistic farm and soil care consultation firm. They are a budding herbalist who passionately studies gender affirming herbal support for trans folks with an eye towards future community practice.
Malika Hook Muhammad Birthkeeper Series Malika trained to be a doula in 2008 by Debra Pascali-Bonoro, author of Orgasmic Birth. After training, she spent several years working with the Philadelphia Alliance for Labor Support (PALS), providing childbirth education and support to families with limited financial resources. Malika moved to the DC metro Area in 2011 set-up shop as The DC Doula. With the help of an amazing doula and her husband, Malika peacefully navigated 50 hours of active labor that resulted in the birth of a fantastic little boy. In her spare time, Malika enjoys practicing yoga, studying herbalism, and learning about natural healing. In her other career, Malika obtained Masters degrees in Social Work and Education from Columbia University and Baruch College in New York City.
Ayo Ngozi Herbal Program & Home Cooking Series Ayo is an herbalist, artist, and cultural worker committed to documenting traditional herbal practices of the African diaspora and making evidence-based herbal education accessible to all. She is a longtime instructor at Wild Ginger Herbal Center, has contributed to courses at the Herbal Academy and Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, and teaches at conferences and herbal programs in the US and abroad. Ayo is based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where she owns a small herbal business, The Creative Root.
Magic Nocks Bloom Series Magic is a white, queer, nonbinary femme folk herbalist, zinester, witch, and educator. They offer free and paid workshops on herbal medicine and land connection, medicine making and plant study mentorship, and community space for plant-y anticapitalist queerdos. They also write zines on topics ranging from community organizing to femme power.
Queen Tuya Nu Bloom Series Queen Tuya Nu is an author, multidisciplinary artist, entrepreneur, and medicine woman. Her body of works reflect her journey of self-reclamation as an immigrant from Haiti in search of belonging and identity. Her work is designed to inspire, boost self esteem, and motivate readers to be more self-supportive and serene in their daily lives. As an ordained minister, she is the founder and director of Clearwater Wellness and Spiritual Counseling. In her "day job" she is the Chief Marketing Office at INU Marketing Services - a freelance marketing communication organization serving heart-centered entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Aylén Maquehue Ober Herbal Program & Home Cooking Series Aylén (she/they) is an Indigenous (Mapuche) Latinx herbalist currently based out of Baltimore, MD (Piscataway land). She holds a Masters degree in Clinical Herbalism from the Maryland University of Integrative Health. Aylén’s work as a healer is informed by her indigenous worldview, background as an artist and formal education. By weaving traditional healing arts from her ancestry with an evidence informed approach, she helps clients to explore all facets of their being to identify where they may need nourishment and support in their lives in a way that honors their story and identity. She has over a decade of experience working with fermented foods, both in a personal and professional capacity, working with plant-based living medicinal foods and elixirs every day. She is enthusiastic about sharing these skills and strives to help make herbal medicine and fermented foods accessible to all.
adéOni Bloom Series Afrosurrealist, land steward, and multimedia healing artist who's work creates portals to marvel.
Lara Pacheco Bloom Series Lara Pacheco is a Taíno, Boricua Latinx mamita that believes our collective liberation is accessed through decolonizing ourselves by weaving into the web of ancestral medicine. lara directly works through this realm with plants, fungi, music and dance. lara's work is inspired by their own journey of healing from a traumatic childhood of abuse and illness. lara had constantly found herself fascinated by the loose threads of traditional knowledge throughout the world from the privilege of travel and encounters from their grandmother, 'Tata' that lived with them. lara wanted to be an active participant in the preservation and propagation of traditional knowledge, the knowledge of the plants and the earth. As a Latinx, they also wanted to be a part of the accumulated awareness that her ancestors had gained in relation to illness and herbal medicine. lara's grandmother knew plants in Boriken (Puerto Rico) that could help heal, but somewhere that information has shifted in the tides of colonialism and patriarchy, and so they've been working to access it again and make that especially available to those most oppressed.
Holly Poole-Kavana Birthkeeper Series, Bloom Series & Herbal Program Holly Poole-Kavana practices as a clinical herbalist, grower, and medicine-maker in Washington DC, where her priority is connecting people to local plants.
Angela Rahim Bloom Series Angela Rahim is an herbalist, permaculturist and horticulturist from Baltimore.
Brandon Ruiz Herbal Program Brandon Ruiz is a Community Herbalist and Urban Farmer in Charlotte NC. He directs the CLT Herbal Accessibility Project and works with communities of color to reconnect them with their ancestral plants through gardens and medicine making.
Yuré Calvo Santana Bloom Series Therapist, herbalist in training (for life), mother and plant carer, Yuré has been working with plants and people since her early adult life. For the past decade she has been researching and learning about a variety of topics connected to mental health and rooted in nature: medicinal plants; their uses and benefits on health and emotional life, botany, flowers, gardening, eco-feminism, ancestral remedies and much more. She enjoys facilitating women's circles from an intersectional and sensitive approach, and incorporating integral therapies in the processes she facilitates. She works 24/7 on being herself as she realizes everyon else is taken!
Anjali Sunita Ayurveda Series HI, I'm Anjali Sunita. I’m the founder of Village Life Wellness . I create environments for individual and community health, peace, and wholeness. Through the ancient systems of yoga and Ayurveda, I work with humans who want to engage with the natural world as a means to improving quality of life. I want to empower you to express yourself without shame or apology—in the body you have today. No cookie cutter diets and fads, we uncover the natural wisdom of your body, mind, and heart. For me, yoga and ayurveda have been an integrated healing journey which not only rid me of chronic eczema and anxiety, but taught me to love the process of nourishing myself and to root out deeper seated toxic emotional stories, thereby improving relationships with myself and others. I always say ayurveda is the greatest anti-depressant! As a biracial Desi womxn, I study ayurveda with the intent to decolonize myself and learn my pre-colonial roots. Ayurveda is true mindfulness in practice; it teaches us to engage all of our senses in each moment! I have learned how to find healing with every day substances in the kitchen, bathroom, and garden -- and I want to share ways for you to do the same. I give thanks to my primary teachers Dr. Vasant Lad (The Ayurvedic Institute) and Dr. Rajesh Kalvadia (Charaka Ayurveda in Jaipur).
Pansay Tayo Birthkeeper Series Pansay Tayo is a Certified Birth Doula, Certified Birth Assistant, Certified Childbirth Educator, Placenta Encapsulation Specialist, Certified Naturopathic & Maternity Reiki Practitioner, Certified Sacred Pregnancy Retreat Facilitator, Sacred Space Creator and Spiritual Ritualist. Pansay is known as the mother to mothers, and birthing persons bringing divine love, support, and healing through each stage of life. She is determined to reclaim the SACREDNESS of WOMAN, PREGNANCY, BIRTH and TRANSITION into parenthood through her practice, Sacred Butterfly Births. Pansay creates Sacred Spaces for women and the community to feel safe & connect in sacred circle. Providing an environment of spiritual nourishment, stillness, witnessing, transparency, healing & empowerment. Sharing necessary life tools of honoring and tending to the whole person: Spirit, Mind, Body through sacred ceremony, ritual & CREATING SACRED SPACE.
Terrence Topping-Brown Bloom Series Terrence Topping-Brown is a biologist, primarily concerned with agricultural science. His experiences in research, production and urban farming provides a well rounded perspective of food systems. He utilizes these foundations as a platform to amplify the knowledge and technology of Agriculture, Cooperation and Wellness.
Lacey Walker Herbal Program & Home Cooking Series Lacey manages the education garden and builds community programs at Fox Haven Learning Center, but considers her true career to be that of a lifelong student. Her studies include herbalism, farm based education for adults and children, plant based cuisine, meditation, caring for and expanding the troop of ferment “children” she raises for gut health, the science of soil and composting, the mysterious life of companion plants, monthly wanderings to new corners of the country and the indispensable, incomparable joy of community potlucking. Lacey engages with her passion for writing by authoring Fox Haven’s monthly contribution to The Environment is You in the Frederick News Post and can sometimes be seen toting her camera around, a throwback to her time in art school pursuing a BFA in Photography at Shepherd University. More often these days she likes to keep her hands free for playing in the dirt.
Thainna Washington Home Cooking Series Thainna, pronoun She/her, was born in Los Angeles, CA but raised as a Texas native true and true. She is a mother, home school teacher, photographer, and a student of herbalism and natural medicine. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Ayurveda Wellness in hopes to create her own recipes with all of the knowledge she has learned and will continue learning. She has formal training and professional experience in the culinary arts industry where she has worked with a variety of multi-cultural cuisines. She is a passionate artist in the kitchen that believes in the limitless exploration of food not only to bring life to one’s pallet but also to bring different cultures together and as a vessel to help heal her family and those around her.
