Kathleen Maier, AHG. PA has been a practicing herbalist for over twenty years. She was co-founder and Director of Dreamtime Center for Herbal Studies and has taught at nationally known herb schools and centers for the last ten years. Her studies of plant medicines began as a Peace Corp volunteer and have included the wisdom of Stephen Buhner, Rosemary Gladstar,  Susun Weed, and Matthew Wood. Her training as a Physician’s Assistant allows her to translate the language of medicine we know today and ground it in the wisdom of earth-centered practices known for millennia. She is very active locally with United Plant Savers and the restoration of native plants and the preservation of fragile ecosystems.

Phyllis D. Light is a fourth generation herbalist and healer, consultant, and author. She has studied and worked with herbs, foods and other healing techniques for over 30 years. Her well-established reputation and knowledgeable expertise has allowed her to travel far a field of her Southern Appalachian home, lecturing and teaching about herbs, integrative and complementary healthcare and traditional folk healing techniques. Consequently, she has taught and lectured at herb schools, universities, medical schools, hospitals, conferences and natural health food stores across the country. Phyllis is an American Herbalist Guild professional member, a national CEU provider for nurses through Diversified Nursing Services, and Director of Herbal Studies at Clayton College of Natural Health. She is contributing writer to several consumer magazines, has co-authored a paper for a medical journal, and is currently working on her book Southern Folk Medicine: Yesterday and Today which explores the principles and practices of Appalachian Folk Medicine.

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of seven books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.

Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectures yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth. He is a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society - especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology.

His most recent works are The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth (Chelsea Green, February 2002) Vital Man: Natural Health Care for Men at Midlife (Penguin Putnam, Fall 2002), The Taste of Wild Water: Poems and Stories Found While Walking in Woods (Raven Press, Winter 2003) Transformational Fasting: Spiritual, Emotional, and Physicial Renewal and Detoxification Through Fasting (Penguin Putnam, Fall 2003).

James Snow has worked with herbs since 1987. He is a graduate of the California School of Herbal Studies and the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine. In 1994 he began private clinical practice. From 1998-2000 he practiced at the Santa Rosa Medical Group, an integrated medical center in Northern California. From 2000-2002 he helped in the running of the herbal clinic at Sonoma County Indian Health Services.

Matthew Wood has been a practicing herbalist for over 25 years, is a candidate for a Master’s in Herbal Medicine at the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine. He is an internationally known teacher and author having penned such greats as The Book of Herbal Wisdom and his latest The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism.

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