A quick summary
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As an ethnobotanist and writer with a strong background in action research and community engagement, I delight in exploring the elegant complexity of natural and cultural systems with others. In all of my work, I place an emphasis on close observation, active listening and interdisciplinary thinking to address social and ecological challenges creatively.
My key professional strengths include writing and editing, curriculum development, teaching, facilitation, participatory action research, local and international community-building, and kindness. My ethnobotanical expertise lies in sustainable wild-harvesting practices for medicinal plants of the Pacific Northwest and northern Appalachian bioregions. |
A slightly longer story
Raised in the woods of rural Ontario, I was introduced to the living world around me as a place of immeasurable beauty, intelligence and power. Aligning my individual existence with that of the larger community of life has been the focus of my education since the time I was very small.
While studying for my undergraduate degree in literature and environmental studies at the University of Victoria, I had the privilege of taking classes with ethnobotanist Dr Nancy Turner. Nancy's work opened my eyes to the diverse and sophisticated relationships between Indigenous peoples and local plants in the Pacific Northwest bioregion, and catalyzed my desire to explore relationships of reciprocity between people and landscapes. I spent the next five years studying, practicing and writing about medical ethnobotany, ecological agriculture and permaculture design, quietly gathering stories of cultural and ecological restoration and healing.
In 2010, I returned to university to earn a Masters of Holistic Science degree at Schumacher College (University of Plymouth) in Devon, England, and again focused on medical ethnobotany. My community-based research, inspired by eco-cultural restoration projects being undertaken in Indigenous communities such as Waglisla (Bella Bella), British Columbia, explored honourable wild-harvesting practices with a focus on the medicinal shrub Oplopanax horridus, or Devil's Club. This intensive period of study and field work refined my perception of nature's intelligence as it flows through plants and people, and continues to deeply influence my teaching and writing today.
Since completing my Masters degree, I have taught or facilitated courses on ethnobotany, sustainability and community resilience at Pacific Rim College, Schumacher College, Earthspring Sanctuary, McGill University's Office of Sustainability, and in the woods and fields of my new home, the Eastern Townships of Québec. I continue to explore, teach and write about these topics alongside an international community of teachers, colleagues and friends.
While studying for my undergraduate degree in literature and environmental studies at the University of Victoria, I had the privilege of taking classes with ethnobotanist Dr Nancy Turner. Nancy's work opened my eyes to the diverse and sophisticated relationships between Indigenous peoples and local plants in the Pacific Northwest bioregion, and catalyzed my desire to explore relationships of reciprocity between people and landscapes. I spent the next five years studying, practicing and writing about medical ethnobotany, ecological agriculture and permaculture design, quietly gathering stories of cultural and ecological restoration and healing.
In 2010, I returned to university to earn a Masters of Holistic Science degree at Schumacher College (University of Plymouth) in Devon, England, and again focused on medical ethnobotany. My community-based research, inspired by eco-cultural restoration projects being undertaken in Indigenous communities such as Waglisla (Bella Bella), British Columbia, explored honourable wild-harvesting practices with a focus on the medicinal shrub Oplopanax horridus, or Devil's Club. This intensive period of study and field work refined my perception of nature's intelligence as it flows through plants and people, and continues to deeply influence my teaching and writing today.
Since completing my Masters degree, I have taught or facilitated courses on ethnobotany, sustainability and community resilience at Pacific Rim College, Schumacher College, Earthspring Sanctuary, McGill University's Office of Sustainability, and in the woods and fields of my new home, the Eastern Townships of Québec. I continue to explore, teach and write about these topics alongside an international community of teachers, colleagues and friends.
Gratitude
I extend profound gratitude and respect to the many teachers I have been so fortunate to learn from and work with throughout my life, including ethnobotanist Nancy Turner; community herbalists Saci Spindler, Shauna Bernadette and Rosemary Gladstar; Heiltsuk elder and teacher Hilistis (Pauline Waterfall); ecologist Stephan Harding; physicist and philosopher Henri Bortoft; systems theorist Philip Franses; and mythologist Jules Cashford. I am also deeply influenced by the brilliant writing of biologist Rachel Carson, cultural ecologist David Abram and ethnobotanist Robin Wall Kimmerer. Thank you!
