Core Faculty
Betzy Bancroft
Classes Taught :
Family Program/Clinical Program Year 1:
Exploring the Medicinal Landscape, Materia Medica I
Clinical Program Year 2:
Nutrition and Supplementation*, Advanced Herbal Preparations*, Ethics and Legal Considerations, Pathophysiology & Therapeutics II, Pharmacology and Formulation, Field Experience, Materia Medica II, Intro to Clinic/Observation & Round table
Clinical Program Year 3: Community Teaching Practicum*, Pathophysiology & Therapeutics III, Materia Medica III, Clinical Round Table, and Supervised Clinical Practicum
*Denotes course taught primarily by Betzy
Plants started growing into Betzy like fungal hyphae grows into roots early in her life, giving her a deep appreciation for their magic and gifts. She’s one of the founders of VCIH, and currently serves on the faculty, as a clinical mentor and practitioner. She’s also a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild.
In 1987 she began formal study at Herbal Therapeutics School of Botanical Medicine (now David Winston’s Center for Herbal Studies) and went on to teach herbal pharmacy, field botany and other subjects as an assistant instructor at the school.
Lucky to be in the only class of David’s that continued for 3 years, Betzy went on to complete two graduate courses in clinical herbalism at the school as well. During this time she was also staff herbalist and general manager at Herbalist & Alchemist, David’s herbal products company.
Still an avid student, her focus is on the common threads between the ancient medical systems, which ultimately lead to Nature itself–the four basic elements and the qualities intrinsic to them. Betzy has taught classes in herbal medicine, wild edible plants and the medicinal uses of food throughout the Northeast for over three decades, including many herbal and agricultural conferences. Betzy also teaches regularly at Sage Mountain and the ROOTS School.
Read More... For many years Betzy served as the office manager for United Plant Savers, a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of native medicinal plants and their habitats. She is currently a member of UpS’s Advisory Board, and actively advocates for forest conservation locally and nationally. Admittedly more of a forager than a gardener, Betzy loves to cook nourishing food, make ferments, knit warm things, and pursue various other creative endeavors. Plants are truly her friends, and she feels ever inspired by the natural world—all its varied beings and the amazing interconnections and beauty that make up the great web of life. Betzy loves to share the herbal wisdom she feels very blessed to have learned. Her goal is to help students and clients understand the plants’ “personalities” and relate to them as fellow living beings and guides to better health. Email Betzy
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Hannah Rae Behrens
Classes Taught :
Family Program / Clinical Year 1: Food as Medicine*, Therapeutics I, Materia Medica I
Clinical Program Year 2: Pharmacology & Formulation*, Pathophysiology and Herbal Therapeutics II, Materia Medica II
*Denotes course taught primarily by Hannah Rae
Hannah Rae is a clinical herbalist, educator, farmer, and bona fide plant nerd, with deep roots in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (and a few well-tended rootlets in Vermont). Her partnership with the plant world began with her upbringing on a small farm in the big woods, in a daily relationship of interdependence with the natural world. In all of her many roles, she seeks to weave together this lived sense of environmental kinship with scientific understanding, using science as a tool to deepen relationships, curiosity, and awe.
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Larken Bunce
MS
Classes Taught :
Family Program/Clinical Program Year 1: Justice in Herbalism*, Materia Medica I, Relational Culture, Therapeutics I
Clinical Program Year 2: Applied Energetics*, Practitioner Skills*, Intro to Clinic/Observation & Round Table, Materia Medica II, Relational Culture*
Clinical Program Year 3: Clinical Round Table, Materia Medica III, Relational Culture*, Supervised Clinical Practicum
Larken is a clinical herbalist, educator, gardener, writer, and photographer deeply inspired by a life-long love affair with plants. Her approach to herbal medicine is equally rooted in science and spirit, novel practice and tradition, clinic and garden, reflecting her diverse experiences over 25 years in the field. Her work is primarily informed by Western herbal medicine, classical Chinese medicine, whole-food nutrition, mind-body and narrative medicines, and social justice advocacy. Larken is passionate about accessible and culturally competent care, bridging traditional medical systems with biomedical sciences, and restoring Nature to culture through herbal medicine.
Her work is rooted in the premise that the heart of healing lies in remembering that we belong to each other and to the land. In all she does, Larken hopes to increase awareness of the capacity of not only medicinal plants, but of all nature and wildness, to sustain and heal.
Read More...In addition to working with clients in VCIH’s community clinic, Larken’s passion is sharing her craft through education. As founding co-director and core faculty at VCIH, she developed the comprehensive curriculum together with Guido and Betzy, and continues to think about and experiment with new methods to inspire the combination of rigorous critical inquiry and joyful exploration that herbalism calls for. She is interested in education as necessarily life-long and transformative, and views learning and healing as parallel endeavors of discovery.
In addition to her roles at VCIH, Larken served for seven years as faculty in the Health Arts and Sciences (HAS) program at Goddard College, where she worked with students passionate about various herbal traditions, nutrition, agriculture, social and environmental justice, deep ecology, and radical public health. She teaches widely at national conferences and has served as faculty for numerous other clinical herbal programs, as well as a recurring lecturer in the nursing programs at the University of Vermont.
Her education includes a Master of Science in Herbal Medicine from Maryland University of Integrative Health (formerly Tai Sophia Institute for the Healing Arts) and a Bachelor of Arts from Goddard College. Larken holds certificates in Zen Shiatsu and Swedish/Esalen Massage from the Heartwood Institute and in using Teishin (acupressure) for pain and stress from the Barefoot Doctor Institute. She has also studied mind-body skills at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC and is currently completing certification in Somatic Experiencing, based on the trauma resolution work of Dr. Peter Levine.
You’ll find Larken happiest on an afternoon spent in a field with a harvest basket, a blue sky, and the sun on her face or kneeling in the dirt meeting a new plant. She lives on a ridge in East Montpelier with her animals, gardens, and similarly green-thumbed sweetheart.
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Joann Darling
Classes Taught :
Roots Apprenticeship: Medicine-Making, Garden Practicum
Family Program: guest faculty in Herbal Practicum
Joann is a native Vermonter living in Barre, in the homestead where she grew up and today practices and teaches skills in traditional arts. She has been connected to the land of Vermont for generations, closely tied to the plants, animals and people through the seasons. Her knowledge and wisdom includes the myriad ways of knowing the plants, from flower growing and arrangements to dyeing, felting, weaving and growing flax for fibre.
Read More...Joann has been growing medicinal plants for many years, opening her nursery and flower farm, Gardens of Seven Gables in 1994. Currently, Joann is VCIH’s garden manager. A real down-to-earth entrepreneur, she also owns a soap company, Green Sylk Soap Company.
As an apprentice at the Marshfield School of Weaving, Joann received a grant from the Vermont Folklife Center to document the process of growing flax and processing it all the way through to a piece of woven cloth. In 2009 Joann was the lead gardener of The Apple Corps, the group that planted the first vegetable garden on a Statehouse lawn. She has taught Herb Camp for children at the Two Rivers Farm, and Gardens for Learning, a Foods Work program, at a low income housing site in Barre, Vt.
Joann’s love for teaching about the natural world inspired her study in interpretation, and in 2012 she successfully completed her certification as an Interpretive Guide, through the National Association for Interpretation.
Joann has studied with Rosemary Gladstar where she successfully completed a teacher training program. She has taught at the International Herb Symposium, New England Women’s Herbal Conference, The Vermont Sheep and Wool Expo and in the community on subjects ranging from seed and plant starting, natural dyes for wool, to natural hair care. Joann currently holds a first degree in Reiki and attended VCIH in 2011, successfully completing the Family Herbalist training program.
Her experience brings her gratitude for the abundance that Mother Earth provides us if we pay attention to her teachings and circulate it in the community in a generous way.
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Kristin Henningsen
MS, RH(AHG), E-RYT, IYT
Classes Taught :
Family Program/Clinical Program Year 1: Holistic Physiology*, Herbal Therapeutics I, Materia Medica I, Herbal Skills Practicum, Botany for the Herbalist*
Clinical Program Year 2: Research Skills*, Ethics and Legal Considerations, Pathophysiology and Herbal Therapeutics II, Materia Medica II, Applied Energetics
Clinical Program Year 3: Pathophysiology and Herbal Therapeutics III, Materia Medica III, Understanding Western Tools*, Supervised Clinical Practicum, Clinical Round Table
*Denotes course taught primarily by Kristin
Kristin is a clinical herbalist, yoga therapist, writer, and educator, who first fell in love with plants in the desert southwest. There she was inspired to complete her graduate work, researching the Ethnobotany of the region. In addition to studying Native American herbal medicine in the Southwest, she has worked in academia and for non-profit organizations in the field of botanical research all over the country.
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Linden de Voil
RH(AHG)
Classes Taught :
Family Program/Clinical Program Year 1: Materia Medica I, Plant Chemistry and Herbal Actions*, Food as Medicine*, Energetic Systems*
Clinical Program Year 2: Pathophysiology and Herbal Therapeutics II, Materia Medica II, Ethics and Legal Considerations, Herbal Safety*
Clinical Program Year 3: Materia Medica III, Pathophysiology and Herbal Therapeutics III, Supervised Clinical Practicum, Clinical Round Table
*Denotes course taught primarily by Linden
Linden is a clinical herbalist, writer, and plant wonderer. She was initially drawn to herbalism as a practice for community care, health advocacy, and personal empowerment, then discovered the deep joy of connecting with plants and ecosystems.
Read More...Linden began studying herbal medicine in 2008 with a series of apprenticeships. After graduating from VCIH’s clinical training program in 2014, Linden spent several years working for a tincture manufacturing company, assisting with production and managing regulatory affairs. She moved on to hold a private clinical practice and help manage a naturopathic wellness center. Linden has also served as a guest lecturer at Bastyr University and other herbal education programs and conferences in the Pacific Northwest. The heart of her clinical work is the use of compassion, deep listening, and a collaborative partnership with clients as they create new patterns and connect with the power and beauty of plant medicine.
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Netta Mae Walsh
Classes Taught :
Herbal Roots Apprenticeship: Herbalists’ Worldview, Home Remedies for Self-care*, Medicine-Making*, Garden Practicum
Family Herbalist/Clinical Program Year 1: Justice in Herbalism*, Herbal Skills Practicum*
*Denotes course primarily taught by Netta
Netta Mae is a clinical herbalist, activist, teacher, outdoor guide, and magic-maker. The heart of her work is to inspire wonder in others; wonder for the beauty of the world around us, wonder for the magic in the faces and souls of our communities, and wonder for the power and ultimate perfection within each and every one of us. Netta believes that truly listening and loving are some of the most powerful ways to effect change. She is dedicated to continue learning and growing herself as well as to be a part of that process in others. She sees her work as a community herbalist as being an integral part of creating sustainable and resilient communities that are not dependent upon capitalist and patriarchal systems of oppression.
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Adjunct Faculty
Cedar Landsman
MA
Classes Taught :
Family Herbalist/Clinical Program Year 1: Relational Culture*
Cedar Landsman, co-founder of Relational Uprising, is a heart-centered organizer, facilitator, teacher and coach who has worked in the field of social change for nearly 25 years. Cedar’s extensive background in community organizing, facilitation, and group development led to co-creating the Relational Culture curriculum for communities. Cedar holds a Bachelors in Social Movement History and Globalization from Hampshire College, and Master’s degrees with honors in Latin American Studies and in Urban Planning with a concentration in food policy from UCLA.
Julie Mitchell
RH(AHG), MSc
Classes Taught :
Family Herbalist/Clinical Program Year 1: guest faculty in Herbal Skills Practicum
Clinical Program Year 3: Skills for Complementary Professionals in the Western Medical Paradigm, Supervised Clinical Practicum
Julie wears many different hats in the plant medicine world including gardener, teacher, health consultant, and plant medicine maker. Julieʼs interest in plants and her relationship with the green world began as an apprentice to a natural dyer and spinner in 1976. Her job was to gather plants for the large dye pots used in dying the spun wool. Learning how to identify plants and their diverse uses, led her to herbal medicine. It was the recognition of the interconnectedness–affinity or love with plants–that fueled further study into the ʻmedicineʼ offered. (Interconnect is a device used to connect two things together. Love is the device.)
Read More...Julie has been an avid gardener for over 30 years. She has taught plant medicine throughout Vermont, in informal settings, at grade schools, high schools, NOFA conferences and the New England Womenʼs Herbal Conference, giving courses ranging from making plant medicines to plant identification and more recently, Goethean plant studies. In more formal settings, she has taught university courses at Middlebury College, along with teaching physical exam skills and interpersonal skills at the College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. She has a consultation practice in Bristol VT focusing on facilitating health through medicine as food, herbs and lifestyle practices. She has run a home apothecary, Eos Botanicals, since 1991 providing quality herbal tinctures to her community in Addison County.
She graduated in 2003 with a BSc from the College of Phytotherapy, University of Wales, was a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists in the U.K. for two years and became a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild in 2003. She received her MSc, with honors, in Herbal Medicine from the University of Wales in 2008. In the past, Julie has taught a wide variety of subjects in the VCIH curriculum, including Botany, Therapeutics, Materia Medica, and Western Tools for the Herbalist. Currently, her primary role is as a supervisor in VCIH’s student clinic.
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Teaching Assistant
Chara LeMarquand
Chara LeMarquand is a Clinical Herbalist, artist, writer, and avid gardener. Her approach to herbalism emphasizes relationship, prioritizing reciprocity with the natural world and collective care over the individualistic healing models that characterize mainstream Wellness culture. Rooted in trauma-awareness and disability justice praxis, her clinical work weaves a capacity for deep listening and attention to detail with intuition, beauty, and evidence-based practices to provide well-rounded and thorough care. Chara completed her studies at VCIH in 2020, and now lives and practices in so-called Montreal, QC, unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory. As Teaching Assistant at VCIH, it’s a joy for her to support the students and witness their growth through both the Family Herbalist and Clinical Herbalist programs—and such an honour to learn from them in turn.
