Organizer and Teacher
Jennifer is a botanical and visionary photographer, herbalist and flower essence practitioner with over 45 years of experience teaching plant ways in workshops, conferences and private sessions. She holds a BFA and MFA from Penn State University. Jennifer’s life path changed in 1970 when she met Bill Russell, Keith Wilson and Evelyn Snook and learned wild food foraging and plant medicine ways. She continues following her path and is author of Evelyn’s Ways Cleansing and Nourishing with Plants. Her passion is in co-creating with plants as life-long partners for herself and others. jennifer-tucker.com jenniferanne.tucker@gmail.com
Teacher (Friday Workshop and Saturday)
Dana O’Driscoll grew up in the wooded Laurel Highlands of Western Pennsylvania and is frequently covered in paint, dirt, or both. Thankfully, little has changed and she can still be found in the Alleghenies foraging tasty mushrooms, singing for the trees, crafting herbal medicines, or tending the land. Dana has been working to interweave herbalism, nature-based spirituality, and sacred artwork for most of her adult life. With her sister Briel Beaty, she is the founder of the Pennsylvania School of Herbalism and teaches herbalism and offers plant walks in Indiana and Cambria Counties in Western Pennsylvania. She has been
an herbalist for over a decade, studying with Michigan herbalist Jim McDonald among others. Dana is a certified permaculture designer and permaculture teacher who emphasizes cultivating ethical plant relationships, reciprocity, and balance. Additionally, she has been a bioregional animist druid for over 18 years, and currently serves as Grand Archdruid in the Ancient Order of Druids in America. Dana lives at a 5-acre homestead in rural western Pennsylvania with her partner and a host of feathered and furred friends. She writes at the Druids Garden blog (www.thedruidsgarden.com) and is on Instagram as @druidsgardenart. Her books include Land Healing: Physical, Metaphysical, and Ritual Approaches to
Healing the Earth, Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel of the Year through Earth-Centered Spiritual
Practices, The Sacred Actions Journal and her art includes The Tarot of Trees, The Plant Spirit Oracle,
and the TreeLore Oracle.
Susan Hess is a therapeutic herbalist and native weed wrangler who relocated to Mays Landing, NJ from Chester County, PA where she spent twenty years practicing herbal medicine and sharing that knowledge with others. Susan continues to teach her own informative 12-month foundation course entitled “Homestead Herbalism”. She is pleased to be able to create an environment that serves to combine community, education, and our native medicinal plants. Susan enjoys growing medicinal and culinary herbs in her teaching gardens, preserving them in her kitchen and wandering the wilds, discovering native beneficial plants and trees. In her spare time, Susan can be found researching and studying various traditional healing modalities, stargazing, writing and creating with herbs on a daily basis. Susan recently authored her first book entitled “The Herbal Medicine Cookbook”
For more information about Susan’s upcoming classes, please visit her website www.StillRoomatPitchPines.com
Bill Russell has been involved with fungi since he first learned to read as a child. His primary interest has been expanding and testing the wide, wide range of edible wild mushrooms of Pennsylvania. As a teacher and writer, he has authored two editions of his field guide: “Wild mushrooms of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic”, published by Penn State University Press. Bill has given many presentations and seminars in state parks, biological conferences and private organization events across Pennsylvania for many years. He continues providing presentations, and is currently completing his third mushroom field guide book.
Bill is a physicist with graduate studies at Penn State U in microbiology and fungi. After his position at IBM Research Laboratories, he was a faculty research and development physicist at Penn State
University.
Efforts relating to healthy living and clean eating led Nancy Lee and her husband, Bob, to discover the benefits of natural handcrafted soap and skin care. Together they created Balsam Rose Soap Company over 12 years ago. Nancy has worked as a college and middle school Family and Consumer Science teacher in New Jersey. After raising their two sons in New Jersey, they moved to Spafford full-time
ten years ago after they fell in love with the area.
We create our own unique skin care products. We make handcrafted, natural bar and liquid soap, bar shampoo, skin balm, mango shea butter, organic jojoba oil, aromatherapy roll-ons and a very effective natural insect repellent. Since our skin absorbs 60% of any topical ingredient that is used,
a safer, more natural, and ecological product was needed. We researched and created high quality formulations that use the power of plants to nourish your skin every day. Only organic, high quality, the least processed, and natural ingredients are used to create Balsam Rose skin care products that are not only good for your skin but good for the environment.
Robert Pacitti is a professional consulting astrologer and the visionary behind Deep Earth Astrology. Specializing in psychological and vibrational techniques, he has honed his craft under the tutelage of mentors Linda Berry, Sarah Fuhro, Margaret Gray, and Yvonne Tarnas. Infusing his practice with a deep connection to nature spirituality, Robert holds the title of Grand Pendragon in the Ancient Order of Druids in America and is the Director of the MAGUS Gathering in Gore, Virginia.
Organizer and Teacher
Artist and writer, Jennifer is an apprentice to herbalist Briel Beaty. Relations with the life around and within are her favorite explorations and dearest treasures. Jennifer works in outreach and development for a community land trust.
Organizer and Teacher
Briel is a Traditional Western Herbalist, Reiki Teacher and Yoga teacher. In herbalism her interests lie specifically in how to incorporate herbal medicines easily into peoples lives, immune support for families, educating individuals about the plants that grow around them. You can see her website here!
Yasoda Mensah is owner of Trifolia Natural Products and Botanicals, and Director of the nonprofit Three Leaf Farmden-Synergy Initiatives, which is dedicated to raising consciousness through education, sustainability, utility, and self-realization. She has a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Parasitology and a Masters in Therapeutic Herbalism, a field she has been steeped in for more than 30 years. As a graduate of the Institute For Applied Spiritual Technology (IFAST) Facilitator’s course, Yasoda has been a practitioner, educator, and spiritual counselor in the Bhakti yoga tradition for over three decades, living and working on three continents. During that time her passion for and knowledge of the Earth, environment, health, and herbal medicines has grown and deepened. Her website is: https://www.trifolianaturalproducts.com
Sue Morris, owner of Sue’s Salves, has been crafting herbal skin care and herbal remedies for many years. Winner of the PA Wilds “Artisan of the Year” in 2023, and 1st place winner of the Ben Franklin Technologies “Big Idea” contest when Sue’s Salves was a fledgling company promoting plant-based skin care, Sue is passionate about herbalism, aromatherapy and organic gardening. Sue’s Salves crafts herbal remedies using organically grown plants grown in Sue’s magical herb garden in Mill Hall, PA. Sue is also a professional astrologer, combining herbalism with planetary influences. Sue has been a popular public speaker for over 20 years, a yearly presenter at The PA Herb and Garden Festival and for countless herb and garden groups, encouraging people to grow their own medicine, and return to herbal medicine for preventative health care. As a professional astrologer for over 40 years, Sue fuses herbalism, astrology and aromatherapy into her work. Sue is the author of Scents of Self, An Alchemical Blending of Aromatherapy, Astrology and Botanical Perfumery. She developed the Sense of Self system, creating botanical perfumes based on the birth chart. Sue will have office hours at the gathering for those who want to create their personalized scent.
You can find Sue on FB at Sue’s Salves, on Instagram @sues_salves
Website: suesalves.com
Contact info: sue@suesalves.com
Is a past president of The Central Pennsylvania Mushroom Club and has been picking mushrooms for the table for sixty years and using medicinals for about twenty.
Laura Sarge is the owner of Sound Serenity, an energy wellness practice for opening and aligning chakras to allow the body to heal. Laura’s Sound Healing practice utilizes singing bowls, tuning forks, Reiki, and crystals to align and open the energy points within the body to allow for emotional and physical healing. Laura looks forward to helping to elevate your life with comfort and peace.
