The Core of Chestnut School

Juliet is a card-carrying plant geek who channels her plant obsessions through writing, photography, and herb gardening, along with a sizable houseplant predilection. She is an ambitious entrepreneur—her earliest enterprise was a get-rich-quick-scheme involving papaya trees (a monumental flop, on all accounts). Juliet’s been sharing her passion for plants for over twenty-five years, and has owned just about every type of herbal business you can imagine: an herbal nursery, a medicinal products business, a clinical practice, and now, an herbal school. After graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in botany, Juliet continued her studies by attending programs at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine, the California School of Herbal Studies, and the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine. Her herbal teachers and lineage include 7Song, James Snow, and the legendary herbalist Michael Moore, now an ancestor.

Renee’s herbal adventures began in southeast Asia, where she traveled extensively for three years. Then, in 2003, she landed in western NC to study permaculture at Earthaven Ecovillage and herbalism at the North Carolina School of Holistic Herbalism (now ASHH), where she met Juliet, founder of the Chestnut School. After herb school, Renee spent fifteen years weaving her magic as the programming and production coordinator at the Southeast Wise Women Herbal Conference. She now enthusiastically brings her programming and people skills to the Chestnut School. Renee also brings a social justice lens to any work that she does, as she believes that none of us can be truly free until all of us are free. Renee lives in west Asheville where she enjoys dancing and hiking with her partner, cooking for her son, cuddling with her puppy, and gardening solo.

Carrie Faye bounced around the globe as a child, but the lush landscape and equally colorful people of Western North Carolina won her over in 2002. She’s an avid lover of music and the arts and is sweet on graphic design. She’s currently delighted to be building her herbal knowledge and will one day apply it to her own WNC homestead.

Born in New York, NY and raised in the shadow of the Ramapo Mountains, Amanda has cultivated a deep love for technology, nature, design and plant-based living.

Amanda is a lifelong learner, hardcore gamer, canyon hiker, yoga and fitness enthusiast, and accomplished quad skater. She is currently living in Metro Detroit, on the ancestral land of the Anishinaabe people, with her rescue pup, Langston. Although Amanda enjoys an urban lifestyle, her heart will always remain in the forest.

Meghan is one of the Chestnut School’s primary instructors through her written lessons, and is the principal pollinator of the school’s social media community—sharing herbal and wild foods wisdom from the flowery heart of the school to an ever-wider field of herbalists, gardeners, healers, and plant lovers.

She has been in a steady relationship with the Chestnut School since 2010—as an intern and manager at the Chestnut Herb Nursery; as a plant-smitten student “back in the day” when the school’s programs were taught in the field; and later as a part the school’s woman-powered professional team. Meghan lives in the Ivy Creek watershed, just north of Asheville, North Carolina.

Christine grew up in suburban Chicago playing in the seemingly expansive woods behind her childhood home. She fell deeper in love with the magic of the natural world as a teenager while participating in wilderness backpacking trips. This love of nature led her to sustainable agriculture work on organic farms in Alaska, Missouri, Illinois, North Carolina, and Washington. Christine studied at the Chestnut School in 2013 and is thrilled to be back as a part of the Chestnut team to support our students in their herbal learning. Christine currently resides in the magical driftless region of southwestern Wisconsin, the ancestral land of the Ho Chunk Nation, with her partner, children, and wild rescue pup. They dream of creating an abundant homestead with animals and all kinds of edible and medicinal plants in the near future.

Sarah grew up in a small wooded town outside of Charlotte, NC. She studied music in college before moving to Asheville, NC to study pastry arts. Here she developed a love for plants, gardening, medicine-making, and homesteading. She worked as a photographer, pastry chef, and journalist before coming to Chestnut School for social media. 

Most days you can find her reading with her dog and a mug of tea, getting the perfect shot of her garden, trying out yet another craft, or wrangling chickens back into the yard.

Melissa has been a student of herbal medicine for over a decade. She studied at the Forager’s Path School of Botanical Medicine with herbalist Mike Masek in 2011, interned at the Herb Pharm in 2013, and apprenticed with Southwestern herbalist and ethnobotanist Phyllis Hogan from 2014-2023. She holds a B.S. in Psychology and Womxn and Gender Studies.

Melissa currently resides in the Sonoran desert on the ancestral lands of the Tohono O’odham and Yaqui people. She loves gardening, walking, and whispering sweet nothings to ephemeral blossoms. Melissa is passionate about sharing the empowering wisdom of plant medicine.