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 and on a seemingly monotonous cranberry farm, from which I had a front-row seat to the highs and lows of running an American family farm. I also had the intimate experience of getting to know a plant in all its heartiness, vulnerabilities, and limits.
Wisconsin’s environmental ethic, ingrained in both young children and adults, has taught me to value and respect the natural world and its rhythms. Each day, we inherit the earth from our ancestors, and with every decision we make, we leave it behind for future generations. How can we ensure inter-generational justice in the natural world in which we belong? I do not claim to have an answer, but this question remains a focus of my ongoing work and research. I believe I am called to build bridges between people and plants, and this is where you will find me.
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, and then progressed to become a tea taster and educator, developing and teaching courses for both 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 as no surprise to those who know me; I am passionate about what I love and do, and it is something I aim to deliver in my work.
Current Projects
Royal Holloway, University of London & Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, PhD Candidate, everything tea
Missouri Botanical Garden | William L. Brown Center, Ethnobotany Collections & Data
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 ten countries! (twelve if you count Scotland and Cornwall)
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