Teachers

Paul Bergner

Paul Bergner is Director of the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism in Portland, OR where he offers seminar training in clinical skills, medical herbalism, and nutrition.  He supervised a teaching clinic in Boulder, CO from 1996 until 2012, and has edited the Medical Herbalism journal since 1989.  He has studied and practiced natural medicine, medical herbalism, and nutrition since 1973.  He has authored seven books on medical herbalism, clinical nutrition, ethnobotany, and naturopathic medicine.
Susun Weed

SUSUN S. WEED, author of New Menopausal Years The Wise Woman Way, Alternative Approaches for Women 30-90 (Ash Tree Publishing, November 2001), is one of America's best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women's health. Expert herbalists and well-known women's health physicians such as Susan Love, MD, Christiane Northrup, MD, Rosemary Gladstar, and David Hoffman recommend her books. For a new generation of women, she has completely rewritten, expanded, and updated her famous menopausal bible, which has sold half a million copies and has been a top-ten seller for a decade.
Since she began studying herbal medicine more than thirty-five years ago, Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition, which frequently challenge conventional medical approaches and are unabashedly pro-woman. For example, for more than a decade she has been an outspoken voice warning about the dangers of hormone replacement therapy. The scientific community has only recently (since early 2000) documented HRT's connection to breast cancer and heart attacks.
A powerful advocate for integrative medicine, Weed has appeared on numerous national radio, television, and new-media venues, including National Public Radio, NBC News, CNN, and ABCNews.com. She has been quoted and interviewed in many major magazines, including Natural Health, Woman's Day, First for Women, and Herbs for Health. She is a contributor to the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women's Studies, and writes a regular column in Sagewoman. Susun authors a monthly e-mail newsletter and maintains five information-rich websites including www.susunweed.com.
Known for her voracious intellectual appetite, encyclopedic knowledge, and phenomenal energy, Weed maintains a farmstead with dairy goats, reads about a hundred periodicals a month, trains apprentices, and oversees the work of more than four hundred correspondence course students. She also coordinates the activities of the Wise Woman Center, based in Woodstock, New York, an educational center that hosts such teachers as Vicki Noble, Z Budapest, Merlin Stone, Brooke Medicine Eagle, Luisa Teisch and many others.
Weed travels worldwide to speak at major conferences, medical schools, hospital wellness centers, breast cancer centers, midwifery schools, naturopathic colleges, and shamanic training centers. Her teaching fields of expertise encompass herbal medicine, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, psychology of healing, ecoherbalism, nutrition, and women's health issues.In addition to New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way, Alternative Approaches for Women 30-90, Susun Weed's other best-selling books include Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way; Healing Wise; and Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year (now in its 24th printing).
Michael Pilarski

 Michael Pilarski has been farming organically since 1972 (off and on). He has been wildcrafting medicinals commercially for 15 years. He founded Friends of the Trees Society in 1978, the Northwest Herbal Fair in 1995 and co-founded the Montana Herb Gathering. His current botanicals catalog offers fresh and dry herbs from 114 species of medicinal plants. He has promoted grass-roots herbalism and sustainable wildcrafting for many years.

 
Kristine Brown

Kristine Brown is a practicing traditional community herbalist and homeschooling
mother of 4 children and 2 bonus (step) children. She has studied with Rosemary
Gladstar of Sage Mountain and has spent countless hours of research and study through
her own pursuit. She offers an herbal product line through her local farmer's market and
online, does consultations, teaches herbal classes to adults, offers herbal work shops for
kids and runs a monthly herbal study group, focusing mainly on locally found herbs,
enabling the community to take control of growing and wild crafting their own medicine.
She is also the Program Director of the kids' herbal program at the Midwest Women's
Herbal Conference and has taught at other conferences including the Traditions in
Western Herbalism Conference. Teaching others about herbs is her focus with a passion
of sharing her knowledge with children as they ARE our future!
www.herbalrootszine.com
www.lunaherbco.com
Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir

Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir is a clinical herbalist in practice for 24 years. Rooted in the community she serves in Oregon she is additionally the proprietor of the apothecary; Mrs. Thompson's Herbs and the Head of Faculty at the Academy Of Scottish Herbalism
She has been an instructor since 1989 at colleges, conferences and herb schools in Oregon, California and in Scotland, and in the distance learning program: The Village Herbalist Independent Herbal Study Course
Heather holds three certificates of training in Herbalism, from The Oregon School of Herbal Studies and Brighid’s Academy of Healing Arts. She has additional training in nutrition and culinary arts, and served her internship with a 20 year practising Herbalist.
Having dedicated her life to sharing this knowledge, she has assisted thousands in reclaiming their own health process, in giving healing aid to their families and in becoming professional Herbalists themselves. She has achieved international recognition in her field and is consulted by Naturopaths, Midwives, lay and professional Herbalists, Sports Trainers and Medical Doctors.
www.celticherbs.com
Kiki Geary

Kiki is entranced by plant~people relationships and has been studying herbal medicine for over 20 years. She is the founder of PoppySwap.com and Moxa Northwest, and the Co-Founder of the Northwest Medicinal Herb Network which is a community organization that unites local farmers and herbal practitioners to cultivate high quality medicinal herbs. She has an M.S. in Traditional Chinese Medicine from Bastyr and while living in Seattle, served as the Herbal Pharmacist for the Bastyr Clinic. For the past 12 years, she has lived the joy of watching this medicine come alive in her full time community clinic where she sees an average of 15-20 patients a day. She lives immersed in an island ecosystem and the tranquil cedar forests of the Pacific Northwest. She has recently taught at the Florida Herb Conference, The New England Women’s Herbal Conference, Dandelion Seed Conference and will be a featured presenter at the Medicine For the People Gathering in 2013. www.Poppyswap.com www.MoxaNW.com
Linwood Tall Bull

I am a Headsman of the Dog Men Society, it is our responsibility to preserve our heritage and the history and knowledge for our people and those not yet born. I am also an Instructor of Ethnobotany and Culture at the Chief Dull Knife College, and also a tribal historian. I also do a presentation on Indian Healing Practices. I am a Viet Nam Veteran and ceremonial person, I love to teach those that wish to learn, my teachings are those of my father the late William Tallbull who also received his knowledge from those before him. Plant people are very special.
Todd Caldecott

Todd Caldecott is a medical herbalist and practitioner of Ayurveda, with 17 years of clinical experience. He received his degree at the Coastal Mountain College (1996) and continued his studies at the Arya Vaidya Chikitsalayam in India (1997). He is the former clinical director of Wild Rose College, and is an experienced consultant in the field of non-timber forest products and the natural products industry. Todd is author of the textbook Ayurveda: The Divine Science of Life and Food As Medicine, and is editor of Ayurveda In Nepal, written by Vaidya Mana Bajra Bajracharya of Kathmandu Nepal. Todd is director of the Dogwood School of Botanical Medicine in Vancouver BC, and is co-founder of www.wellaroo.com, a new subscriber-based health and wellness website that will be launched in 2013.
www.toddcaldecott.com
 
 
 
Robyn Klein

Permanently plant-enchanted, Robyn offers courses in flower identification, herbal medicine, phytochemistry and ethnobotany at Montana State University in the Masters of Science Program.  Robyn also phytosleuths for the Biomimicry Guild, following emergent cyber-phenomena like an ant tracks pheromones.  She likes to hang out on the edge, sucking in info-candy like a bladderwort eats Daphnia.
Sajah Popham

Founder of Organic Unity and The School of Evolutionary Herbalism, Sajah’s philosophy bridges all Earth centered herbal traditions that have followed the Light of Nature and the wisdom of the plants. He utilizes the universal patterns found in plants, planets, and people to guide all of his work; from the celestial preparation of spagyric medicines, to his consultation, healing and teaching work. Through bridging science and spirit, Sajah works with plants and people on all levels, bringing about not only vibrant states of health, but also assisting in conscious evolution and higher levels of personal and collective awareness. www.organic-unity.com
Tim Blakley

Tim Blakley is presently the herbalist/aromatherapist for Frontier Co-op/Aura Cacia.  He travels extensively for work, visiting farmers and distillers around the world.  From 1978-1991 he was a land manager, teacher and eventually co-owner of the California School of Herbal Studies.  In the mid 90’s he was the land manager for Herb Pharm and helped create their farm, botanical garden and educational center.  In the late 90’s he was the creator and manager of the National Center for the Preservation of Medicinal Herbs and for the past 10 years has worked for Frontier Co-op.  He is a board member of United Plant Savers and is actively involved in conservation and sustainability issues relating to medicinal plants.  He lives on his homestead in Hawaii and is an admitted essential oil junkie. 
Toyia Hatten

Toyia Hatten is a holistic herbalist and herbal educator whose focus is on incorporating healing herbs into everyday life while improving vitality through the reduction of stress and promoting a deeper connection with the natural world. Her own herbal studies began while growing up with a Father & Grandmother who were avid plant lovers, and were formalized in her studies at the Appalachia School of Holistic Herbalism in Asheville, NC. After three wonderful years serving on the faculty of ASHH, Toyia dug herself up by the roots and transplanted to Montana, where she is currently sharing her love of nature & learning all about the hardy plants of the Rocky Mountains! 
 
Katrina Farnum

Katrina Farnum is a local herbalist living in Missoula Mt., where she owns and operates Garden Mother Herbs. 
She has been studying plants and plant medicine for over ten years. She has worked alongside many gifted herbalists both in and out of the state.
With an emphasis in Medical Cannabis, she has been working to protect and study this “endangered plant" since 2004.
Katrina was one of the original motivated forces to help reestablish the Montana Herb Gathering after its long hiatus.
She served on the board for the frst two years of re-growth and is now attending as a presenter and student.
Sean Donahue

Sean Donahue is a poet, witch, and traditional herbalist.   He teaches western herbal energetics at Pacific Rim College in Victoria, BC..   For Sean, magic, medicine, and poetry are all expressions of a deep connection to the living Earth, and personal, cultural, and ecological healing are inextricably linked.
 
Joanne Rand

Touring nationally for over twenty years, a ppearing with Bonnie Raitt, Bob Weir, John Hartford, etc., Joanne Rand recently earned a degree in Music Composition and released her tenth indie CD, Snake Oil and Hummingbirds. Here Avant Garde Appalachian traditionals mix with original s, sung in Rand’s inimitable style. Writing and playing music since her childhood in the Deep South, Rand cut her performance teeth playing bluegrass in Alaska and later spun musical magic with natives in the heart of the Amazon. She fully launched her career in the North Bay Area of California, where she remains revered as one of the region’s finest independent artists. A North Bay Bohemian readers’ poll voted her “Best Acoustic Band,” and this year called Rand a “legendary…longtime local hero.” During the 1990’s Rand moved to Seattle where she helped to anchor the city’s thriving music scene, collaborating with her late brother, Jordan Rand. She is now in Arcata, CA raising her young daughter, teaching, composing, and touring with her band, The Rhythm of the Open Hearts.
Pamela Joe Quinn

Pam has been a Yoga Teacher in Great Falls Montana for the last 15 years.  She has also been a Yoga Therapist through the IYT Joseph LePage Program for 5 years.  Pam is certified to work with people who have cancer, heart disease, MS, depression and anxiety.  She also has a Montana Massage Therapy Liscense.  With these combined practices, Pam helps others empower themselves to be part of their own healing process.  She has a special passion through the traditional practices of Yoga for working with people to uncover their own place of place and healing.  Pam teaches a variety of Yoga classes and schedules private individual therapeutic work at her studio, Yoga For Wellness, in Great Falls.  She is focusing on the advancement of new innovative programs.
Please bring your own yoga mats and props.