Biography

Vanessa Mardones is an ethnobotanist, herbalist, and lifelong plant lover, with a passion for propagating the healing relationships between people and plants. She has pursued plant knowledge from many angles, from a research fellowship in pharmacognosy and natural products chemistry at the National Center for Natural Products Research, to an ethnobotany field intensive at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, and a horticulture internship at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. Her immersion in herbal medicine began with the Herbaculture apprenticeship at Herb Pharm and continued with the East-West School of Planetary Herbology. Vanessa practiced as an herbalist and co-owner at Madison’s Community Pharmacy and taught workshops on edible and medicinal plants at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, before pursuing an MSc in Ethnobotany at the Royal Botanical Gardens and the University of Kent. She moved to Vermont to work as Formulation Researcher at New Chapter, and is currently completing a PhD on Nunatsiavut Inuit use of Rhodiola rosea for food, medicine, and community economic development in Labrador.