International Training Program - Staff Profiles

Erin Smith, Managing Director/International Program Coordinator

Erin Smith received a BA degree in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in 1996 and her MSc in Ethnobotany with distinction from the University of Kent in Canterbury in 2004. She is a medical herbalist and completed her studies in clinical herbal medicine at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies in Colorado in 2001. Her MSc dissertation and research investigated gendered knowledge of traditional medicine in Marrakech, Morocco, particularly on women’s knowledge of two ethnopharmacological mixtures.  She is interested in the transmission and promotion of traditional medicinal knowledge, fair and equitable trade and production of medicinal plant products, and medicinal plant conservation. In addition, she has worked in Ethiopia for the Food and Agricultural Organization on female-headed households and gendered use of common property resources. She frequently teaches classes to professional and general audiences on herbal medicine and ethnoecology. She recently retruned to the United States and now lives in Colorado.

Heather Leach, Outreach Coordinator

Heather recently completed an MSc in Ethnobotany from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 2009. Her dissertation and field research investigated the management of baobab and tamarind in rural West Africa and the factors that influence management and conservation of these trees. Prior to completing her degree at Kent, Heather lived for three years in Mali assisting local communities on issues related to sustainable agriculture, education and rural livelihood development. She is interested in working with indigenous and local communities on ethnobiological knowledge transmission, education and novel applications of traditional knowledge. Heather is a native English speaker, and speaks French and a dialect of Dogon.