Whether they’re following in the footsteps of grandparents or mentors, these five herbalists are harnessing ancestral lineages to offer modern accessible remedies to their local communities.
Dani Solorio
Dani grew up in California with their grandmother’s traditional Mexican remedies, and in their adulthood, felt inspired to share holistic health to their community in Compton. In 2012, they founded Compton Health Bar, a community wellness space that focuses on traditional Mexican curanderismo healing practices. However, Solorio will be closing the physical location of the store to move to Mexico to continue studying curanderismo while offering occasional retreats and talleres across the country, geared for other young people who grew up in immigrant families and want to reconnect to their roots in Mexico.
Nidhi Pandya
Nidhi followed her grandfather’s footsteps as a certified 3rd generation Ayurvedic Practitioner based in New York City. Nindhi deepened her studies at a gurukulam in India and is now a faculty member of the US Shakti School of Ayurveda and teaches Ayurvedic modules at a variety of Yoga training centers. Ayurveda is a holistic health perspective with thousands of years of history based in India. It understands the subtle differences between bodies and offers customized solutions through seasonal diet, movement, and daily rhythms. Nidhi also offers consultations, several courses on her website, and shares free tips and recipes on her social media.
Long Huynh
Long is a licensed acupuncturist who works at the Acupuncture Healing Center and Nam Bac Hang herb shop in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood. He learned Traditional Chinese Medicine from his father Van Luc Huynh, a Chinese-born Vietnamese immigrant who moved to the States during the Vietnam War and founded Nam Bac Hang in the late 1980’s. Long is passionate about connecting patients to the relationship between herbs and acupuncture, which work to fight disease by unblocking the body’s energy channels, known as meridians, to allow qi, an internal power and energy, to properly flow. He creates custom herbal formulas, acupuncture treatments, and massage sessions so everyone, regardless of wealth, can afford to achieve good health.
Karen Rose
As a child in Guayana, Karen witnessed how African, Caribbean, and Latin American plant medicine traditions facilitated community healing. When she immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, she felt disconnected from her ancestral lands and medicines, but felt determined to revive them through her own healing practice. So in 2002, she opened the Sacred Vibes Apothecary with the intention to create a space where people could come together to have their health problems be met with empathy. She also offers a variety of summer in-person workshops and apprenticeships and mentoring programs online, so her students can go on to instruct others to make informed health decisions.
Lorna Mauney-Brodeck
After years studying herbalism, with a focus on Western Constitutional Herbalism, Lorna founded the Herbalista Free Clinic in Atlanta, Georgia and Dublin, Ireland. She believes healthcare is a fundamental human right, and has taken part in spearheading a variety of herbal education and health services, such as the Harriet Tubman Foot Clinic, Grow a Row educational garden, and the Herb Bus mobile clinic. Lorna also teaches in the Herbalista Free School, which offers a variety of self-guided classes that are completely free and open to the public for anyone who wants to begin learning herbal medicine.
