Officers
Founder/President
Daphne Singingtree is a Medicine Maker, owner of Eagletree Herbs, a retired midwife, the author of the Birthsong Midwifery Workbook, The Emergency Guide to Obstetric Complications, and Training Midwives: A Guide for Preceptors. A pioneer in the direct entry midwifery, she was a founder and a board member of the Midwifery Education and Accreditation Council, helped write the Oregon Midwifery law. Her heritage includes Lakota – Standing Rock Tribe and she is active in the Water is Life movement., she has a BA in Organizational Management, and her Master’s is in Education with a concentration in Learning Technology. She is in the process of developing a Holistic Hospice adjacent to her home in North Eugene.
Vice President
Sharon Cohen has 40 years experience as a End of Life Doula, using holistic alternatives for pain, comfort and spiritual growth. She holds an AA in horticulture therapy and has used the growing and nurturing of plants as a healing source throughout her career. Her experience with death spans the diversity of life from birth, through childhood and into old age, with cultural integrity and knowledge. She is currently offering her doula services through her business, WarmHeart Care and recently retired from, and passed her 25 year Hemp Food business down the family line to her son. In her spare time she advocates for children with cancer, alternatives to toxic treatments and the enrichment and empowerment of their treatments and end of life care.
Treasurer/Secretary
Jerry Russell, PhD is a long-time proponent of community-centered agricultural models and permaculture education. With his wife Janet, he owns and supervises three organic farms in the Eugene area, which are rented to a variety of organic farmers and food businesses. They also homestead at Peacock’s Feast Farm near Alvadore, where they have dairy cows and lots of chickens, and serve as hosts to Wwoofers and other interns. Jerry has also served on the board of Community Supported Shelters. He completed a PhD from the University of Oregon in cognitive psychology, and an MSEE degree from Stanford University. He was a co-founder, engineer and staff scientist with Electrical Geodesics, www.egi.com. He is currently a blogger, podcaster and webmaster at www.postflaviana.org
Council
Elena Enriquez is an indigenous activist, organic farmer, and apprenticing herbalist. She has been studying the use and preservation of indigenous herbal medicine for several years. She is a professionally trained chef, and has shifted her focus from food service to cultivation, food sovereignty, and decolonizing diet, as well as working with different permaculture projects around the country. Her focus now is on accessibility for holistic health care. She is a certified NADA AcuDetox acupuncturist and uses this protocol to address and support issues of addiction, sexual trauma, PTSD, and abuse for tribal and oppressed communities. Her heritage includes and Ojibway and MesoAmerican. She was active in the NoDAPL movement and continues her work in the Water Is Life, and Indigenous Rising/ Decolonization movements. She is currently enrolled at Naropa University in Boulder CO and plans to expand her education in integrative medicine.
Michael Vasq
uez life is a tribute to experiential learning starting with apprenticing in cooking, receiving training in 3,4,5-star restaurants and attaining the level of Executive Chef for more than 30 years. Diet, herbal knowledge, and internal martial and health training became a way of life that led to 40 years of studying /daily practice/teaching experience in the Arts of Tai Chi/QiGong/ Yoga. He offers educational presentations, workshops, online instruction, and instructor training programs to schools, corporate wellness, non-profit organizations, Native programs, community, senior, and child wellness programs. He is active in the permaculture and Native Food Sovereignty movements. His heritage includes Chumash and Yaqui, as well as Hispanic. He currently teaches Tai Chi/QiGong both online and workshops, is a staff herbalist at Superman Foods, and teaches at Eagletree Herbs.
Michelle Maher, Ph.D professional focus has been in Social and Cultural Foundations of Education; School Counseling and Diversity. Her heritage includes both Cherokee and Italian, and is active in the Native American Church and other tribal activities. Her Ph.D. is in Sociology of Education. She teaches Multicultural Education & Counseling, and Social Justice Research Methods at Oregon State University, and was an assistant professor at Lewis and Clark College, and a Principal of Northwest Youth Corps’ OutDoor High School, an environmental science oriented magnet school.
Linda Black Elk is the Ethnobotanist for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. An instructor at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, ND where she teaches bio remediation and ethnobotany. She is the leader of the Medic/Healer Council for the Standing Rock NoDAPL protest camps. She lives on the Standing Rock Reservation with her husband and three children. She a member of the Cawa She received her M.S., at Montana State University her B.S., Miami University-Oxford and her A.A., Sitting Bull College. She currently is very active in promoting tribal food sovereignty and health though the uses of native plants.
Clare Strawn, PhD puts her PhD in Urban Studies and Master’s in Education to work using collaborative action that empowers communities to learn from their practices. She has decades of community development and activism from early feminism to community control of housing, solidarity with liberation movements, women’s literacy in South Africa, and educational equity regionally and internationally. “I am a bridge builder; creativity and innovation live at the edges, where different worlds meet. Spanning resources, building capacity through partnerships, and healing social divides through connection bridge the road of my diverse life and academic experiences.”
We are currently accepting nominations for additional members of our Board of Directors and our Advisory Council. We are seeking board members with non profit experience and an interest in Food Resiliency, Food Sovereignty, Native Medicine and Plants, Health and Education expertise.