Instructors
Amber Graziano
Clinical Herbalist; Nutritionist; Owner, Rebecca's Herbal Apothecary; Lead Instructor, Rocky Mountain Community Herbalism School
Amber Graziano is a Certified Clinical Herbalist and Nutritionist and owner of Rebecca’s Herbal Apothecary in Boulder, Colorado. She trained at the North American Institute of Herbal Medicine though her path into plant medicine began through environmental studies, a deep reverence for the natural world, and a desire to create meaningful, local change.
After more than a decade stewarding Rebecca’s as General Manager, Amber stepped into ownership in 2025, continuing its legacy of sustainability, integrity, and community-rooted care. Her work is grounded in traditional Western herbalism and the belief that plant knowledge should be practical, accessible, and woven into everyday life.
Within the Rocky Mountain Community Herbalism School, Amber leads the hands-on medicine-making curriculum. Students learn to formulate, blend, and prepare herbal remedies — from teas and tinctures to oils, salves, and syrups — while building a functional home apothecary and the confidence to use it. Her teaching is experiential, skill-based, and rooted in relationship to plants, place, and tradition.
As a mother of two young children, Amber’s approach to herbalism is nourishing and grounded in daily practice. Through plant walks, shared learning, and medicine-making, she invites students into a living tradition — one that honors the past while cultivating the herbalists of the future.
Heather Powell
Community Herbalist; School Director and Lead Instructor, Rocky Mountain Community Herbalism School
Heather is a Community Herbalist with over 25 years experience in Western, Eastern and Earth-based herbal traditions. She is a graduate of the former Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies, and has apprenticed with local master herbalists. She currently shares her herbal wisdom and passion for plant healing at Rebecca’s Herbal Apothecary & Supply, where she has been on staff for over 10 years, and as a lead instructor for the Rocky Mountain Community Herbalism School. Heather’s approach as an instructor is to blend scientific, traditional, and intuitive modalities, to weave a rich tapestry of living herbalism. Her favorite part of being an herbalist is matching the plants’ personalities with people, so that collaborative healing may unfold naturally.
Visiting Instructors
Bonnie McIntosh
Clinical Herbalist, Holistic Nutritionist, Full Spectrum Doula, Flower Essence Practitioner
Bonnie is a Certified Clinical Herbalist, Nutritionist, flower essence practitioner, and full spectrum doula. Her work as a doula focuses on birth, miscarriage and abortion, where she brings nutrition, herbalism, and ritual together to provide a holistic experience tailored to each client. She believes reclaiming plant medicine is both a birthright and an act of resistance, and in her herbalism practice she tends to work with reproductive health issues, chronic illness and autoimmune disease. She loves supporting people in cultivating a relationship with plants, and sharing her passion with others.
Cat Pantaleo, MA
Clinical Herbalist
Cat is a Certified Clinical Herbalist and Ecopsychologist with 25 years of experience as an Integrative Health Practitioner and Wellness Educator. She has joyfully served as faculty in many vocational schools in the Boulder/Denver area and continues to offer holistic health consultations, field and classroom education, and nature-based experiences at the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism, the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Rocky Mountain Community Herbalism School, Naropa University, and several local apothecaries.
Cat brings an integrated approach to health and education, skillfully weaving together compassionate self-awareness, mindful time in nature, optimal nutrition, strong community ties, and the wisdom of our beloved kin—the plants, trees, and more-than-human world. At the heart of her work as a community herbalist is fostering respectful, reciprocal and meaningful relationships between people, plants, and the land.
Cat brings an integrated approach to health and education, skillfully weaving together compassionate self-awareness, mindful time in nature, optimal nutrition, strong community ties, and the wisdom of our beloved kin—the plants, trees, and more-than-human world. At the heart of her work as a community herbalist is
Christine Olanio
Clinical Herbalist, Functional Nutritionist, FAM Practitioner
Christine is a Certified Clinical Herbalist, Functional Nutritionist, Fertility Awareness Method Practitioner, body literacy educator, mother, and partner. She believes that healing is multi-dimensional and that our bodies will innately move towards wholeness and vitality when given the right conditions. They take a whole-systems approach to health, which recognizes that the body is an interconnected ecosystem, and that our individual healing also heals the collective.
Their practice is rooted in Western Herbalism, East Asian Medicine, traditional ancestral knowledge, the Symptothermal Method of Fertility Awareness, and somatic embodiment practices.
At the heart of Christine’s work is herbal medicine and the Fertility Awareness Method.
She believes that using FAM with the support of plant medicine can help us nurture a relationship with our fertility and sexuality, both of which are vital to our health, well-being, and creative potential.
David Weinstein
David is an alpine gardener growing a variety of medicinal, food and ornamental plants at 9,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He tinctures freshly harvested Rhodiola, Oregano, Saint John’s Wort and Valerian grown in his garden, as well as sourced mushrooms. In 2010 he began exploring the growing of Rhodiola by propagating many different species by seed and cutting, and found that Rhodiola wallichiana grows particularly well in his local climate. Since that time, he has been dedicated to its propagation and use.
Kat McKinnon
Clinical Herbalist, Nutritionist
Kat is a Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild and a Certified Clinical Herbalist and Nutritionist from the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism, where she studied under Paul Bergner.
She teaches workshops on herbalism, wild foods, and botany, while also running her clinical practice through Meet the Green. Approaching her work from a Vitalist perspective, Kat believes in the intelligent life force within us all.
For 12 years, she worked at the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism in Boulder and Lafayette, CO, where she served as faculty and Clinical Program Director. Originally from the East Coast, she has a passion for bioregional herbalism, especially the herbs and ecology of the Southwest.
Lauren Ann Nichols Scheffler
Certified Herbalist
Immersed in the verdant world of herbalism, Lauren Ann Nichols Sheffler blossomed at the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism, where she earned her certificate in medical herbalism. Rooted in deep reverence for crafting herbal remedies with land and place, she champions bioregional herbalism and reciprocal bonds between plants, people, and place. For seven years, Lauren has specialized in herbal distillation - hand crafting hydrosols from fresh plants and tending this ancestral art with precision and heart.
Her dedication to education and sustainability shines through guest teaching in community herbalism courses, teaching at CSCH, supporting the Sustainable Herbs Initiative, stewarding wild lands, and hosting community classes at her United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary in Denver, CO. @wildleaf_collective & @herbalistlauren
As Senior Sourcing & Purchasing Manager at WishGarden Herbs, she weaves her passion for ethical sourcing and botanical stewardship into every aspect of the supply chain - cultivating a future where plants and people thrive together.
Liz Philbrick
Clinical Herbalist, Nutritionist
Liz Philbrick is a Certified Clinical Herbalist and Nutritionist based in Longmont, Colorado. She is a graduate of the clinical herbalism and nutrition programs at the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism. Liz spent seven years as an herbalist and production manager at Rebecca’s Herbal Apothecary & Supply in Boulder, Colorado.
Deeply inspired by the natural world and its ability to nourish and support wellbeing, Liz is passionate about connecting people with medicinal herbs and empowering them to take an active role in their health.She has been sharing this passion for over 15 years through teaching herbal classes in her community.
In 2021, Liz pursued her longtime interest in reproductive health and founded Wild Rose Women’s Health, her herbal and nutritional consulting practice. Through personalized herbal, nutritional, and lifestyle coaching, she supports women through all stages of life.
Mariamor Pazos
Folk Herbalist
Mariamor is a Postpartum Doula, Folk Herbalist, and student of the plants. Mariamor’s lineage comes from Honduras and Guatemala. She has studied deeply with the Yucatec Maya lineage to learn about womb care, abdominal massage and working in right relationship with the plants for healing support. She teaches herbal classes, holds Closing of the Bones Ceremonies and offers womb massage & plant healing sessions. She is devoted to helping others connect with their true authentic nature, the spirit of the plants and supporting people in connecting with the medicines of the Earth.
Mariamor offers Yucatec Maya healing sessions which include setting intentions, working with plants, prayers, elements, and womb massage. You can find out more at sweetmedicinebymariamor.com and IG:Sweetmedicinemariamor
Samantha Grant
Clinical Herbalist
Samantha Grant (she/they) is a clinical herbalist, herbal educator, and medicine maker located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute Nations, in so-called Loveland, CO. As a Certified Clinical Herbalist, Nutritionist, and Bach Flower Essence Practitioner trained in the Vitalist Tradition, Sam is grateful for the community and the lineage of heart-centered herbalists and teachers who practice in the vitalist tradition, and is honored to study alongside them as a forever-student of the earth. Through maintaining her own continuing education and ancestral healing practices, Sam hopes to spread love and reverence for these traditions while also creating a safe and sacred space for her community to blossom and grow.
Sam supports clients in her private practice, Full Moon Medicinals, with holistic health and flower essence consultations. She also teaches classes on herbalism and medicine making, and provides apprenticeship opportunities for other budding herbalists embarking on their journey into learning herbalism and deepening their skills in the vitalist tradition. Sam is a Co-Steward for the Denver Herb Club, offering accessible workshops for the plant-curious community in Denver and beyond. Additionally, Sam is the co-founder of Streetside Care Collective, a mutual-aid organization in Denver that offers harm reduction and a free herbal wound care clinic to the Denver community.
Samantha has experience as the Clinic Director at Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism, where she was the principal case reviewer for the Clinical Herbalism program. She was also the program coordinator for the Fundamentals and Advanced Herbalism programs, where she was part of the teaching faculty and mentored students throughout their education with her expertise in clinical herbalism, advanced medicine-making skills, flower essences, formulation, research, and advanced clinical skills.
Samantha focuses on the ethics of anti-racism, trauma-informed care, harm reduction, gender-informed care, and anti-oppression in her mentorship and teaching, in an effort to meet each individual where they’re at in their healing journey and to provide students and practitioners with the skills to do the same for their communities.
Sara Stewart Martinelli
Herbalist
Sara Martinelli is an herbalist, ethnobotanist, green witch, and the CEO of The Boulder Tea Company, as well as the owner of Three Leaf Farm, a small urban organic farm, botanical sanctuary, and education center. She holds a degree in Anthropology from the University of Colorado, with an emphasis on nutrition and culture, where she developed a deep interest in how food, herbs, and plants shape society, religion, and tradition. Her passion for ethnobotany led her to explore the historic and folkloric uses of herbs, eventually earning her certification from the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies in Boulder, Colorado.
Together with her husband, Sara owns several beloved Boulder-area restaurants, including the iconic Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant, The Chautauqua Dining Hall, The Huckleberry, and Zucca. She is also the creator of the Botanica Festival, a celebration of plants and herbal wisdom, and teaches numerous workshops throughout the year on the medicinal, spiritual, and folkloric uses of herbs. A prolific writer and educator, Sara has published extensively on herbal health, wellness, and plant magic, sharing her knowledge and passion with the community.
Sofia Arana
Clinical Herbalist
Sofia Arana-Miranda is a Certified Clinical Herbalist, educator, and curandera whose work is rooted in relationship with plants as living beings and wise companions. Her practice is shaped by her Mexican heritage and bridged by her study of Western herbalism, integrating intuitive, spiritual, and clinical approaches to plant medicine.
Her teaching centers on seasonal cycles, plant energetics, and hands-on experience, offering students practical skills alongside space for reflection and insight. In the classroom, Sofia emphasizes careful listening, embodied learning, and respectful engagement with plant medicines, supporting students in developing confidence, clarity, and a deeper connection to the living world.
Stephanie Selz
Clinical Herbalist
Stephanie Selz is a Florida native who has called Boulder, Colorado home for the past eleven years. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, where she studied Ecology & Evolutionary Biology alongside Mandarin Chinese, grounding her work in both scientific understanding and cross-cultural curiosity.
Stephanie spent five years behind the counter as a clinical herbalist at Rebecca’s Apothecary, supporting clients in personalized herbal consultations and helping them grow in their wellness journeys. She is also a graduate of the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism, where she now serves as a Teaching Assistant for Botany classes, guiding students into deeper relationships with plant identification and ecological awareness.
Her herbal teaching experience spans a wide range of topics, including Deep Sleep, Herbal Immunity for Cold & Flu Season, Herbal Gardening, and Wild Medicinal Plant Walks throughout the Boulder foothills and Rocky Mountains. Stephanie loves teaching in community settings, creating spaces where learning is experiential, grounded, and relational.
Currently, Stephanie is a graduate student in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Mental Health Counseling. She is passionate about bridging the connection between our inner nature and the landscapes that surround us, drawing on the natural world as a source of support, resilience, and growth. She is also a trained birth doula and speaks conversational Spanish.
Through her work as an instructor at Rebecca’s Herbs, Stephanie brings together science, tradition, mindfulness, and heart-centered care to support students and clients in cultivating confidence, skill, and reverence in their herbal practice.
Taylor Fish
Clinical Herbalist
Taylor Fish is a Certified Clinical Herbalist and Flower Essence Practitioner, and a staff Herbalist at Rebecca’s Apothecary. She has completed studies at the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism among other workshops and programs, and is committed to lifelong learning from the plants. Taylor feels passionately about helping folks connect with herbs as medicine and weaving them back into our daily lives, deepening one's understanding of and relationship to their body and all of its complexities, teaching and empowering people to make their own medicines, and offering support in any way she can to help others reclaim their health and live vibrantly both in body and mind. Taylor knows that the more we learn and share, the more love and healing ripples out into our communities and the world.
