Meet the Teachers

Phyllis D. Light,  a fourth generation herbalist and healer,  has studied and worked with herbs, foods, and other healing techniques for over 30 years. Her studies in Traditional Southern Folk Medicine began in the deep woods of North Alabama with lessons from her grandmother, whose herbal and healing knowledge had its roots in her Creek/Cherokee heritage.

Phyllis has a master’s degree from the University of Alabama in Health Studies, education and promotion, nutrition and healthcare.  She has taught CEU classes for allied healthcare professionals. She has experience in both clinical and private settings including working in integrative medical clinics in Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama. 

Currently, she is the director of the Appalachian Center for Natural Health in Arab, Alabama, which offers both online classes and in-person workshops. As well as teaching, Phyllis continues to maintain an active private practice and  consults with clients. 

Phyllis is the author of Southern Folk Medicine, Healing Traditions from Appalachian Fields and Forests. This important work chronicles the history of Southern Folk Medicine and codifies its principles for ease of understanding. She is the co-author of Traditional Western Herbalism Pulse Evaluation with Matthew Wood and Francis Bonaldo. 

www.phyllisdlight.com.

​Doug Elliott is an herbalist, naturalist and storyteller, known for his lively presentations as well as his broad, practical, scientific and cultural knowledge of the area's many useful wild plants.  He is the author of five books and a number of award winning recordings.

Renee is a Registered Herbalist and a clinical practitioner, specializing in cancer and traditional healing. Her focus is bioregional herbalism, conservation, and addressing the needs of underserved communities. Trained as a traditional healer, she spends time in several countries each year furthering her practice. She is passionate about balancing traditional and modern methods of healing. She is the founder of the Four Elements School of Traditional Medicine.

Ethnobiologist Marc Williams has taught hundreds of classes about humans and their interface with other life forms. He has a B.A. Environmental Studies/Sustainable Agriculture from Warren Wilson College and a M.A. Appalachian Studies/Sustainable Development from Appalachian State University. Marc has over 20 years’ experience from various restaurants, farms and travels throughout 31 countries and all 50 states. www.botanyeveryday.com  www.plantsandhealers.org. 

Craig Mauney has worked as an Extension agent for the NC Cooperative Extension for over 25 years.  He is presently the Extension Area Specialized Agent in commercial vegetable and fruit production in the 39 Western most counties of North Carolina.

He graduated from Berea College, Berea, Kentucky with a BS Degree in Agriculture and has a lot of experience in all aspects of commercial vegetable and fruit production, home gardening and landscape design.  His special interests are woodland botanicals and unusual edibles like pawpaw.  He grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina in Cherokee County where he had a small sustainable farm for many years.  He now has a small forest farm in Zirconia, NC – Shady Hollow Farm.

Nuit Moore is an herbalist, ecofeminist activist, and mystic specializing in the fusion of plant medicine, arts, energy work & ritual as pathways for transformative experience. Her path as a folk herbalist honors her ancestral lineages and is centered in the Wise Woman tradition, and as such, Nuit strongly focuses on women's herbals, as well as ancestral, historical, and mystical herbalism. Her practice is rich in lore, rooted in science, and ripe with alchemy. She is the creatrix/owner of Terra Astra Arts, through which she offers her herbals, classes, and her healing and ceremonial work.

Lacey Grim is a grower, folk herbalist, and educator rooted in regenerative farm life in North Carolina. She cultivates herbs and flowers alongside pasture-raised livestock, integrating food, beauty, and medicine into everyday rhythms. Through workshops and community food initiatives, Lacey teaches practical, approachable herbal skills that reconnect people to seasonal living, stewardship, and home-based nourishment.

Joanna is co-owner of Walden Farmacy, a permaculture style herb farm located in Alabama. Joanna has been through many evolutions including law school student, yogi, massage therapist, patient, mother, seeker, healer, birth-worker, farmer, dreamer, and herbalist. Her personal success finding healing through herbs and energy work started her on her path of working to reconnect people with themselves, nature, and their own innate intuitive abilities in order to propel them into greater happiness, healthiness, and wholeness. 

Sharmiece Aminata Patterson is an educator, herbalist, and community wellness advocate based in Charlotte, North Carolina. As the founder of Aminata Indigo Root (AIR), she creates culturally rooted herbal products and experiences that honor ancestral traditions while promoting accessible, holistic wellness. With a background in child and adolescent development and years of experience in education and community outreach, her work bridges research, healing, and lived experience.

Deeply inspired by Gullah Geechee heritage and generational wisdom, Sharmiece is passionate about creating spaces for learning, reflection, and restoration. Through her teaching, herbal formulations, and community engagement, she empowers individuals—especially those from underrepresented communities—to reconnect with natural healing practices and cultivate sustainable well-being.

Native American Traditional Herbalist & Storyteller

Cindi Quay is a Native American Traditional Herbalist, storyteller, and proud descendant of the Menominee Nation. Founder of Cindi’s Sacred Garden in Black Mountain, North Carolina, she has devoted over four decades to preserving and practicing Native plant traditions passed down through her Aunties, Grandmas, and Wolf Clan heritage.

Her teaching style is immersive and heart-centered, blending traditional plant identification, medicinal uses, and ancestral wisdom with captivating storytelling. Participants gain hands-on experience learning to recognize, understand, and respectfully work with our plant nation in the Native ways.

Since 1997, Cindi has crafted organic Skin Food products and Fresh Earth Medicines while teaching diverse audiences, from Indigenous communities and women’s gatherings, herbal schools, herbal weekend teachings, and holistic practitioners, guiding others toward deeper connection, healing, and relationship with Earth Mother.

Dr. Jeanine Davis is an associate professor and extension specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at NC State University. She is located at a research and extension center in western NC near Asheville.  For over 38 years, she has researched medicinal herbs, forest farming, new crops, vegetables, and organic agriculture and shared her knowledge on these topics with farmers and gardeners across the country. Her current efforts are focused on native woodland botanicals, hops, truffles, Chinese medicinal herbs, and organic tomatoes. She is the lead author of the book “Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals”. Jeanine and her family operate Our Tiny Farm, where they raise and board mini-donkeys. 

Lori Jenkins is a Traditional Herbalist, Wildcrafter, and practicing Kitchen Witch of over 20 years currently living just outside of Asheville, NC. She is the owner and creatress behind Sister of Mother Earth, LLC, a small-batch herbal business focusing on herbal tonics, wildcrafted potions and elixirs, and products made for the kitchen witch at heart using wild and cultivated herbs from Appalachia. Lori’s goals are to create community within her own local food structures and support those that grow and make our food, as well as those that create magick in the kitchen to share with those around them! Lori believes in the local food movement so much so that she has served on several farmers’ market Board of Directors as President and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Asheville Herb Fest, which is the longest running and largest herb festival in the United States. 

Lori’s teaching career in Western North Carolina spans over 8 years, with credits including festivals such as the Gathering of Wisdom Keepers in Hot Springs, faculty member for HERBalachia in Tennessee, Asheville Raven and Crone, the Asheville Herb Festival and many others. Her classes often include practical applications of kitchen herbal medicine and witchery, informed by many great teachers and herbalists in turn. She has graduated from courses of study at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine and in Rosemary Gladstar’s course The Science and Art of Herbalism as well as completed coursework and classes under fellow herbalists and wild women Anni Daulter, Asia Suler, Abby Artemisia, Rebecca Beyer and so many others.

Trevor Mann is cocreator, farmer, eco-scaper, and herbalist along side his business partners at Walden Farmacy (a small scale permaculture style herb farm producing herbal teas, tinctures, salves, and more) and Edible Ecosystems (a permaculture design and installation service company). Trevor Mann studied herbalism with Phyllis Light at the Appalachian Center for Natural Health and Permaculture design at Spiral Ridge Permaculture.

Maura Grace is a Bhakti yogi, student of the Wild Temple Tantra Yoga Therapy program, and sacred sound musician based in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. She offers yoga practices that create a supportive and welcoming space for people of all backgrounds and experience levels. Her classes weave breath and movement to invite students to connect with the wisdom of their bodies, awaken radiant prana (life force), and feel present and nourished. Inspired by the stillness of the mountains, flowing rivers, and the rhythms of the earth, her offerings reflects a life in harmony with nature, devotion, and grace, with Tulsi, her favorite herb, embodying the sacred, healing essence she brings to her offerings.

​Todd Elliott's studies in biodiversity and interrelationships in nature have taken him to remote corners of the world to explore tropical rainforests, deserts, temperate forests, beaches, and high mountains on six continents. He is particularly interested in edible and medicinal mushrooms and plants and their importance to humans. Todd is an author of the Timber Press field guide Mushrooms of the Southeast and has published academic literature on various aspects of ecology and taxonomy. Todd received his undergraduate degree in interpretive natural history from Warren Wilson College (USA) and his PhD in ecology from the University of New England (Australia). He enjoys sharing his research and knowledge of the natural world through presentations, workshops, and consultations for many different organizations in the US and abroad. To read more about Todd's research, check out his website: https://toddelliott.weebly.com/

​Deb started her soap making journey in 1990, in Hugo, Minnesota.  She learned how to make soap by reading books and trial and error. After a few years, she started teaching soap making classes at Open U, an adult education center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She also taught at St Paul Community Education for several years. In 2004, she moved to North Carolina, where she now resides in Swannanoa. She learned herbalism from some of the master herbalists in the area like Mimi Hernandez, CoreyPine Shane, Marc Williams and many more.  You can find Deb at The Owl’s Nest Cafe at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC. She runs the cafe as her full time job while she transitions to making soap and teaching classes full time. You can find her A B Tech class schedule online at abtech.edu. Soap making classes are available seasonally at Red Moon Herbs in Candler, NC,  as special events or one on one lessons. Her contact information is below.  In her spare time, Deb has a small farm where she lives with her sister, Karyn. She has 3 chickens, 3 goats, one chinchilla, indoor and outdoor cats, a cockatoo and a Great Pyrenees /Anatolian Shepherd named Newt and a Border Collie named Misty. She loves hiking in the woods and collecting rocks.