Every month we take the opportunity to touch base with a past student. An herbalist that graduated from our school and has found their way in the green world. This month we’re doing things a little differently.
For more than a year, the Berkeley Herbal Center has been on the hunt to find a new executive director.
Don’t worry. Founder, Pam Fischer won’t be retiring just yet! Instead, she will be able to focus on her own passion – teaching and mentoring future herbalists while she develop herbal opportunities within our community.
Last year, we combed through all of our applicants. We narrowed hundreds of letters down to our top three qualified applicants. And then we found Kathren Murrell Stevenson. Or rather, she found us.
From the very first interview with Kathren, Pam and the entire BHC board agreed. Kathren is the needle in the haystack we have been seeking!
She has the fire that we’re looking for. She has a passion for herbalism and the eye for the business side of our nonprofit. Kathren also inspired every person she spoke to at BHC. Our Board and Faculty are very excited to welcome Kathren on board as our new executive director!
To help us get to know her a little bit better, Kathren wrote a letter to you and the entire BHC Community.
Dear Berkeley Herbal Center Community,
I am delighted to join this community and train with Pam Fischer as the new Executive Director of BHC. I look forward to growing in relationship with each of you and working together with our plant teachers and allies to support our own health and the wellness of our communities.
My personal mission is to work cooperatively with nature for personal and planetary transformation and healing. Herbalists know that as we deepen our relationship with plants, they catalyze our journey toward health and wholeness in ways that we could not even imagine.
When I learned that the Berkeley Herbal Center was searching for a new Executive Director, I knew that I had to apply. I envisioned an opportunity to integrate all of my different interests, skills, and experience in this position to expand access to herbal medicine as a pathway toward health and wholeness.
I know I will learn a lot working with the talented faculty and staff at the Berkeley Herbal Center, and I look forward to deepening into the heart of BHC’s mission and vision.
Please join me in celebrating the new growth that is sprouting at BHC this year!
Please reach out if you would like to know more about how to participate and support our work.
In fellowship,
Kathren
Kathren believes you can transform yourself and our world by connecting to your body’s wisdom, earth wisdom, and the healing power of nature.
Kathren works with individuals and groups helping us reclaim our wholeness in the web of life. A practiced guide for personal and planetary transformation and healing, she inspires and empowers us to deepen our relationships with ourselves, one another, and our more-than-human world. As an adjunct instructor at CIIS, she taught The Ecology and Poetry of Trees and Plants and People: Exploring Nature through Relationship.
Kathren brings over twenty years of experience in embodied awareness and nature-based healing practice to BHC. She holds a BA in Biogeography and Botany from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in Plant Ecology from the University of California at Davis. Her wholeness work has included in-depth studies with Angeles Arrien and immersion in Plant Spirit Healing. She is a certified Yoga teacher, Breema bodyworker, and Reiki practitioner.
In addition to her own body of work, Kathren worked for many years as a botanist / field ecologist and served as the Restoration Program Director for Friends of Sausal Creek. Over the last couple of years, in addition to running her own business, she worked as a Lead Instructor and Mentor for Uptima Business Cooperative teaching a Business Bootcamp for Freelancers and conducted business advising for solopreneurs making pivots in response to COVID-19.
In 2020, Kathren re-entered the nonprofit world as the Operations Director for Gaia Passages, a local nonprofit that offers nature-based mentoring and rites of passage for youth. She delighted to bring her gifts in support of Berkeley Herbal Center!
To learn more about Kathren’s independent work you can visit her website at www.wisdomecology.com. You can connect with her on LinkedIn!
Support Our Work
Berkeley Herbal Center is a 501(c)(3) organization, so all donations are tax deductible. Tax ID #14-1975183
If you would like to donate by check or cash, please send an envelope addressed to:
Berkeley Herbal Center
1250 Addison St., #G
Berkeley, CA 94702