AHG Staff and Volunteers

Staff

Christina Lynch: Trydent Consulting
Interim Executive Director

Christina Lynch is a community herbalist in Tallahassee, Florida and a first generation American of Barbadian descent. Christina is a graduate of the Florida School of Holistic Living (FSHL), studying under Emily Ruff and Maggie O’Halloran. She is a teacher at FSHL, focusing on the planning and operating of holistic businesses. In addition, she is the founding co-coordinator of Herbalists Without Borders – North Florida Chapter and the herbal & tea educator for Young Engineers Tallahassee. She serves her community primarily through education opportunities at local nurseries, children’s camps, farmers markets and at her herbal studio. Christina is the founder The Ginger Tea Company, a business focused on creating herbal products and services, and Trydent Consulting, a small firm focused on bridging business support and holistic practices to her clients and the community. Her background in herbalism and business has led to great impact to businesses, entrepreneurs and peers.

 

Devon Kelley-Mott
Operations Manager

Devon Kelley-Mott sprouted in the lush hills of Western Massachusetts and transplanted to the mountains of Western North Carolina in 2011 to study the vast biodiversity the Southern Appalachian region has to offer, while completing a B.S. of her own creation in Herbal Sciences at Warren Wilson College. Being a community herbalist for over 13 years, Devon has worked with multiple herb schools, on several herb farms, and has organized and hosted a plethora of herbal events. She operates an herbal product line, Apothefaerie: Adriatic & Appalachian Herbals, and is a graduate of various herb schools and certification programs throughout the country. Her work is further informed by her Croatian heritage and time spent doing ethnobotanical research along the Adriatic coast when visiting family. Devon enjoys medicine making, traveling to distant lands, reading mythology and folklore, botanizing, and loving on her sweet feline companion, Fizgig le Fae.

Nicolina Ruiz
Events Manager and Social Coordinator

Nicolina is a Panamanian-American herbalist, medicine maker, and healing arts practitioner and has been involved in the world of wellness for over 14 years. Nicolina is a graduate of the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine in Asheville, NC. and owns and operates her own herbal medicine line. She is currently working on projects to make holistic wellness & herbal medicine accessible and culturally relevant to BIPOC folks in her community. She enjoys hiking, swimming in waterfalls, and creating herbal remedies at home in the Appalachian mountains.

Patricia Kyritsi Howell
Admissions Coordinator and Academic Coordinator for AHG Symposium

Patricia Kyritsi Howell, a Registered Herbalist since 1997, is the AHG Admissions Coordinator. In this role, she acts as the liaison between Registered Herbalist applicants, the Admissions Review Advisory Committee members, and AHG staff to facilitate communication and provide support to members pursuing RH membership. As the AHG Academic Coordinator, she oversees academic programming and the selection of speakers for the annual AHG Symposium. Patricia is the author of Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians and the director of the BotanoLogos School of Herbal Studies, located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of northeast Georgia.

Michele Marlow
Webinar Coordinator

Michele is a clinical herbalist based in Oklahoma on what was once the Kiowa Nation but is now the Kickapoo (Kiikaapoi) Territory.  She has two bachelor’s degrees in Public Health and in Complementary and Alternative Health, and finished her Clinical Herbalism Program from Kat Maier's Sacred Plant Traditions.  In addition to being the AHG’s webinar coordinator, Michele works for various other herbal schools, helping them with technical support, creating classroom content, and building/managing their online classrooms.  Michele also teaches herbalism classes and volunteers for various special needs support groups and charities in her community.  Her favorite hobbies include collecting herb books for her bookshelves, collecting bookshelves for her herb books, collecting mason jars for her herbs, and collecting plants for her garden.  

Jay Bartel
JAHG Editor

Jay Bartel (they/them) is a white queer clinical herbalist and community health educator in Minneapolis, Minnesota (occupied Dakota and Anishinaabe land). Jay is a graduate of the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism (2019) and a contributor to the forthcoming Trans Herb Book. As a herbal practitioner, Jay strives to create a healing space that is welcoming, affirming, and grounded in principles of harm reduction and trauma awareness. Jay is inspired by autonomous community health projects that seek to build resilient communities in the face of societal repression, such as the community acupuncture programs initiated by the Black Panthers and Young Lords at Lincoln Detox Center; the Jane Collective, ACT UP, and much more.

Coming Soon
AHG Office Assistant

TBA

Volunteers

Ruth Glass
AHG Chapter Coordinator
Ruthie Glass MA, is your AHG Chapter Coordinator! She is a Clinical Herbalist and Educator at Traditions Herb School in St Petersburg, FL. When she's not seeing herbal clients or teaching herbal program students, you can find her walking the trails with groups of children, families, and friends, making herbal formulations and recipes, or creating nature art for her business Forest and Hearth. Ruthie is also active with her local AHG chapter, the AHG West Coast of FL Regional Chapter. She is a devoted mother and wife and cares deeply for her many critters who live in her urban farm, Magic Grove. 
 
Sabrena Gwin
AHG Chapter Coordinator

Sabrena is a traveling herbalist ever working towards understanding and helping connect people with plants. She has been a community herbalist for 10 years and is getting her clinical certification from Traditions Herb School in St Petersburg Florida. With her experience in business mentoring and developing training programs she has a passion for bringing people together and helping make learning more comprehensive and accessible. Her time is filled with learning all the things, medicine making, gardening, teaching and foraging!