Speakers

• Ash Ritter Ethnobotanist, Herbalist, Writer
  

  Ash Ritter

  Ethnobotanist, Herbalist, Writer

  Ethnobotanist, educator, multi-disciplinary animist, poet in disguise as an herbalist – for over 20 years, Ash Ritter continues to reverently devote her life to fungal & botanical studies, encompassing traditional, academic, clinical, and directly relational terrains. Ash counsels and creates in her private practice, Black Sage Botanicals, to empower cooperative sovereignty, engaging a direct relationship with & as the living world.

• Dr. Adrienne Godschalx (Host) Researcher and Instructor at the Soil Food Web School
  

  Dr. Adrienne Godschalx (Host)

  Researcher and Instructor at the Soil Food Web School

  Dr. Adrienne Godschalx studied Biology for both her Bachelor of Arts and her Ph.D. degrees. Her career as an ecology professional began over a decade ago, throughout which she taught, designed courses, led and managed teams, as well as researched and presented scientific findings around the world. This enabled Adrienne to become fluent in Spanish and learn intermediate French. Adrienne did post-doctoral research at the Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland, which is a leader in chemical ecology and plant-insect-soil interactions. Her publications stretch back to 2013, when she researched co-variation of chemical defenses in the lima bean, through to 2021, when she researched spatial and temporal heterogeneity in pollinator communities. Currently, Adrienne serves as a Soil Food Web School Instructor for the Consultant Training Program and hosts Educational Webinars and the Annual Soil Regen Summit.

• Dr. Lyla June Johnston Dine' Artist, Scholar, Community Organizer
  

  Dr. Lyla June Johnston

  Dine' Artist, Scholar, Community Organizer

  Dr. Lyla June Johnston (aka Lyla June) is an Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing. She blends her study of Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans.

• Raya Grieb Permaculture Design Instructor, Social Justice Advocate, Herbalist
  

  Raya Grieb

  Permaculture Design Instructor, Social Justice Advocate, Herbalist

  Raya Grieb is a permaculture teacher and consultant with a passion for social justice and mentoring students. She advocates for learning traditional practices from local communities to live sustainably and gently on the Earth. Raya has taught permaculture consultancy to students in India, working with a village farmer to implement a functional farm design. She also teaches permaculture design courses and advanced courses on various topics related to permaculture. Raya is a herbalist who grows and wildcrafts medicinal herbs and runs Simply Being Botanicals. She is also a peaceful parenting coach and provides permaculture consultancy in the US, Costa Rica, and India. Raya has developed two farms using permaculture principles in California and is designing her third farm in the Sierra foothills.