Faculty & Staff

The new executive director for Berkeley Herbal Center: Kathren Murrell Stevenson!

Kathren Murrell Stevenson

Executive Director

Kathren brings over twenty years of experience in embodied awareness and nature-based healing practice to BHC. 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. 

As an educator, Kathren  has experience teaching subjects ranging from general biology, botany, and restoration ecology to The Ecology and Poetry of Trees and Plants and People: Exploring Nature through Relationship. She has given talks, classes, and workshops for like-minded organizations such as the California Institute of Integral Studies, the Shift Network, Terra’s Temple and the Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium.

Kathren 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. Kathren’s nonprofit journey began as the Restoration Program Director for Friends of Sausal Creek.  After taking a break to dive deeper into teaching and running her own business, she rejoined the nonprofit sector to support  Gaia Passages, a local nonprofit focused on nature connection and rites of passage for youth.

Kathren believes you can transform yourself and our world by connecting to your body’s wisdom, earth wisdom, and the healing power of nature. As an educator, mentor, and nonprofit leader, her work inspires and empowers us to deepen our relationships with ourselves, our human communities, and our more-than-human world. She is thrilled to bring all of her gifts and experience together in service to plants and people as the Executive Director of Berkeley Herbal Center.

Dana Aronson

Instructor & Academic Program Director

(Village Herbalist I and II)

Dana Aronson is a trained clinical herbalist who takes joy in community based, hands on learning. She focuses her studies on bio-regional plants from the Pacific Northwest and intertwines them into her practice and teachings. Dana’s interests include setting up mobile first aid clinics, working with folks around addiction + harm reduction, and working with the unhoused community. Dana believes in offering accessible herbal medicine and digestible herb information so that people can feel empowered around their health.

Camille Williams-Dunn

Instructor

Camille-Lillian is a California native with a deep love for people, and the Golden State. Herbalism has given her a pathway to deeper connections. 

Throughout her herbal training, she has welcomed a growing sense of responsibility to close the gaps between individuals and their own health by encouraging healing on all levels of the human experience. As an herbal practitioner, she wishes to empower people with the knowledge and tools to live their best lives. She is especially interested in bringing herbal wellness to those who feel that their health needs are not being adequately served in their communities.

Ashley Campos with Flowers

Ashley Campos

Clinic Advisor & Adjunct Instructor

Ashley Campos is a certified clinical western herbalist and holistic health practitioner re-wilding, healing, and connecting herself with land and people through the magnificent lens of herbs. Pulling from her most difficult and triumphant life experiences, Ashley provides holistic, gentle, and comprehensive care for her clients. 

Ashley treats both acute and chronic focusing on diet & lifestyle as well as spiritual & emotional wellness. Some of her specific interests include blood sugar regulation, PCOS, GI wellness, and anxiety & depression. She also teaches classes on Western herbalism, medicine, making, and the magic & folklore of plants.

Christine Holland

Executive Assistant, Instructor & Clinician

As an herbalist, Christine starts with the continual practice of connecting with and learning from the plants themselves.

Christine’s journey began as a little girl when the plants started calling to her. She felt their pull throughout her life, but only really felt free enough to start letting them guide her when she had reached “a certain age.” 

Finally following her heart, she began to study in earnest with some wonderful teachers in the East Bay Area and eventually found her way to the Berkeley Herbal Center. She’s been blessed to learn from the wise teachers and practitioners there, and to become part of BHC’s community of healers. She’s also traveled to Peru to work with human and plant teachers, experiences that have had a profound impact on her own healing journey

Kalpana, a BHC Alumni

Kalpana Jacob

Student Services Manager & Instructor

Bio Coming Soon!

Madeline-1-e1574816588524

Madeline de la Serna

Academic Program Director

(Foundations, Therapeutics, and Apprenticeship Programs)

Madeline’s background with herbalism started out as a journey of self-discovery & seeking a deeper understanding of the natural world, which then led her to the Berkeley Herbal Center to further her education and interest in clinical herbalism. In recent years, she has branched out further into herbal education through supporting herbalism students as they start off on their own paths. Madeline is the Academic Programs Director at Berkeley Herbal Center, and also serves as a Student Support Assistant at the School of Evolutionary Herbalism.
 
Madeline feels that we all carry an innate capacity within ourselves to heal and grow, and that the plants can be great allies to guide us through this process. Madeline recently became a mother and after taking some time off to focus on her new baby & family, is now back with the Berkeley Herbal  Center, and is also dreaming up her plans of starting up her clinical herbal practice again in 2022.
China Camp-1

Chelsea Feldman

Instructor

Chelsea is an herbalist, educator, holistic chef, photographer, gardener, and beekeeper. She embraces a holistic approach to healing that weaves together herbs, food, lifestyle practices and ritual, and is nourished by the golden threads of earth-honoring ancestral wisdom. She believes in the power of plants to guide us home to ourselves and to help us remember our place in the web of life. 

As an educator with over twenty years of experience teaching elementary school, experiential environmental education and arts education, she is deeply committed to sharing herbal wisdom in her community and to passing the green flame of herbal wisdom and earth magic to the future generations.

Tyler Dickerson

Tyler Dickerson

Instructor & Clinician

Tyler is an herbalist, wild crafter, forager, and Medicine maker. Tyler discovered Western Herbalism in his early teens, wildcrafting herbs for personal  discovery and medicinal use along a nearby creekside in his native Idaho town. He  connected with many of the local flora including giant burdock, the strongly aromatic  cottonwood buds, hedge-nettle, Lomatium , and many others. This sprouted in him a  deep passion which lead him to pursue herbal apprenticeships and over a decade of  personal study. 

Tyler is interested in working with Herbs and clients struggling with autoimmunity, as  well as helping people empower themselves to take health into their own hands  through lifestyle, diet, and herbs. Tyler completed the Apprenticeship program through  Berkeley Herbal center in October 2021, and continues as a First year clinician with  the BHC clinic. He believes that with herbalism, you never stop learning, and looks  forward to remaining a lifetime student of the knowledge plants have to share. 

Rebecca Clinic Photo

Rebecca Davis

Medicine-Making Assistant & Clinician

Rebecca is an herbalist, medicine maker, Reiki master, actress, and backpacker.

As a lover of the wilds, Rebecca has always found profound healing in the natural world. She has felt a life-long calling towards the healing arts, but never found the right fit within the allopathic model. She was first captivated by herbal medicine when she took an Introduction to Herbalism at the Berkeley Herbal Center in 2019. Inspired by that class, Rebecca completed the Apprenticeship program in 2021. Over the course of her studies, she has gained a deeper appreciation for the wisdom and power of our plant allies to facilitate holistic healing for the mind, body, and spirit. As a medicine maker, she focuses on extracting a high potency of phytochemical constituents while honoring plant spirit magic. She is especially interested in working with depression & anxiety, sleep issues, and respiratory & cardiovascular health.

julie beneficio

Jules Benefico

Instructor & Clinic Supervisor

Jules Benefico is a Western Clinical Herbalist with a passion to help others uncover the mysteries of their soul and heal naturally. Jules focuses on allyship, forgiveness, gratitude, shadow work, pleasure, and solidarity as tools to aid her herbal work. She believes that herbal medicine is an accessible earth based healthcare system that digs deep to get to the root of ailments, not cover up symptoms. Jules also has a handcrafted herbal skincare & aromatherapy line for self-love, intention setting, and nourishment Called Opal Elements Cosmic Apothecary and a new project called Boss Witch Botanicals where she supports herbalists and healers blossom their businesses.
 
Jules teaches core classes for Foundations, Therapeutics, Apprenticeship, and Village Herbalist programs at BHC. She also leads workshops on the cycles of nature, conscious business practices, and herbal alchemy up and down the west coast.
Meet Herbalist Veronica Ricksen!

Veronica Ricksen

Instructor & Clinic Supervisor

Veronica is a clinical Western herbalist and educator, graduating from Berkeley Herbal Center’s 4-year clinical herbalism program.

Through her work as an herbalist, she aims to dismantle the cultural taboos surrounding the menstrual cycle and fertility and loves to support women in understanding and trusting their bodies.

Veronica is currently enrolled in a 2-year program to become a certified Fertility Awareness and Sexual Health Educator. She’s working to combine clinical herbalism and fertility awareness practices to support women from menstruation to menopause.

Veronica’s catalyst to becoming an herbalist was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay. It began with her host mom teaching about the medicinal plants in the yard, and piqued when Veronica befriended a 90+ year old man who taught her how he stayed so healthy– boiled toad bones (like bone broth) and herbs!

Kathryn

Kathryn McCabe

Instructor & Clinic Supervisor

Kathryn McCabe started dabbling with herbs as a kid in the late 70’s and early 80’s while growing up in
the Haight Ashbury. There weren’t may herbal medicine books at the time, so she tried to teach herself with the one she found. Many mistakes later she settled on a few herbal allies that she always kept on hand to doctor herself and her loved ones.

She got a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology (Human Movement) and believes that moving our bodies is key to helping keep us as strong and as flexible possible. She’s worked as an Aide with Sport’s and Orthopedic Physical Therapists, and now works with Physical and Occupational Therapists with Children with developmental disabilities and head injuries. She began studying at Berkeley Herbal Center in 2009 and by 2012 completed the Foundations, Therapeutics and Clinic Programs. She began teaching with Berkeley Herbal Center in 2018.

Rose Birdsong-Stuart

Herb Room Director, Clinician & Instructor

 Rose draws from all chapters of her life to inform her work as a healer. She works from a holistic approach, focusing on diet and lifestyle as well as spiritual and emotional well being. 

In addition to graduating from Berkeley Herbal Center’s Apprenticeship and 1st year Clinical Internship programs, she has also studied herbalism at East West School of Planetary Herbology and tongue and pulse diagnosis with Will Morris, PhD, DAOM, and LAc. In 2021, she completed the Plant Spirit Talk mentorship with Francisca Santibanez. 

Carissa Hayes is an Herbalist

Carissa Hayes

Instructor

Herbalism was like a long lost friend, oddly familiar as she explored the ancestral wisdom.

With a desire to deepen her herbal knowledge in a cohort of like minded individuals, she found the Berkeley Herbal Center and decided the school was the one for her due to the focus on Clinical Herbalism. She attended the Apprenticeship Program and then continued on with the Clinical Herbalism Program.

As an herbalist, Alessandra seeks to act as a facilitator between her clients and the plants; she believes that each person deserves agency in their wellness journey. 

Alessandra Jones

Instructor & Clinician

Alessandra’s curiosity about plants has been a lifelong interest. Her relationship with them began while growing up in Oakland playing among the majestic beauty of the redwoods and receiving the gift of food as medicine from her Italian mother, which provided her with deep physical and spiritual nourishment from a young age. Though she didn’t know it had a name and long-established history, she knew immediately upon learning about the world of herbalism that this was her vocation.

As an herbalist, Alessandra seeks to act as a facilitator between her clients and the plants; she believes that each person deserves agency in their wellness journey. 

Visiting Herbalists

In addition to our regular Faculty and Staff, we have a number of visiting herbalists who teach classes for us on a seasonal basis and / or have contributed classes to our online course library.

Alexandra Hudson

Amanda Narin

Anna-Marie Beauchemin

Autumn Summer

Brigitte Mars

Deva Waring

Francisca Santibanez

Julie Drucker

Sarah Bearden

Terri Jensen

William Morris

A Special Thank You to Our Founder

Pam Fischer, RH (AHG)

Founder

Pamela Fischer is the founder of the Berkeley Herbal Center in Berkeley, CA. Berkeley Herbal Center is a non-profit organization serving the community through its Western Herbal medicine school, community clinic, and robust dispensary. It is one of the few schools in the country that operates a year-round community clinic on site.

For more than 30 years Pamela has been studying plants and herbal medicine. After receiving her degree in eco-psychology, Pam became attracted to the herbal healing path and immersed herself into a well-rounded education provided by the insights and wisdom of Western scientists, Western herbalists, native healers, wise women, and witches. Her basket of tools includes Western herbal theory, Traditional Chinese pulse diagnosis, Ayurveda, and Tibetan medicine. She has spent countless hours and days camping and hiking in our local woods, working with local plant medicine, and teaching about their use and conservation.

Pam is known as a visionary leader and grass-roots organizer. She has inspired generations of herbalists to be a stand for change in our healthcare system. Many of her graduates have and are currently creating similar establishments to provide services locally. In this vein, Pam endeavors to free her community from a broken system and move them toward an era of healthcare based on prevention, compassion, and care.