Presenters 2008

Terry Willard, Cl.H.,Ph.D.

Terry is recognized as one of North America’s leading Clinical Herbalists. He currently serves as the President of the Canadian Association of Herbal Practitioners, on the Canadian Council of Herbalist Associations and is a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild. For over thirty years he has been an active practitioner and teacher, director of the Wild Rose College of Natural Healing, is in the Canadian Health Food Association’s Hall of Fame and is the author of twelve books.  Terry's latest book is Flower Essences: Emotional Alchemy and Spiritual Evolution.  Terry lives on an organic herb farm on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains, outside Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Paul Bergner

Paul is the director of the North American Institute of Herbal Medicine in Boulder CO, which is a school of clinical herbalism and clinical nutrition.  He has edited the Medical Herbalism Journal since 1989 and has written seven books on medical herbalism, nutrition, and natropathic medicine.  Paul has been practicing natural healing since 1973.

Lisa Ganora

Lisa has been a traditional herbalist for 20 years and is an expert in the properties of phytochemical constituents in medicinal herbs and foods.  After a decade of practical experience in the mountains of North Carolina, Lisa studied chemistry and botany at UNCA and earned her degree with highest honors.  She is currently Adjunct Professor of Pharmacognosy at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, AZ.  Lisa is currently working on a textbook about herbal constituents for practitioners.  In her spare time she likes to howl at the moon, dance around the fire and drink home-made Ginger Mead.

Brendan Kelly

Brendan is a western herbalist of 15 years, with extensive hands-on experience wildcrafting, cultivating and preparing over 100 herbs into medicine of various forms. He teaches ourdoor-based classes on working directly with herbs for both food and medicine, and has been an herbal business owner and consultant to natural product companies. He also holds a Master's degree in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, and maintains a busy clinical practice in Bozeman, MT, where he works on integrating the deep reaching diagnostic traditions of Asian medicine with the potency of local, western herbs. He is also a  long-time student of internal martial arts, and offers traditional Tai Chi Ch'uan classes in Bozeman.

Robyn Klein

Robyn completed the Dominion Herbal College correspondence course in 1981; attended Breitenbush for a decade; then the American Herbalists Guild symposium for another decade; studied with Michael Moore in 1995 when he was in Albuquerque; and then went back to school for a Masters in Plant Sciences. She calls herself a Medical Botanist because that’s what she is. Robyn teaches herbal medicine, medical botany, plant identification, and ethnobotany at Montana State University. Amazingly, she gets paid to read journals as the Phytosleuth for the Biomimicry Guild. She assists undergrads with projects in herbal medicine and phytochemistry and loves to ask ‘what is the mechanism of action?’ Robyn can usually be found buried in an electronic journal, not far from a bar of Green & Black’s; an addiction she picked up in London in 2005. She also says ‘herb’ in proper British, but curiously, cannot say ‘plont’. Go figure.

Jo Powell

Jo Powell has always had an affinity for plants, animals and nature. She attended in-depth residency programs at the California School of Herbal Studies and the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, has a BS degree in Gender Studies and is an Oregon State University trained Master Gardener. Jo is passionate about teaching the craft of herbalism and her skills as a teacher are enhanced by over two decades of eclectic experiences including traveling the world, working as a natural foods chef and managing an herb store. She founded and directs The Northwest School of Herbalism and is co-owner of Morning Dew Farm in Northwest Oregon. If Jo is not teaching a class somewhere you can find her gardening or tending her chickens.

Shane Doyle

Shane Doyle hails from the Crow Agency, MT and is an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe.  He holds a BS in Elementary Education, a MS in Native American Studies and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Education, Curriculum and Instruction.  He has a passion for his Crow traditions, particularly the use of plants and herbs.

Greta “Grizz“ De La Montange

Greta is a Holistic health Practitioner, Herbalist, past member of the American Herbalists Guild, Student of Vasant Lad, Ayurvedic Lifestyle counselor, Massage therapist, Activist, Street and Woods medic, Wildcrafter, Goat Farmer and Mother of two. She was raised in Bozeman and the Yellowstone Ecosystem.  

SWSBM graduate 1992

Ayurvedic Institute 1994

Heartwood Institute 1996-1997

Erico  Schleicher, L Ac

Erico is a practicing herbalist and acupuncturist. Since 2003 he has been working with patients at the Center for Vibrant Health in Portland OR. His experience combines clinical work with wildcrafting, teaching herbal medicine classes and working in community health projects. He began working with plant medicines in 1994 and studied with Michael Moore at the SWSBM. He has focused on finding the intersections between Chinese herbalism and the local plant medicines of the Pacific North West. In 2006, Erico co-founded the Elderberry School of Botanical Medicine, in Portland. This school emphasizes a bio-regional and experiential approach to herbal medicine studies.

Michael Pilarski

Michael Pilarski has been wildcrafting and growing medicinal herbs for decades and has personally worked with over 1,000 plant species. He integrates knowledge about wildcrafting, agriculture, agroforestry, forestry, permaculture, ethnobotany, seed collecting, plant propagation and ecosystem restoration. He founded Friends of the Trees Society in 1978. 

Kris Hill

Kris has been studying plants for over 12 years and teaching herbal classes for the last 6.  Proprietor of Hill Botanical in Bozeman, MT, which offers retail herbal products, books, classes, consultations and a reference library.  Kris has studied herbalism with Michael Moore, at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine and with Robyn Klein, Medical Botanist.  If Kris is not in the shop you can find her out in the garden or roaming the mountains of Montana looking at plants.  Kris will not be teaching this year she is the MHG Co-coordinator.

Jim Flocchini

Jim Flocchini began his professional "love affair" with plants as a modern-day Kokopelli (wild plant seed-gatherer). This led him to wildcrafting medicinals and in 1995, he completed studies at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine. Jim now runs Two Ravens Herbals with Meryl Kastin in N. Central Idaho. Jim has a secret passion for home-made Elderberry wine.

Meryl Kastin-Flocchini

Meryl has been working and playing among some of her very best teachers, the healing plants, for over 25 years. She has worked extensively in both the wild and cultivated fields of medicinal plants, as well as making a wide array of plant medicines. Currently she and her husband Jim operate Two Ravens Herbals, LLC, which offers a full line of medicines created from, almost exclusively, wildcrafted plants or herbs grown in their garden. Meryl's formal herbal studies have been with Michael Moore, at the South West School of Botanical Medicine. She is also the mother of the 5 year old Fairy Princess Alena Aspen.

Mo O'Brien

Mo O'Brien is a nurse herbalist who lives in the bitterroot mountains of montana she has worked with the activist community providing health care at political actions for seven years. She helped start Common Ground Free Clinic and Odyssey House Free Clinic in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  She is an emergency room nurse and does community liason for hospice in her community.

Heather Nack-Culbreth

Heather lives in Philipsburg MT, where she spends her summers teaching classes, studying plants in the area and growing a vegetable and herb garden.  She has studied under Michael Moore, Robyn Klein, Rosemary Gladstar and the plants themselves. In the winter months she is an EMT on the Ski Patrol staff of Discovery Ski Area where she is in charge of First Aid Trainings and mountain operations.

Caleigh Searle

Caleigh a Bozeman, MT native, is a certified Clinical Herbalist who has studied at the California School of Herbal Studies, 1994, and at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies, 2000. She has been teaching herb classes, natural beauty classes and plant walks for 14 years.

Stacey Haugland CPM

Stacey Haugland is a certified Professional Midwife and a Certified Lactation Counselor. She has been working with families in the pre- pregnancy, pregnancy and post partum period for over a decade.  Stacey is the co-founder of the Bozeman Birth Center, which is scheduled to open September 1, 2008

Paloma Defuentes ND, MD

Family Physician

 
Paloma is a naturopathic physician in practice in Bozeman, MT and also has a MD degree in her birth town, Madrid, Spain. Trained in both ways of thinking and approaching health and disease, has also dipped into energy medicine by getting a QiQong certificate and being a yoga practitioner. As a child, she used to walked in the fields of Spain and collect herbs, and make concoctions and poultices. Today she uses botanicals in her practice, as well as homeopathy, nutrition, counseling, laboratory diagnosis and other tools as needed. She will delight you with her Spanish accent and sense of humor and her insights into children's health and ways to improve it.