Education:  I graduated from the University of Alabama cum laude in English literature while also studying communicative disorders and Spanish literature.  At the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, I received a master’s of science in oriental medicine, MSOM: acupuncture, qi gong, diet and herbal medicine and completed naturopathic doctoral studies, ND, which emphasized vitalistic, eclectic and naturopathic traditions – western medicine pathology, diagnosis, and pharmacy, hydrotherapy, nutrition, homeopathy, western botanical medicine. I am nationally board certified (NPLEX) in Naturopathic medicine and Acupuncture (NCCAOM). The state of Alabama does not regulate the practice of either of these fields of medicine at this time.

Origins:  I was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama , home of Helen Keller,  and from earliest childhood instilled with the love of nature and plants.  Steeped in the traditional values of the deep south, I was yet restless to see a different side of the natural world which so fascinated me.  My love of nature and interest in living in close alliance with the natural world was nourished in the Colorado Rocky Mountains while a return to Tuscaloosa yielded a love of organic vegetable gardening and a path to study health and healing.

Travel:  Much as my love of nature lead me to the Rocky Mountains, my love of culture, ethnography and travel lead me to many places around the earth.  Interest in living in community, yoga and spirituality led me to Santa Cruz, California, where I lived in community and directed an ayurvedic wellness center as well as taught in the western medicine department of Five Branches Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I incorporated meditative, reflective and spiritual lifestyle practices and studied with teachers of eastern traditions especially influenced by Baba Hari Dass, Amma Chi and the Dalai Lama.  This same interest in community, yoga and spirituality ultimately lead me beyond California to India where I was fortunate to work in an orphanage and medical clinic outside Deli and study with teachers of eastern traditions.  The teachings, poetry, words and thoughts of masters, mystics, prophets, saviors, saints along with the people, animals, plants and planet I know and continue to learn about have a deep impact on my life.

Professional:  As a health care practitioner, I strive to meet patients where they are and engage in a healing journey together. As a teacher and educator, I lecture and write on the subject of wellness and health care. I believe that self-care and development, awareness, evolution and love are the principle techniques that promote health and healing.

The cure of the part should not be attempted without treatment of the whole. No attempt should be made to cure the body without the soul. Let no one persuade you to cure the head until he has first given you his soul to be cured, for this is the great error of our day, that physicians first separate the soul from the body. - Plato

Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.
- Hippocrates

It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has. - Hippocrates

Health and well –being can be achieved only by remaining centered in spirit, guarding against the squandering of energy, promoting the constant flow of qi and blood, maintaining harmonious balance of yin and yang, adapting to the changing seasonal and yearly macrocosmic influences, and nourishing one’s self preventively. This is the way to a long and happy life. - Neijing

But there is more to life, a higher purpose, which is to know and realize who we are. By knowing who we are, we gain everything. A feeling of complete fullness, with absolutely nothing else to gain in life. That realization makes life perfect. -Mata Amritanandamayi

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
- J Krishnamurti

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.
- Dalai Lama XIV