A forever student learning from direct source and direct experience as much as possible for as long as possible. 

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My Formal & Experiential trainings & education

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Biological Sciences: with an emphasis in methods in practice,  Ecology and relations. 

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Middle level and secondary education: with an emphasis in supporting outliers, those with special needs, and responding to -  repairing the inadequacies and inequities of our public and private education systems that reflect the sociocultural systems of harm, supremacy, colonization and other forms of violence.

 

Resource economics: using market dynamics and economics as social agreements to help protect all that we completely and utterly depend on. Decolonize and decommodify Land and all Kin and Living Beings.

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Crisis prevention and response, first aid, behavioral health, family and individuals, holistic and  trauma informed.

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Indigenous folk herbalism, primarily informed by my Ancestry and where I am in place and space; ethnobotany of the Lenni Lenape and Indigenous  Peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, traditions of the Levant, of Zashkov, of Derry, of Germany:    always Land Centered, across generations, in Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility. ​

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Ongoing Professional Development in Herbal Traditions: 

I am always learning directly from the Plant Elders and Teachers as I am working with them across seasons, generations, seeds, growing them and centering them.   I grow and help tend 50 different Plants, from seed, across years. I attend workshops, conferences, and am embedded in community, always learning. 

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Most recently and am currently studying at the Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine. ​

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Employment Experiences since 1999 inform my work at MF: 

 

Health care:

behavioral, family health, mental, integrative. home based, data driven, people centered. Thousands of hours of in home or in facility treatment provided. ​​​

Meraki Farmacy continues this centering of PEOPLE; building relationships with you, listening to what you need, what the barriers to care are, and co-creating care protocols that are inclusive, informed, accessible, enchanting and empowering. 

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STEM and Environmental education:

I have taught pre-school, elementary, middle, and college aged students in the sciences including chemistry and nutrition. I was the first undergraduate TA at URI, Dept of Natural Resources Science. I have thousands of hours of logged teach time in learning communities across agencies, ages and interests. ​​

With MF, I am always educating: working with clients 1:1 in holistic care appointments, at every community event, through writing and speaking online, and during public speaking engagements. 

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Curriculum and Education: 

development, alignment with standards, accommodations for diversity of learners, training other instructors, and of course - facilitating learning through experience, in community. 

At Meraki Farmacy, I create and provide programs for diversity of learners in Foundations of Practice, Herbal Infusions, Tastes and Energetics, Embodied Discovery, and more. Participants leave enchanted, empowered and with a reference book written by me. 

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Logistics:

special events, mobile Mad Science programs, equipment management, overseeing staff and materials across two states and 100 programs for 8 years. 

Through Meraki Farmacy, I schedule and deliver services at 30-50 community events annually, 2023-2025. 

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​Regenerative, organic agriculture and stewardship, centering Respect and Reciprocity with Land

Organic dairy farming, organic vegetable farming,

Lead educator at a working educational farm raising pigs, goats, chickens, creating a forest playground and a children's garden, and creating and implementing educational programs. 

Organic, bioregional herb farming centering land and ecosystem repair after years of abuse and neglect, on land I do not own. Because that is the Meraki Farmacy way. 

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Awards and Certifications 

President's Award for Literary Excellence, 2000

Certified Teacher Assistant, CCRI 2003 

Outstanding Performance as a Behavior Specialist, Perspectives Corp, 2005 

Dean's List, URI, 2007 

Outstanding Volunteer, honorable mention, Providence School System, 2007 

F.E.A.T. Rhode Island Certificate of Participation, Autism: Sharing the Knowledge, 2007

25 years of exemplary performance reviews and client surveys meetings and exceeding expectations​

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Formal Education and Trainings 

Graduate of University of Rhode Island, BA in Biological Sciences with extensive coursework in wildlife- conservation- ecology and secondary education with middle level endorsement.

20 hours continued professional development in Early Education and Care for Family Child Care Assistants, 2015, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Nurse Assistant Training course, with honors, American Red Cross, Lebanon, NH, 2018 

Licensed Nurse Assistant, State of NH, 2018 

Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers certification, every two years since 2000 

Basic First Aid, American Safety and Health Institute, 2021 

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Public Speaking Engagements

PASA 2025 Full conference participant 

PA School of Herbalism's 3rd annual Hawthorn Botanical Gathering. 2025 Presenter

Ecotopian Earthcare's 2nd Annual Paw Paw Festival 2025, Presenter

PA School of Herbalism's 4thAnnual Hawthorn Botanical Gathering, 2026 Presenter

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My 2025 + offerings include

• Stewardship services: site evaluations, garden design - installation - maintenance - harvest

• Experiential Learning: we call these Tea Times, as we begin each class centering the Plants and direct experience with the Plants. 

• Public Speaking engagements: thinking ecologically, food as medicine, preventative care, community care and mutual aid.

• Community building: community gardens, mutual aid networks, provider cooperatives. 

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Can you see the continuity of care and specialized work over the decades? 

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My work has been focused since 2015 into Meraki Farmacy, a regenerative, organic herb farm that formulates folk remedies in house for family and community health. This is informed greatly by all those educational and employment experiences listed above,  AND personal practices with the healing arts including indigenous herbalism and evolutionary astrology, trauma informed integrative health care, and an innate, lifelong desire to protect and connect. 

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I am passionate about bridging - People and Plants, Possibilities and Paradigms, Traditional healing arts and the urgent existential needs and crises of our times. People come to me with many types of questions and concerns, interests and curiosities. Ultimately they are all seeking direct, intimate experiences - with their own agency and autonomy, with the Land and Plant and More-than-human Kin, with indigenous practices and wisdoms lost under colonization and conformity in western society, with something cohesive and full of integrity, with a sense of security and belonging. 

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I am very interested in the ideological and philosophical paradigms that serve to empower and return folks to interdependence, in expanding consciousness and imagining what else is possible for the qualities of life for all living beings. In the interest of accessing our imaginations and creative powers, lived experiences of safety are highly indicated, corroborated by the amount of violence and systemic harm of our society and western culture. Through relationships with more-than-human kin, relational healing is accessible, ancestral, connective, and imperative. 

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