Faculty

Our school utilizes ancestral wisdom, ecological sustainability, equality and feminist principles. We believe that health care must consider the whole person; body, mind, spirit, environment and community.  

CORE FACULTY

Madelon Hope

Madelon Hope directs the Boston School of Herbal Studies where she teaches Herbal Apprenticeship programs, Advanced Training, and a variety of classes. A Clinical Herbalist for over twenty years and a Licensed Psychotherapist, she combines Western Herbalism with Chinese medicine and psychotherapy to assist healing on multiple levels.  Her main focus is on stress, mood imbalances, fatigue, lowered immunity and sleeplessness.

Tommy Priester

Tommy Priester is a Clinical Herbalist, Wellness Counselor and founder of Bear Medicine Holistic Services & Heart Mind Integration Healing. Tommy has been a Practicing Clinical Herbalist and Holistic Counselor since 1998. He combines extensive knowledge of Western herbalism, shamanism, spiritual healing, aromatherapy, holistic nutrition with ancient wisdom traditions from Native American, Chinese and other cultures.

Tommy is a masterful teacher and facilitator who combines expert knowledge of his subject with gentle humor. In addition to his own workshops and seminars has been a faculty member at The Boston School of Herbal Studies since 2003.

Adjunct Faculty

Linda Patterson

Linda has over twenty years of experience working with herbs and essential oils. Her love for plants inspired her to become a Master Gardener as well as a Flower Essences Practitioner. Her passion for the healing arts has lead her to becoming a Reiki Practitioner and Reflexologist. Being a food activist has guided her on a path of health through nutrition, the primary source of energy, longevity and vitality. Linda teaches locally and internationally. Her dynamic style of teaching encompasses a wide variety of healing modalities, which embrace a holistic approach to health and well-being.

Meghan Powers

Meghan Powers has been creating and teaching children’s camps for over 2 decades! As a lifelong gymnast, gymnastic coach, and yoga teacher of all ages, she brings a kinesthetic understanding about the importance of body movement and awareness to everything she does.

As a certified herbalist and aromatherapist Meghan is able to weave the beauty of plants and all their benefits together with movement and breathe work, enabling all those fortunate enough to study with her the ability to connect with their bodies, reduce anxiety, and find the inner peace necessary to manage life’s challenges.

Meghan’s deep love for children provides the support needed for children and teens to feel empowered, to be their authentic selves, regardless of gender, background, or societal pressures. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and brings joy to all her teachings!

Meghan is certified in 1st aid, CPR, as a teacher of yoga for children and adults, as well as a practitioner of Reiki. After gaining her certification as an herbalist and aromatherapist Meghan went on to create her own product line Artisan Apothecary, which allows her to help others through her knowledge of herbs and essential oils. 

Meghan has 2 beautiful children who she enjoys hiking and camping with, she understands that “When children take time to breathe and connect to their bodies and nature, it has a positive impact on behavior, mood, and focus. It provides the foundation for confidence, self-awareness, and an awareness of inner and outer strength”.

Dominique Ross

With prior corporate experience in organizational development and training, plus over a decade of working with children as a school counselor, Dominique brings a deep level of compassion and mentorship to her work. She understands the importance and need to help our youth reduce stress and anxiety, and she has the gift of helping them find their voice and discover their truth. She is passionate about supporting adult learners as they embark on new pathways of learning and personal growth.

Her experience as an herbalist and teacher for The Boston School of Herbal Studies provides the foundation necessary to share information about plants in ways that are thorough, inspiring, and invite curiosity. This along with her knowledge gained as a certified aromatherapist provides Dominique with the ability to combine these tools in ways that allow her to work with people on the many levels required to achieve balance. She understands the importance of reconnecting people to nature and the healing that this relationship promotes.
Dominique’s desire to help others has also inspired her to become a Reiki Master, a Spiritual Life Coach, and attain her Level 1 and 2 certifications in Hand Analysis through the American Academy of Hand Analysis.  This constellation of skills and passions is what motivated Dominique to start her own business in February 2023, Rooted Life Sanctuary, LLC.

Dominique currently works for The Boston School of Herbal Studies where her impeccable soft skills enable her to interact with all levels and ages of students and to create an atmosphere of inclusiveness and community. Her organizational proficiency and business acumen bring a higher level of functioning and stability to everything we do.

When not teaching or running her business, she spends her time raising her two young daughters, engaging in her own healing journey and spiritual growth story, and lovingly tending her herb garden where she grows medicinal herbs to support family and community.

Ally Dugan

Ally Dugan’s well-rounded teaching style encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Her decade of experience as a Special Educator speaks of her patience and compassion, which she shares with everyone. She has years of experience working with students that have a wide variety of learning needs. Allowing her to meet students where they are, and help them advance to attain their goals. Ally’s “think global, act local” philosophy applies learning and real-world connections in her classroom and beyond. Her groundedness brings a calmness that enhances learning and allows students to feel comfortable. She strives to help young people make the connection between mind, body and spirit, and she provides the opportunities for students to learn how these aspects of self are intrinsically connected to nature. Ally has had a lifelong love of nature and is a certified herbalist. She shares her love of plants with her community, and teaches for the Boston School of Herbal Studies.

Ally’s educational background consists of a masters degree in education, specifically focused on academic assessments, vocational planning, and executive functioning. She holds a certificate in first aid, and has extensive training in helping young people with inclusivity, social dynamics, and self-advocating. Her greatest joy is empowering children to be independent!

In her free time, Ally spends time hiking in the woods with her two dogs. She also grows medicinal herbs, flowers and a variety of produce to feed her family and friends. She creates products from the herbs she grows and uses the formulas she’s created to help keep her community healthy.

Beckett Rucker

Beckett (they/them) has a creative spirit and a passion for food, plants, and our relationship with them.  To more deeply understand the food-health-nutrition relationship, they completed numerous courses including Matthew Kenney’s Elevated Plant-Based Foundations Course and T. Colin Campbell’s Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate Program at eCornell.  Wanting to marry nutrition with herbal knowledge, Beckett then completed Juliet Blanketspoor’s Herbal Medicine Making course with the Chestnut School, as well as the level I apprenticeship with Boston School of Herbal Studies. After volunteering in Codman Community Farm kitchen, they moved to work under Chef Kelcy Scolnick as a Sous chef at Wright-Locke farm creating delicious farm suppers and tea times for the local community.   

Beckett has also received their permaculture design certificate from Sowing Solutions in Shelburne Falls, MA. and is the farm manager and permaculturist at Soluna Garden Farms in Winchester.  They are currently working to transition the land from cut flower production to a demonstration food and medicine forest.  Beckett can’t wait to share the creative process of making healthful herbal shrubs and vinegars with you!

Lucia Longnecker

Lucia grew up exploring the woods and surroundings of Walden Pond, learning from her immigrant parents that the best food came from your own garden so plants have always been a comfort to her and being outdoors a healing balm.  During a break in her college education she spent 2 years at Dana-Farber Institute developing models to test treatments for AIDS.  While there she learned that research was what she wanted to do but being indoors all the time was not feeding her soul.  She then studied plant biology at Brown University writing her thesis on photosynthesis with Peter Heywood.  During her college summers she interned with Dave Simser at the New Alchemy Institute in Falmouth, MA researching nematodes and at the USDA investigating the then recently introduced gypsy moth caterpillar life cycle and the effect of the 7 spotted ladybug on aphid populations on fava beans.  After college she moved to Pennsylvania to continue doing field research, this time on tillage and other systems to produce organic agricultural crops at Rodale Institute.  While raising her 3 sons she started a tea company with Peter Hewitt from RISD, quickly learning how business works – very different from the natural world!  After selling Tea Forte, she began her studies with the Boston School of Herbal Studies in 2014 and apprenticed with Tommy Priester maintaining his apothecary.  In 2020 Lucia accepted the request to be director of the BSHS providing any and all support to the amazing teachers from whom she learned.  She feels society is in desperate need of these teachings at this time and is grateful for the opportunity to help passing this indispensable knowledge to more people.

Paul Lagréze

Paul first became interested in mushrooms as a teenager, noticing white shelf-like mushrooms growing on Poplar trees in the fall.  These oyster mushrooms had a seafood-y smell and a slight licorice flavor when sautéed.

He was introduced to wild edibles and herbs when he interned with Josephine Porter in Stroudsburg, PA, right after high school where he was taught bio-dynamic farming.  Lamb quarters and stinging nettles were two of the wild plants that he learned were both nutritional and tasty.  Josie was milking over 80 milking goats as well as raising Holstein heifers to sell to dairy farms.

Paul found himself restless and became interested in traveling, so he set out on a banana boat which allowed him to sail around the world.  Upon arriving in England, he decided to get off the boat and set out over land to India via the Middle East, Persia and Pakistan.  It was quite the cultural adventure!

When he finally came back home, he longed for a peaceful agrarian life and like many people of his generation, he joined a commune.  The commune he joined, near Ithaca, NY, had a log cabin where he shared in community and meals.  In that cabin Paul found a field guide to mushrooms by Alexander Smith, a University of Michigan mycologist.  This book was instrumental in his teaching about the basics of the mushroom world and he was inoculated in his mind by the idea of mycelium.

When it was time to go back to school, Paul went to California to receive a BA in Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara. Upon graduation he moved back to the East Coast where the mushrooms he found on his walks in the forest piqued his interest once again.  He decided to take a beginners course in Mycology at UMass and then joined the Boston Mycological Club and the southern NH mushroom club, called the Monadnock Mushroomers Unlimited.

He was hooked…

One particularly dry year, around 2000, when there were very few wild mushrooms about Paul decided to grow shiitake mushrooms on oak logs.  He sold the extra shiitakes to restaurants near him.

Paul then founded his company, New England Wild Edibles, in 2004.  His knowledge of mushrooms kept growing and he began teaching an introductory course on mushrooms at UMass Amherst in 2014, and he now teaches at Greenfield Community College.

He currently has a mushroom farm in Heath, MA where he grows shiitake mushrooms and other saprophytic (carbon consuming) mushrooms and conduct cultivation classes.  He leads mushroom forays in the woods of Western MA from late Spring to Fall, and forages for wild mushrooms and wild edibles which he sells at the Tuesday Market in Northampton, MA, as well as to surrounding restaurants. 

There is nothing that Paul enjoys more or that brings him more peace than being out in the woods looking for mushrooms…

We are honored to have him here, and to share his Medicine with us, and with all of you!

VISITING FACULTY

Caroline Gagnon

Caroline Gagnon has been an herbal practitioner and teacher for the past 25 years, both in Canada and internationally. A truly gifted and heart-centered communicator, Caroline’s enthusiasm for all aspects of humans and their health combined with an insatiable scientific curiosity and a deep connection to the plant world make her an outstanding teacher.

Her work is informed by three decades of her clinical herbal practice, her deep understanding of plant energetics, human physiology and her vast teaching experience. She is the co-founder and director of FloraMedicina an international herbal online school based in Quebec and is currently the president of the Herbalist Guild of Quebec. Her broader mission is to help secure a place where herbalism is safely practiced throughout the world.

Over the years, Caroline has found that by identifying the places where inflammation has settled chronically in the body and by making recommendations to calm that inflammation, the state of health and wellbeing of her clients have improved enormously. She has chosen to make chronic inflammation the guiding thread for these two days of training and will share with you the many protocols that she has developed over the years.

Brendan Kelly

Brendan Kelly has a master’s in acupuncture and extensive experience with eastern and western herbs, including in-depth, hands-on experience growing, wildcrafting and medicine making. Since 2004 he has been combining the potency of local, bioregional medicinals with the older, pre-westernized traditions of Chinese medicine. He teaches about natural medicine and environmental issues around the US and Europe and has been a faculty member at Johnson State College/Northern Vermont University in VT, the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture in FL and Daoist Traditions in NC. Brendan is part of a multi-disciplinary team lead by Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center that in 2024 submitted a proposal to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for him to train acupuncturists to treat long COVID. He is also long-time student of Dr. Jeffery Yuen, 88th generation Daoist priest and internationally recognized teacher of Chinese medicine.

Brendan is an experienced practitioner of Tai Ch’i Ch’uan having studied weekly for ten years with Wolfe Lowenthal, who was a senior student of Cheng Man Ch’ing, the creator of the Yang style short form. Brendan practices full time at Jade Mountain Wellness, the clinic he founded in Burlington, VT where a major focus of his work is treating complex conditions include Lyme, late-stage neurological Lyme, COVID, long COVID and cancer. His first book "The Yin and Yang of Climate Crisis", published by North Atlantic Books, uses the lens of Chinese medicine to look at the bigger and deeper issues of our warming planet