Meet the BOD: Petra Sovcov, CHT, DNM

How long have you been a member of HWB? How else are you involved with HWB?
I've been a member since 2014, and I am a Chapter Coordinator and Board Member (Chair)!

What drew you to HWB as a member and board member? 
I just love HWB and wanted to help where I could!

Tell us a little more about you!
I am a Clinical Herbal Therapist (CHT) and hold a Doctorate in Natural Medicine (DNM) awarded by the Examining Board of Natural Medicine Practitioners of Canada, and a Certified DNA/SNP Analysis Consultant. I teach at colleges in my area and own a natural health/wellness practice in beautiful BC Canada. I'm an active volunteer with Herbalists Without Borders International (HWB) and serve as chair on the board of directors. I also run the HWB Chapter for Vancouver BC and the local free people’s clinic!

I am passionate about facilitating an individual’s healing path and enjoys enriching a person’s core health with the use of herbs, supplements, dietary, and lifestyle modifications. My special herbal focus is on chronic inflammatory conditions/diseases. Apart from clinic and teaching, I'm an avid gardener and sustainable small-scale food producer. I enjoy teaching out of my gardens and find great meaning in sharing the message of sustainability with others. I'm very passionate about heirloom/native plant varieties, and domestic history, which I believe hold the solutions for the modern food crisis.

Carolyn Jones

How long have you been a member of HWB? How else are you involved? 
I have been a member of HWB since early 2022 and have since become an HWB Board Member and Coordinator of the HWB Healing Project Mobile Clinic.

What drew you to HWB as a member, coordinator, and board member? 
By being an HWB member and board member, I am empowered to educate the community about natural self-care options for their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Tell us a little more about yourself!
I am a  Holistic Health Educator and Chaplain who teaches the art of self-care and practices a ministry of presence. I am licensed by the New York State Chaplain Task Force and serve the community as an herbalist, a certified aromatherapist and reflexologist. I hold membership and affiliations with several prestigious organizations: The American Herbalists Guild, Matthew Wood Institute of Herbalism, DOPO Doulas, and Herbalists Without Borders. I teach community self-care topics and am also a contributing writer with Mother Earth Living magazine. I am supported by a strong community of traditional and non-traditional healers who follow uniquely different paths that merge at the crossroads of community health.


​See our Board of Directors.

Last May, we upgraded our entire membership and donation system to DonorBox, a platform that allows for easier recurring dues management and recurring annual renewals for members. It ties into a tracking system that allows us to better manage membership renewals and reminders. As a very small nonprofit with only 1 part time employee, streamlining office time to allow us more time to focus on programs and communities is wonderful!

When we upgraded the system/platform, we also were able to upgrade all of the membership levels, and provide sliding scale for all SOLO memberships (solo individual, business, and nonprofit), as well as 3 additional levels with more benefits, and discounted bundled memberships so businesses and nonprofits can extend HWB memberships to colleagues and staff. We also expanded our school memberships into 4 levels of bundled memberships and expanded benefits for schools wanting to extend HWB memberships to students, staff, and teachers. So, we wanted to share a bit more about the different membership levels over the next month, so we will be posting weekly to share a bit more about the different levels and benefits. 

Business Memberships!
​We expanded from just SOLO memberships, to include sliding scale SOLO, as well as Levels 2, 3, & 4 with additional discounted bundled memberships and more benefits. 

And of course all business membership levels include access to our members-only portal on the website which contains over 1,000 resources as well as forms, templates, working documents, handouts, downloadable eGuides, members-only intensives and webinars, and more! 

All memberships directly support our work to provide accessible holistic health care and wellness support to communities around the globe, via grassroots community models, mutual aid, and chapter/clinic/project based systems. We couldn't do this work without our members. Thank you for your support!
​

Lucretia Jones, Wise Woman Herbalist, 200HR YTT

How long have you been a member of HWB? How else are you involved? 
I joined HWB in 2015, and joined the BOD in 2018. I was HWB DC Coordinator for several years as well!

What drew you to HWB as a member and board member?
I became a member and joined the board to assist with the mission of keeping herbal medicine people's medicine. Helping those in need with the abundance of plants is close to my heart and part of my personal purpose.

Tell us a little more about you!
I've been working and learning with plants for over twenty years and was first introduced to the wise woman tradition while living an artist’s life in New York City. My father had passed away three days prior to the World Trade Center collapse in 2001, and that uncertainty sent me on a quest to find more autonomy and connection with the natural world. It was at this time that I found a love for connecting people with plants. As a wise woman herbalist, my favorite times are spent meeting new and old plant friends wherever I happen to be. Sharing those relationships with other humans led me to create House of Lukaya in 2003. House of Lukaya, is a mobile and online source for plant medicine workshops, incense twists and other handicrafts, and a pocket Guide to Nourishing Herbal Infusions. In 2019, my partner and I purchased land in Virginia where we are building a homestead from scratch and creating space to share herbs and arts with others.