Paul Bergner is director of the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism in Portland, Oregon, where he offers seminar training in clinical skills, medical herbalism, nutrition and nature cure. He supervised a teaching clinic in medical herbalism and clinical nutrition in Boulder, Colo., from 1996 until 2013 and has published and 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.
Classes:
Comparative Materia Medica for the Bitter Herbs
Nutrition in the Herbal Paradigm
Michael W. Chilton, MS, is an international agriculturalist who has lived, worked or conducted business in 19 countries, and traveled in more than 80. He spent 15 years living in Thailand and Vietnam developing field, plantation and horticultural crops. Chilton returned to Oregon in 1976 to work in the seed industry, developing vegetable, flower, oil and pharmaceutically useful seeds and plants for international markets. Chilton earned an MS in Economic Botany and Seed Technology from Iowa State University.
Class: Hands on Old Herballs
Shehab El-Hashemy ND, MBChB, MEd graduated from Cairo University Medical School (MBChB I), Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (ND), Lakehead University (HBSc), and the University of Toronto (MEd). He is currently a practicing naturopathic primary care physician in Beaverton, Oregon and dean of NUNM’s College of Naturopathic Medicine. Prior to moving to the U.S., he worked for more than 13 years in Oshawa, Ontario (Canada) in the field of pediatrics in general, and specifically in developmental pediatrics and pediatric psychology. Passionate about the artful use of medical herbalism and phytotherapy, Shehab owned and operated a profitable botanical dispensary (tinctures, teas, powders and salves) in his clinic, where most of his young patients were enthusiastically involved in the making of their own formulations!
Class: Game-Changing Botanical Medicines in Developmental Pediatrics
Gary Ferguson ND is a licensed naturopathic doctor living in Anchorage, Alaska and a 2001 graduate of NUNM. Dr. Ferguson has worked across Alaska to address the social, economic, cultural and environmental factors that contribute to the health and well-being of Alaskans. He is a facilitator, motivational speaker, health coach and technical consultant to communities around how to more deeply address contributing factors to health and well-being. He is Aleut/Unangan, originally from the Shumagin Islands community of Sand Point, Alaska. Dr. Ferguson’s past positions include providing clinical services to his home region at Eastern Aleutian Tribes, serving at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium as Senior Director of Community Health Services, and CEO at the Rural Alaska Community Action Program.
Ferguson has had the honor of working alongside tribal doctors in Alaska and has a passion for culturally connected approaches to health that include indigenous ways of healing. He is the co-producer of the award-winning Store Outside Your Door/Alaskan Plants as Food & Medicine initiative.
Classes:
Traditional Medicines from the Greatland
Culture is Medicine
Mimi Hernandez MS, RH (AHG) draws upon her rich ethnic background & the Granny healers in her life. She believes strongly that keeping plant wisdom alive is essential and has dedicated her life’s work to serving as an advocate for both traditional and professional herbal pathways while building cultural bridges of understanding. She is the Executive Director of the American Herbalists Guild and a Registered Herbalist with a Master of Science in herbal Medicine. Mimi has mentored students of clinical herbalism through various educational programs in herbal medicine. Mimi lives in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, and loves expressing herself through hip hop and supporting local music scenes. She performs under the stage name of PHLO*EM.
Classes:
Rue Resin and Rose: A Sacred and Medicinal Trilogy of Latin American Materia Medica
Hip Hop Herbal Constituents
Guido Masé RH (AHG) is a clinician and educator in the Western herbal tradition. He spent his childhood in Italy and has been living in Vermont since 1996. His practice interweaves clinical experience, mythology, and science.
He is chief herbalist at Urban Moonshine, clinician at the Burlington Herb Clinic, faculty member and clinical supervisor at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, teacher in herbal medicine at the University of Vermont, and author of The Wild Medicine Solution and DIY Bitters. He is developing the integrative phytotherapy department at Wasso Hospital in Loliondo, Tanzania.
Classes:
Bitter Herbs and Mucosal Immunity: The Role of Taste Receptors in the Airway
Herbs for Cognition, Focus and Brain Health
Using Organolepsis to Assess Herbal Identity and Strength: A Science-Based Approach
Elissa Mendenhall ND became interested in holistic medicine when learning about herbs at age 11, after reading a book in the Clan of the Cave Bear series. Very eventually, this passion lead to naturopathic medical school. Elissa opened Amenda Clinic in 2012, the first dedicated integrative mental health clinic in Portland. Elissa is an associate professor at NUNM, and teaches Integrative Psychopharmacology to students in NUNM’s Masters of Science in Integrative Mental Health program. Elissa also hosts naturopathic residencies at Amenda. When not teaching or practicing medicine, Elissa can be found in the wilds of her garden, scowling at slugs, cuddling chickens, or lost in the woods with her family, hunting for mushrooms.
Class: Targeted Herbs, Flower Essences and Nutrients for PTSD: A Psychogenomic Approach
Glen Nagel ND has been a practicing herbalist for the last 30 years and a botanically focused herbal physician for 23 years. He has worked in the herbal industry as an educator and product researcher and formulator. He practiced clinical botanical medicine for 20 years including private practice and supervising herbal students. He also has taught botanical medicine at both Bastyr University and NUNM.
Classes:
Cannabis as the New Cayenne: Using Cannabis in Botanical Medicine Formulation
Field Applications in Botanical Medicine: Instant Tinctures with CO2 Extraction
Missy Rohs is a co-founder and instructor at the Arctos School of Herbal and Botanical Studies in Portland, Oregon. She approaches herbalism with an eye to personal empowerment, community-building, and practical engagement with healing herbs. Her relationship to plants is guided by a strong conservation ethic and a deep love of Cascadia’s ecosystems. Missy grows and wildcrafts her own medicine with a focus on sustainable herbal remedies: those that grow easily in populated habitats, and those that can be harvested in the wild with minimal impact.
Missy’s path to herbalism began with labor solidarity, community organizing, and police accountability advocacy. She sees her herbal practice and teaching as another facet of working for social and environmental justice.
Classes:
Weeding is the New Wildcrafting
No Ingestion Required: Herbs As Scent, Steam, Soaks and More
Yasha Annah Shapiro ND (Pronouns: they/them): As a healthcare provider, Annah prioritizes actively addressing racial, economic, and gender affirming health equity work. They recently completed three years working at Sacred Vessel Natural Medicine/The Equi Institute, focusing on primary care for LGBTQI2S individuals and transition-related transgender healthcare.
Annah is passionate about making plants, home remedies and the outdoors feel accessible and fun. They believe that being in relationship with nature is ultimately nourishing for overall well-being and welcome the discussion around the many ways that we can explore the natural world – even without leaving home.
Annah believes in showing up and working for a world that interrupts and ideally prevents bigotry and oppression and affirms people’s identities and heritage. They are passionate about educating others, especially health care providers, on how to create and sustain trans affirming healthcare for their patients. For fun, they play in their garden, train with their puppy Symon Mazal, travel out to nature, and cook delicious foods for themself and loved ones.
Class: Herbs and Humans and Hormones: Navigating Transgender Healthcare
Jillian Stansbury ND has been in clinical practice for more than 30 years and is the medical director of Battle Ground Healing Arts. She served as the Chair of the Botanical Medicine Department at the National University of Natural Medicine for several decades and remains on the faculty teaching natural products chemistry and leading ethnobotany field studies in the Peruvian Amazon. She is the author of seven books and countless journal articles, and serves on the scientific advisory board for a number of professional organization. She founded the Clark County Community Health Network to address local issues from environmental projects to wholistic approaches to the county’s opiate epidemic.
Classes:
Types of Pain and Herbal Management Tools
Creating Herbal Formulas: The Basics
Nicole Telkes RH (AHG) is a practicing herbalist, writer, speaker and naturalist from Austin, Texas. She has a background in botanical studies, plant conservation, community activism and herbal first aid clinics. Nicole has spent the last 20 years traveling around wild and weedy corners of North America studying and using bioregional native and naturalized medicinal plants. Nicole is the lead teacher and founder of the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine in Austin, which offers onsite and online education in holistic herbalism. Nicole’s passion excitement is not just for studying and using plants, it’s also about having fun and sharing plant medicine with her community through the school’s Community Supported Herbalism Shares and her book, The Medicinal Plants of Texas. Nicole is also a founder of the Traditions Not Trademark Free Fire Cider campaign, working to protect our traditional remedies for future generations.
Classes:
Plants of Passion
Plant Provings