OUR PRESENTERS
Ryan Drum, PHD, AHG
Has been a practicing medical herbalist in private and clinical practice for over 30 years, specializing in seaweed therapies, men's health issues, and thyroid problems. He currently is a community-supported herbalist on an isolated island in Washington State, where he lives in a hilltop cabin he built.
Whilst becoming an herbalist, he has been mostly living on a rustic homestead , off the grid, without indoor plumbing since 1976. In 1998 he was the clinical supervisor for the New Mexico Herbal Center, a teaching clinic associated with the American College of Phytotherapy in Albuquerque, NM.
He studied herbal medicine 1972-1984 with the renowned Canadian healer, Ella Birzneck, founder of Dominion Herbal College, where he taught for 25 years at their summer seminars.
He lectures widely in North America at the many herbal conferences, herbal schools, naturopathic colleges, and to interested lay groups.
He is a contributing author in: Planting our Future(2000, Gladstar and Hirsch, Eds.) and Fundamentals of Naturopathic Endocrinology (2005, M. Friedman).
Prior to becoming an herbalist he enjoyed a successful career as an academic researcher and professor( UMASS-Amherst, UCLA, WWU), studying diatoms and teaching botany and related subjects. He authored over thirty scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as many abstracts and a 100-Plate Atlas, Electron Microscopy of Diatom Cells ( with Pankratz and Stoermer, 1966) in print for 18 years.
He has a BSC in Chemical Technology ('61) and a PhD in Botany (Phycology, the study of algae)('64) from Iowa State University. He was a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow in Cell Biology and Electron Microscopy at the Universities of Bonn, Germany and Leeds, England, "64-"65.
He is the proud father of three and grandfather of two.
He believes in true patient autonomy, the inherent right to freely choose one's caregivers without regard
to professional qualifications or lack thereof.
Wren Davidson has practiced in the “Simpler’s”
tradition for over 25 years, focusing almost exclusively on the edible/medicinal plants of the Pacific Northwest biome. She was a co-founder of the Women’s Herbalist Conference that met in Oregon in the 80’s and 90’s and
currently ministers, teaches and consults from her Eugene home.
Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir has been in
clinical practice in Herbalism, Nutrition and lifestyle changes for 20 years. She has been an instructor since 1989 in community colleges, the University Of Oregon, in the U.S. National Park Service and in workshops and tours
in Scotland. Having been trained at The Oregon School of Herbal Studies and at Brighid’s Academy of Healing Arts, she has also received tutelage from Naturalist and Scottish Elder Allister Brebner. Her practice is rooted in the
community that she serves in Eugene as the proprietor of Mrs. Thompson's herbal apothecary, as the Head of Faculty at the Academy Of Scottish Herbalism and as an author of the newspaper column 'Village Herbalist'. She is the
Founder of the Green Arts Herbal Conference.
Merilyn Yeatts Welch, RN is an Herbalist and
RN with training and knowledge in both fields. She promotes well-being by empowering individuals in self-care. Having completed a BS in Nursing in 1972, she initially worked as a bedside nurse, in administration, and as a
school nurse, and became increasingly dissatisfied with drug-oriented medicine. This led her to study plants for healing and so earned a diploma in Traditional Herbalism from the Academy of Scottish
Herbalism where she
additionally served as a clinical apprentice. Always a believer in improving knowledge, she has been an instructor for 17 years. She teaches entry-level nursing, pharmacology and herbalism through Lane Community College.