An Eye for Plants
Some people have an eye for fashion, others, like myself, have always had an eye for plants and their cultural uses. I grew up in the diverse forests of the Upper Great Lakes as well as on my family’s cranberry farm. The region’s environmental ethic engrained in young children, and adults, for those who listen, has taught me to admire and respect the natural world, wild or otherwise. I’ve had a front row seat to the highs and lows of running an American family farm. I’ve learned what it takes, and have had the intimate experience of getting to know a plant, both its heartiness and its vulnerabilities. I’ve also learned to respect the fruit: when we have it, and when we don’t.
We inherited the world from our ancestors, and with every decision, we also leave behind a world for future generations. How can we ensure inter-generational justice among the natural world which we belong? I believe I am called to build bridges between people and plants and that’s where my work and research continues to grow.
A Love for Brewing Tea
I applied my interests, and love for steeping plants in hot water, during my five years at Rishi Tea & Botanicals located in Milwaukee, WI. I held a variety of roles beginning as a tea blender on the factory floor, to tea taster and educator developing and teaching courses for employees and customers. Whether it is tea, herbs, spices, food, or medicine I’ve always been the woman with 101 plants in her kitchen, ‘tea’ cupboard, and garden. I feel my path in life comes to no surprise to those who know me; I am passionate in what I love and do.
Current Projects
Royal Holloway, University of London & Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, PhD student, everything tea
Missouri Botanical Garden | William L. Brown Center, Ethnobotany Collections & Data (Biocultural Collection Manager)
Tea History Collection | Banbury, UK, Honorary Curator
Tea History Association | London, UK, Committee Member
University of California - Davis | Global Tea Institute & Global Tea Scholars, as a member of their Advisory Board
Research Interests
Ethnobotany, as a lens to understand people & non-human relationships
Food Systems, production, circulation & consumption
Biocultural Diversity, and its conservation
Biocultural Collections, and their use in the 21st century
Agrobiodiversity, and its necessity for biological as well as cultural survival
Tea (Camellia sinensis), its biocultural history & processes — I’ve seen tea grow in seven countries! (eight if you count Scotland)
Cultures of fermentation, and microbial diversity
Education
PhD Geography 20??
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surry, U.K.
Thesis: The Biocultural Diaspora of Tea in the 21st Century
MSc Ethnobotany 2019
University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent, U.K.
Dissertation: The Dynamics of Biocultural Diversity: Lessons from a Changing Georgian Viticulture Landscape
BA Majors: Anthropology & Environmental Studies 2013
Marquette UniversityMilwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Thesis: An Examination of the Intersection of Food, Eating and Health Through Food Culture and the Social and Geographic Environment