Karla Estela Rivera (she/her) is an island-born/Chicago-raised storyteller, activist, and facilitator who believes that personal narrative, cultural memory, and collective wisdom hold the keys to personal and systemic change. She has performed and led workshops across stages, classrooms, and community spaces, engaging audiences of all ages in the power of story to spark connection and build empathy. As a facilitator, she creates brave, creative spaces where participants can reflect, imagine, and collaborate. Her practice centers joy, cultural affirmation, and the belief that everyone has a story worth telling.

Brandon Ruiz (he/him) is a Boricua community herbalist, farmer, educator and culture bearer based on the East Coast of Turtle Island (North America). He runs Yucayeke Farms, a farming and herbalism project dedicated to preserving Caribbean culture through food, plant medicine and storytelling. He is a writer, upcoming author and teaches for international conferences, herbal schools around the country and individual programs on Turtle Island and the Caribbean. His work aims to reconnect the Caribbean community to traditional practices through educational experiences, art and community, in and outside of the Caribbean.

Brandon Ruiz (él) es un herbolario comunitario Boricua, agricultor, educador y portador de la cultura basada en la costa Este de la Isla Tortuga (Norteamérica). Es propietario de Yucayeke Farms, un proyecto de agricultura y herbolaria dedicado a preservar cultura Caribeña a través de la comida, las plantas medicinales y la narración de cuentos. Es escritor, autor y enseña para conferencias internacionales escuelas de herbolaria a nivel nacional y programas individuos en la Isla Tortuga y en el Caribe. Su trabajo busca reconectar a la comunidades Caribeña con las prácticas tradicionales mediante experiencias educativas, artísticas y comunitarias, dentro y fuera del Caribe.

Lynsey Ayala Rinaldi (she/her) is a Bronx-born Nuyorican medicine woman, teacher, sacred artist, and the founder of Yabisi. Rooted in her Puerto Rican ancestry and the spiritual lineages of the Caribbean, she bridges African diasporic traditions, Indigenous wisdom, and ancestral memory. A clinical and spiritual herbalist, diviner, spiritist, and channel, Lynsey works with earth medicines to guide others through healing journeys with integrity and reverence. She creates hand-crafted remedies, rituals, and ceremonies that tend to the full spectrum of being—body, mind, spirit, and soul.

Dr. Daniella Olan (she/her) is a pharmacist, herbalist, and land steward dedicated to preserving and sharing Caribbean plant wisdom. She is the founder of Petra Aroma, a Borikén-based wellness brand creating herbal-infused oils that honor ancestral knowledge and self- care rituals. As part of the Puerto Rican diaspora who returned home, her work is rooted in reconnecting communities with the healing plants found in Borikén. Through teaching, workshops, and the creation of herbal remedies, she uplifts cultural preservation and collective wellbeing. 

Natasha Fernández-Preston (she/her) is a Puerto Rican historical anthropologist and archaeologist, with a focus on food, power, and justice in the Caribbean. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been a fellow of the National Science Foundation, the Society of Ethnobiology, and the Mellon Mays Foundation. Alongside her husband, she is the co-founder of Malibu’s Burgers, a vegan restaurant in Oakland, California, and is the mother of two young children. She currently leads Dare to Strive/Cocina Las Ancestras, a nonprofit organization dedicated to food sovereignty and community wellness through cooking, gardening, and education. Her workshop is rooted in these efforts, highlighting how everyday ingredients like those in sofrito and stewed beans embody ancestral knowledge and invite us to cultivate wellness, memory, and justice from our kitchens.

Natasha Fernández-Preston (ella) es antropóloga histórica y arqueóloga puertorriqueña, con un enfoque en comida, poder y justicia en el Caribe. Obtuvo su doctorado en Antropología de la Universidad de California, Berkeley, y ha sido becaria de la National Science Foundation, la Sociedad de Etnobiología y la Fundación Mellon Mays. Junto a su esposo, es cofundadora de Malibu’s Burgers, un restaurante vegano en Oakland, California, y es mamá de dos bebés. Actualmente dirige Dare to Strive/Cocina Las Ancestras, una organización sin fines de lucro dedicada a la soberanía alimentaria y el bienestar comunitario a través de la cocina, la horticultura y la educación. Su taller se enraíza en estos esfuerzos, resaltando cómo ingredientes cotidianos como los del sofrito y las habichuelas guisadas encarnan saberes ancestrales y nos invitan a cultivar bienestar, memoria y justicia desde nuestras cocinas.

Tara Rodríguez Besosa (they/them/ellx) nacida y criada en santurce, actualmente vivo entre mi finca en Caguas y el Hudson Valley, mientras curso una Maestría en Derechos Humanos y las Artes. Llevo más de quince años co-creando proyectos, sembrando, cocinando, y diversificando la agricultura en Borikén, principalmente a través del Depa. También le dedico a OtraCosa Jaragüal Cuir, un colectivo de tierra compartida desde hacen 7 años. Cuento con experiencia en construcción, energía solar, carpintería, diseño de sistemas, plantas medicinales, semillas y más. defensora de los derechos de la naturaleza y legados cuir.

Selina Morales (she/her/ella) is a writer, folklorist and filmmaker. For more than 20 years she has documented the work of her grandmother, a Boricua espiritista healer and medium - and the work of Boricua healers in Puerto Rico and the diaspora. Selina's personal essays and screen plays sustain her family knowledge and act as teaching tools for the next generation. Selina is the co-founder of Botánica Pictures, is the Vice-Chair of the Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and is a 2024 recipient of the Leeway Foundation Transformation Award for her use of create writing for social change.

Alexis C. Garcia (she/her,ella) is an award-winning writer-director whose work spans film, television, and digital media, including roles as a staff writer at Disney+, Producer on MTV’s De La Calle, showrunner at BuzzFeed’s Pero Like, and writer-director of Daughter of the Sea. In 2022, she co-founded Botánica Pictures and has received development grants for narrative and documentary film work from the Library of Congress, Netflix, and the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival. Rooted in a deep love for her Puerto Rican heritage, Alexis is committed to amplifying underrepresented voices and creating work that honors legacy, place, and cultural memory.

Kenneth R. Otero Walker (he/him) is an emerging ethnobiologist/ethnoecologist and cultural activist who engages in biocultural research on human plant interactions. Themes in his studies include the spiritual use and cultural values of plant resources, the influence of these values on plant conservation, and exploring ethnobotanical knowledge through media such as popular caribbean music. He has also spoken internationally on ethical considerations of digitizing archival collections, and pathways to decolonizing and diversifying Botany an Ecology. A native of New York’s inner city and a graduate from Brooklyn Tech, one of NYC’s specialized public high schools, he has completed a degree in Latin American and Caribbean studies with a minor in Africana studies from SUNY Binghamton.

"X" (he/they) is a Borikua Taino farmer, seedkeeper and storyteller. His family is from a parcela community in Arecibo, Boriken (Puerto Rico). He is third generation in the urban diaspora of Barrio Boriken, Humboldt Park, Chicago, Illinois where he tends tobacco and other Indigenous herbs to maintain Taino agricultural heritage in relation to food and herbal pathways across Turtle Island.

Kate McCarthy-Quiñones (she/her) is a folkloric herbalist and story-gatherer who rematriated to Borikén. She currently specializes in creating and documenting the healing capacities of the flowers of the island via essences, as well as cultivating and caretaking a medicine wheel garden where she has begun to teach in-person medicine-making talleres in the Puerto Rican tradition for community. 

Joseph Octaviani (he/him) is a traditional herbalist specializing in western and Caribbean medicine with a holistic understanding of the body and its organ systems, combining the two to provide tools in healing the body of almost any condition people are diagnosed with. He has 7 years of experience with 5 of those years being in business and helping people worldwide.

His remedies have been able to help reverse things like cancer, high blood pressure, infertility, diabetes and more.

Ellenie Marie Mabaoyo Cruz (she/her) is a Mother, Medicine Woman, Midwife who uses her given and learned talents to promote the art of ancestral practices to heal self, family and community. Motivated by social justice, she has shifted from being a high school English teacher to a free agent and entrepreneur promoting radical change through holistic wellness, self-care and community building. Ellenie serves and impacts her community through birthwork work and Atabey School of Cultural Healing by offering courses and care that centers Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. She is the SOUL Organizer of the NOLA Herb Gathering, and author of the poetry book Saturn Return I: Glimpses of the past. Ellenie teaches with the Samara School of Community Herbalism and Wild Ginger Herbal Center. She travels to teach and holds virtual classes  to share on the subjects of radical full spectrum birth work, herbalism, community care, and more in small intimate group spaces and larger conferences. 

Lyani Powers (she/her) is a clinical herbalist, ethnobotanist, Ayurvedic postpartum care practitioner, certified lactation consultant, beekeeper, and full-spectrum birth worker based in Tampa, Florida. She is the founder of Modern Herbal Apothecary and Modern Herbal Academy, where she integrates clinical training with ancestral wisdom to make holistic wellness accessible.

Her studies include learning the modalities of Southern Black midwifery, training with indigenous midwives in Ecuador and parteras in Mexico, and completing advanced study in the flora and ethnobotany of Puerto Rico. She has also studied under renowned herbalists Aviva Romm and Richard Mandelbaum. 

Lyani is the author of Rooted: Global Herbal Wisdom for Pregnancy & Postpartum and related texts, and teaches widely on herbalism, botanical support for the maternal days, and African botanical legacy. She focuses on community care—carrying forward the vision that herbs are both medicine and cultural connectors.

Denise S. Ruiz (she/her/ella) is a queer Boricua mama, creative designer, healing justice arts curator and entrepreneur for over a decade. She is a trauma informed, decolonial and harm reduction trained, certified community herbalist.

Denise has over two decades of direct community service and educator experience across the city and is a visionary, writer, social justice warrior, and community cultivator. She is the founder of The Honeycomb Network + Madre de Perla Designs, and is the co-creator of The PR Hebalism Gathering.

Maggie Rivera (she/her) is a multidisciplinary with offerings focused on herbalism and astrology, as well as aspiring toward an archaeology and anthropology background. Her work extends to discerning mythologies from all over the world and applying practical and spiritual practices in accordance to the stories of ancient.

Her goal is to share work which is grounded in history, eclecticism and integrative practices. Some of her previous works include Puerto Rican Herbalism Plant Walks at the Queens Botanical Garden and an online/in-person class series called Mythos Astrology.

Betsabé Castro Escobar (she/her) is a Boricua and Caribbean researcher, multidisciplinary, a plant lover, island explorer, educator, dancer, mother, and bruja. As an ethnobotanist, she is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras and recently completed her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work brings together botany, ethnobotany, evolution, ecology, biocultural and decolonial studies, a path she began in 2010 alongside her teachers María Benedetti and Gladys Nazario, who instilled in her a love for medicinal plants and the ancestral and creole knowledge of the Caribbean. She currently resides in Berkeley, California, with her husband and daughter.

Betsabé Castro Escobar es una investigadora boricua y caribeña, multidisciplinaria, amante de las plantas, exploradora isleña, educadora,  bailarina, madre, y bruja. Etnobotánica egresada de la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Río Piedras y recién doctora en Biología Integrativa por la Universidad de California, Berkeley. Su trabajo integra botánica, etnobotánica, evolución, ecología, estudios bioculturales y decoloniales, un camino que inició en 2010 junto a sus maestras María Benedetti y Gladys Nazario, quienes sembraron en ella el amor por las plantas medicinales, los saberes ancestrales y criollos del Caribe. Actualmente reside en Berkeley, California, junto a su esposo y hija.

lara pacheco (they/them/she/her/naturaleza) is a Taíno, Latinx mamita that believes part of our collective liberation is accessed through decolonizing ourselves and weaving into the web of ancestral medicine. lara directly works through this realm with plants, fungi, puppets, music and dance. lara was the co founder of Brown Girl Rise, and founder of Atabey Medicine of Seed and Thistle Apothecary, an educational resource that centered Queer, Trans and Gender fluid Black and Indigenous voices within herbalism that transitioned to what is now called Moon and Mirror. In connection with their Taino roots, lara is a Tekina and also a Qi gong teacher and student with the Ling Gui International Healing Qigong School. lara is a licensed acupuncturist working with Working Class Acupuncture and with Zocalo Wellness continuing the tradition of care and access to our communities and the legacy of our Liberatory ancestors. lara spends some time in Boriken (Puerto Rico) helping the work of Caminando La Utopía.