AHG Staff and Volunteers
Staff
Mimi Hernandez, RH (AHG)
AHG Executive Director
Mimi Hernandez comes from a background as an herbalist and an ethnobotanist. She has a Master of Science degree in Herbal Medicine from Tai Sophia Institute and a Certificate in Non Profit Management from Duke University. Mimi believes strongly that keeping plant wisdom alive is essential and has dedicated her life's work to serving as an advocate for both traditional and professional herbal pathways while building cultural bridges of understanding.
Annie Doran
Office Manager
Annie Doran is a clinical herbalist with her own practice, Lion's Tooth Herbs. She studied with the Columbine's School of Botanical Studies, and graduated from Sacred Plant Traditions. Annie also enjoys teaching herbalism classes, writing on health and cultural topics and is active in wildlife conservation in her local area of Durham, North Carolina. She is especially passionate about providing accessible, affordable care for those who struggle to navigate the healthcare system, such as the LGBTQIA community, BIPOC and women. She is committed to learning how to best serve the communities most in need of holistic healthcare. In her free time, she can be found walking her foster dogs, hiking by the Eno, and going out dancing.
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.
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.
Devon Kelley-Mott
Office Assistant
Devon Kelley-Mott sprouted in the lush hills of Western Massachusetts and transplanted to the mountains of West 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 from Warren Wilson College. Since then she has worked as a community herbalist, on herb farms and gardens, with multiple herb schools, 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 the Appalachia School of Holistic Herbalism, Goldthread Herb School, and various 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.
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.