Congratulations to our student of the month for July: Kevin Pennell!

Kevin Pennell

Saying Kevin has a varied background is an understatement! Having started a career in broadcasting at age 14, he stayed with that through his 40s, working in management, as an on-air personality, and in journalism. Kevin earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Pastoral Studies at Spurgeon College in Florida, which led him to pastor churches for about 10 years.  He’s also been a police officer and insurance claim investigator. 

Though these career paths may look disassociated, Kevin has always enjoyed working with people, helping them become the best they can be and so finds himself today teaching and writing to encourage them to that end.

In the early 1990s, Kevin met Ken Two Feathers, a Penobscot Native American from Maine, who taught Kevin about Native American culture and ceremonies which helped to change his life. “He was a man whom Creator used to help me focus on my true calling as a healing facilitator, writer, and teacher,” Kevin says. “Two Feathers helped me find my truth and spiritual path. He helped me find and identify with my true self instead of being a chameleon living in society.” Two Feathers left enough of an impact on Kevin that he wrote the book about Two Feathers' life, Two Feathers - Spiritual Seed Planter in 2003, now published by Lotus Press.

Kevin was introduced to “Mother Redbird” during his spiritual journey in the mid ‘90s. Through her, he was introduced to herbs, and desired to learn more as he watched her make formulations and teas for people who needed physical healing.

Later that decade, Kevin began focusing on healing modalities, and eventually became a Reiki Master/Teacher, certified hypnotherapist, and shaman. Even after all of these, Kevin sensed the need to integrate the natural world into his current practice, SpiritWings in Bethel, Maine.

In the late summer of 2007, a friend introduced him to the East West School of Planetary Herbology. As someone who had struggled with self-education of herbs and occasional herbal workshops, Kevin decided that it was time to jump in with both feet and plant himself deeply into East West’s Professional Herbalist program.  

“Everything began to fall into place, like things usually do when we make life-changing decisions,” Kevin recalls. “In the next two days after signing up at East West, three people that I didn’t know came into SpiritWings that knew Michael Tierra’s work and one had met him at a workshop. It was like the Universe was saying, ‘You need further validation on your decision? Here you go!’” 

Besides his herbal studies, Kevin enjoys the natural world by kayaking, primitive camping, hiking, fishing, and exploring nature to become a part of it instead of apart from it. He also practices martial arts and has studied Goju Ryo for over five years. “Martial arts, like my involvement with the natural world and Mother Earth, is not a hobby,” Kevin says. “It's a way of life, learning to live in balance and harmony with all.” He also plays flute, sings, writes, rides his motorcycle, walks and meditates to relax.

The East West Foundation Track Herbal Seminar in May of 2009 challenged him to further his healing training even more. He recently enrolled and received his acceptance at the New Hampshire Institute for Therapeutic Arts where he’ll begin training as a massage therapist in January 2010. 

Kevin’s goals include completing East West’s Professional Herbalist course by 2011 and becoming a practicing Professional Clinical Herbalist recognized by the American Herbalists Guild soon thereafter. He also wishes to pursue training for Jin Shin Do Acupressure.

“Life is an opportunity for us to learn to be better souls, to help those around us, to be ‘Hollow Bones’ for the spirits to use, maintaining the attitude and philosophy of purpose beyond self, so others may enjoy life to its fullest so they too can become better souls,” Kevin says of his multi-pathed healing journey. “As part of the herbal family, it’s all about loving, caring, sharing, being thankful for, and giving to one another, especially at the East West School of Planetary Herbology.”

Please enjoy the bios of our June students of the month: Mara Ribbin and Holly Nielsen!

Mara Ribbin

My early love of the natural world was encouraged by my grandmother. She was so at home there. I would often help her in the garden and some summers would help her harvest dulse seaweed along the North Atlantic coast. My grandmother was very familiar with herbs, but encouraged schooling rather than the "old ways," so I did not really find my way to herbs until I was older.

I became an R.N. in 1964, working in psychiatry for 10 years, newborn intensive care at UCSF for 16 years, hospice and more, over a 34-year period that was very enriching and life-changing. I also watched health care change from care of whole persons into more profit-driven businesses with increasing emphasis on pharmaceuticals. Many, many factors contributed to this.

Early on, I also came to see the limits of Western medicine and sought to learn adjunctive therapies. In 1972, I began to study energy healing and, over the years, studied with many gifted teachers from many traditions, including shamanic. I bought Michael Tierra's The Way of Herbs back in the early ‘80s. I loved his experiences and knowledge of herbal energetic and what they could do, his emphasis on wholistic care, and the importance of diet.

I signed up at East West in 1995. There was no time limit on finishing back then, and I studied until 2001. Much of that time and, really until late 2007, life had other plans for me. Though my studies were often derailed, I continued to use what I had learned and knew I would always return.

I attended my first East West seminar last year and just returned from my second one last month. The seminars really jump-started my learning at a whole new level than I could do on my own at home. It is also such a great way to meet so many wonderful people who love plants and herbs and are interested in natural healing.

I plan to finish my lessons and attend my third student seminar next year and then work with a mentor. The emphasis on TCM assessment that East West provides is such a gift in being able to put together a plan of care that really addresses a person's needs. I am so appreciative of the course, and all the truly extraordinary teachers, who live what they teach, and teach so well.

In addition to herbs and energy healing, I also love poetry (especially mystically inclined poets like Rilke, Rumi, Hafiz, Oliver), astrology, and inner growth.

Holly Nielsen

I live in Chico, a university town in the Northern Sacramento Valley of California, with my husband, Casey, and our two lovely daughters, Seyda and Adelle, ages 6 and 3.

Growing up in Wisconsin, we were an outdoor family. My most vivid childhood memories all involve encounters with amazing plants in the Northwoods of Wisconsin: lifting back the spathe of a jack-in-the-pulpit to see “Jack”; watching a tiny wasp inside the large yellow slipper of the lady’s slipper orchid; seeing the blood of bloodroot for the first time under the cathedral of a mature sugar maple forest; and stumbling upon a faerie circle of tiny mushrooms in a clearing. As a child I was more often in the woods alone with the plants than playing with the neighborhood kids.

As an adult, this led me to choose botany as my undergraduate degree. I then headed west to bigger country and worked as a botanist in some of the most incredible places: the High Sierra, Hell’s Canyon of the Snake River, and the High Desert of eastern Oregon. My specialty involved working, mostly alone, in very isolated country locating new populations of threatened and endangered plant species. In this isolation, I began to reflect on the relationships humans had with plants and concluded that for my work to be more meaningful, I needed to shift it into this lens.

Finding the East West School of Herbology in the fall of 2006 was an epiphany in my understanding of the uses of plants as herbal medicine, (along with some useful animal and mineral substances!). The lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine suits my background as a scientist and the wonderful teachers and students of East West highly resonate with me. I've found my calling to become an East West herbalist and thus create profound meaning by utilizing my relationship with plants to help people attain balance and health in their lives.

I spend most of my free time either studying the East West course materials or in my garden. It is wonderful to see my children having a similar relationship with plants. Seyda is the herbal tea connoisseur and Adelle already knows most of the plants' names in the garden. I also work with Seyda’s kindergarten class in a school garden.

Gardens have always been a metaphor in my life. It is a metaphor that we all need in our lives, if not actual time working a garden. We must become gardeners of plant and human communities with the intention of creating lasting health and beauty for now and for the future. To maintain the balance of life on this planet, we must be stewards of this green mantle. It is good to know Gaia is very forgiving of her children! I see our world as moving away from its old dichotomies and beginning to encompass this metaphor of the garden.

When I graduate from East West, I will begin my home practice as an herbalist with an office overlooking our newly planted extensive gardens already filled with over a hundred species of medicinal plants. Garden therapy, time spent working in and simply enjoying the centering sensory delights of a garden filled with birds, insects, smells, tastes and textures will be a part of my practice. I look forward to my mentorship with an East West herbalist and attaining membership in the American Herbalists Guild. Other herbal interests are working with and creating flower essences, wildcrafting, botanizing, and homeopathy.

For the month of May, we are honoring two students of the month: Pamela Gould and Linda Vaughan!

Pamela Gould

Pam first became interested in alternative ways of maintaining good health while reading Andrew Weil’s book, Spontaneous Healing, while stranded in La Guardia Airport over 15 years ago. After that, she dabbled with herbs on her own but never studied them in depth. Then, a couple of years ago she became a client of East West graduate Susan Kramer for treatment of a serious health issue, which has since been completely resolved.

"It was at that moment that a light bulb went on and I realized I wanted to wholeheartedly devote myself as much as possible to learning the ways of plant medicine," Pam says. "I realized I wanted to understand how and why the herbs worked much more than Susan had time to explain during our consultations." So, for the past two and a half years, without any prior plant or gardening knowledge, body work or alternative medicine experience, Pam dedicated herself to the study of herbal healing, joining the East West School in February of 2007.

For 12 years, Pam worked as a trainer and training developer for a big corporation. She was glad to leave the business world and is currently producing seasonal tonics and teas under the business name of “Earth Mama Remedies” based on several local requests from friends and small businesses.

One of Pam's biggest goals is to teach people that there are other alternatives to self care beyond the traditional medical options they already know, and that with a little education, they are free to take the responsibility of improving their health into their own hands.

"Here in the South (especially in the Southern Appalachian mountains), I have met some amazing older women who know all about plant medicine but whose grown children shun their ideas about plant healing," Pam says. "These older women have aged with grace and good health with the help of their surrounding plant allies. I hope to teach and spread a new southern gospel of the amazing powers of plant medicine."

Pam has been married for 15 years to her husband Mark, "a wonderful, sarcastic Englishman who has taught me the joys of true love, support and partnership." They have two children, Ethan and Daisy. "They have been my inspiration and my first line of experimentation through my studies," Pam says. The Gould family lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
 

Linda Vaughan

Linda has worked and studied in the health field for 36 years. She started her career as a fitness trainer with Jack La Lanne in the '70s.

"Jack was one of the most influential people I have met and his enthusiasm for helping others lit my fire," Linda reminisces. "I became much healthier and developed the desire to help others find vibrant health too."

Linda studied nutrition with La Lanne's personal nutritionist, Brian Keith, in San Diego. She went on to earn a Masters and Doctorate in her field, and had her own private nutritional practice for two years until she had her daughter 22 years ago. Her son was born two and a half years later, and she home-schooled both of them from kindergarten through 12th grade -- a total of 15 years! This allowed her the time to share her love of nature with them.

"I have loved and been attracted to plants ever since I can remember," Linda says. Her grandfather taught her to garden organically, a practice she has maintained for over 50 years. She loves wild places and has spent many days in the back country of Yosemite, Idaho, Wyoming, Mendocino County and many days in the desert near 29 Palms and on the Caribbean island of Anguila. "It was in these places I gathered wisdom from and connected to plants in a deep way," Linda says.

Linda studied herbs on her own through the years, but started formal study in 2003 with Jeanine Pollock for a year, then completed the curriculum at the American School of Herbalism under the tutelage of Ben Zappin and Darren Huckle. Then she started the East West School of Herbology course in the Fall of 2006. She will complete the course at the seminar this May.

"This is my 3rd year of attending the wonderful East West seminar where exposure to so many great herbalist teachers and enthusiastic students is truly an inspiring, bonding adventure," Linda says.

Linda's extensive studies also include energy healing and yoga. She lives in Santa Cruz, Calif.

"My dream is to teach herbalism classes, make as much of my own medicine as I can from plants I grow or wildcraft, and see more people in my clinical practice," Linda says of the future. "I want to get people out with the plants and help them to connect with the energy of the Earth where the real healing begins. I can see this coming into clear focus now at last. Herbalism has been a sacred part of my spiritual journey to Peace and I want to share what I've learned along life's way. It is time to give back!"

Our Student of the Month for April 2009 is:

Sidney Barthell

Sidney Barthell loves learning. Her strong suits are researching, writing, reading, interpreting, music, and art. Her perfect world includes a garden with a compost heap and Hansa Roses, and plenty of hiding places. She signed up for the East West Herb Course in April 2008 on an inspired impulse.

"Pursuing this course, with the Tierras, and with these classmates, is the best choice I could have made for an ethical, viable future," Sidney says. "We have treasures of thousands of years of knowledge, wisdom, and relationship to bring forward. This is a good tribe."

The Midwest was home for Sidney from birth. Strong early interests included eating ants, playing cowboys and Indians, horses, drawing endlessly, chewing on grass stems and mashing up leaves in bowls with no real idea why.

Her suburban background did not include formal gardening or herbs. Credit must go to J. R. R. Tolkien for awakenening the wildling healer, which also in part explains why she left dental hygiene at Southern Illinois University in 1970 to pursue a musician’s life on the west coast, where she met more curious people who made her greener. When the opportunity came to move to the rural Northeast in 1973, she went, remaining for 24 years.

Marriage and raising a son oriented her toward the garden more than the apothecary, yet she continued to get lost in the pages of Back to Eden. She also helped with home business, cooked from scratch, kept her boy home when strep was raging, and later, homeschooled. Eventually after many years and lots of stuff, she came to live in the Pacific Northwest, where she became a massage practitioner, and also teaches guitar and performs locally.

"Herbalism, like massage, like music, is a work of the hand," Sidney says. "In my business, Simple Arts, I help people reorient to the 'by hand' arts that used to sustain us through illness and mental malaise." Sidney looks forward to incorporating herbalism and TCM in her massage practice. She supports the growth of low-tech practical community and local arts, and plans to raise her own herbal capabilities to professional status with the American Herbalists Guild upon completion of East West Herb Course.

Our Student of the Month for March 2009 is:

Anne Salazar-Dunbar

A second generation native San Diegan, Anne Salazar-Dunbar has nurtured an intuitive relationship with healing plants since she was a child. Following this instinct, she started self-study of herbal healing in her teens and continued this education formally and informally throughout her 23 years of marriage and the raising of three children.

In her search for the right path, Anne studied for a year at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and devoted two years to pre-med education. Feeling that she needed to focus more on plant medicine, she turned to the San Diego Self Heal School of Herbal Medicine, and graduated with clinical training in 2004. She also studied with Apache Medicine Women for several years, focusing on energy medicine, shamanism and plant spirit communication.

Anne first signed up for the East West Herb Course in 1987! "I thought I could raise young children and do this course," she says.  "I wasn't able to take the time necessary to devote to the lessons until 2005. I am glad I waited. The seminars and internet have made this course so much more accessible and do-able! Community has been created, and that makes all the difference in the world." Anne plans on graduating from our school this May, and looks forward to professional status with the American Herbalists Guild.

Anne currently maintains a private practice specializing in women and children, with a strong nutritional focus. She is proud of her full apothecary, and says "My very favorite thing to do is to formulate!"

Anne also works as an herbalist for Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy and teaches classes on a variety of herbal/natural medicine topics groups in public and prviate settings. "My greatest joy is helping to empower parents regarding their health and the health of their children," Anne says.  "I really enjoy teaching! It’s a great way to learn."

Looking toward the future, Anne hopes to travel extensively, learning from herbal practitioners of all cultures including her own Mexican tradition, and teaching whenever possible.  "I'd like to have an herbal store with a clinic attached, having a fully integrated (planetary) style practice," she says, adding that her vision includes an educational component as well.  "I'd like it to be a fertile environment for apprenticeship and sharing and healing. I think I will call it 'Yerba Buena.'"

Visit Anne's website here!

Our Student of the Month for February 2009 is:

Ashley Moore

After completing two years at the University of Iowa studying philosophy, Ashley Moore became interested in herbs through her work at New Pioneer Co-op where she helps manage the wellness department.  She started the East West Herb Course in September of 2005, and hopes to graduate this May. 

"I've been working as an herbalist with friends and family for two years now, and can't wait to expand my practice by becoming the second AHG-certified herbalist in Iowa and opening a private practice," Ashley says.  "I would also like to continue my studies, with a focus on nutrition, so I can offer a broader range of services to my clients." 

Ashley lives in Oxford, Iowa, with her husband Ian and their rescued pit bulls.  In her spare time she loves cooking and eating good food, hiking, and gardening.  The Moores are looking at selling their current home and buying a farm where they can work toward becoming more self sufficient, growing and raising more of their own food and herbs.
 

Welcome to 2009 and our Student of the Month for January:

Jodi Snyder

Jodi Snyder is a family generational herbalist. In her family, this art is passed from grandmother to granddaughter. In 1984, while living in Portland, OR, she began to examine the difference between what she had already learned about herbs and what was taught at the New Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. Her studies were interrupted with the raising of seven children, but her family tradition now continues as she teaches her own granddaughters. 

Jodi found a renewed interest in Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2004 and ultimately enrolled in the East West School of Planetary Herbology in 2006. She received her Certification of Herbal Training in 2007, and another in 2008. Accepted into the American Herbalists Guild in 2008, she will complete the three-year program at East West Course in Planetary Herbalism in May of 2009. 

A native Iowan, Jodi now lives in the Mississippi River Valley Reserve close to  La Crescent, MN, with her husband T.J. Along with her work as a Therapeutic Herbalist, Jodi tries to find time to volunteer with the Department of Natural Resources finding and counting endangered species of plants, as well as finding new uses for invasive ones. She teaches field classes in botany and earth science for youth. Jodi also enjoys photography, writing, and web design. 

Jodi's background is in Social and Earth Sciences. She is a trained phobia and anxiety coach and taught at the Iowa Center for Individual Peace for two years in Des Moines. Her own need to more intently experience a broader range of herbs while studying led her to develop the East West Herb Identification Kit containing 170 herbs which is now sold online at her own Principle Herb Shoppe.

In the future, Jodi plans to develop educational tools for herbal college students and lecture at Traditional Chinese Medicine-oriented schools. She has an interest in helping develop programs which teach the value of herb crops in the Midwest, in a time when both farmers and herbs are finding it difficult to survive the demands of society.