Regina "Mama Ravin" Lawson is a respected elder in the community and the founder of The Herbal Healing Hut. Best known for a crock of soup to someone in need in her community weekly... her dandelion/collard greens stew, her dandelion salad, and dandelion coffee. She always says: "I don't have any special degrees or acronyms behind my name... just lifestyle and what my granny taught me!". Her granny taught her at age 5 to stretch the collards with dandelion leaves which she has been consuming since 1954 down to this very day. She's been a vegetarian all her life and vegan since 16. She studied massage therapy in Thailand back in the 1970s and has been a pioneer of holistic wellness in Detroit ever since. In 1997, Mama Ravin created The Herbal Healing Hut with her first programs being The Herbal Walk & Talk and Chat & Chew Citchen. For more than 2 decades, she has facilitated these programs on the Detroit Riverfront teaching the community how to identify medicinal, edible, and survival herbs in their own backyard and cook plant-based foods that incorporate these herbs. She has worked with and garnered the support of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy for over 10 years for The Herbal Walk & Talk/Chat & Chew summer program that is held every year along the #1 voted Riverwalk in the USA, through the wetlands at Milliken State Park. Mama Ravin has also been an active member of the Southeast MI chapter of the Sierra Club for years, fighting to protect our Great Lakes and even launching the annual "Bless the Waters" meditative gathering.
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Danielle Nanih Waiya has been a Program Assistant and Mentee in the Herbal Healing Hut since Spring of 2018. Danielle is a young millennial with a passion for plant medicine and connecting to Mama Earth. She's an advocate for Indigenous rights, herbal medicine, and environmental sustainability. She has family roots in Mississippi and descends from the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2017 with a B.A. in Afroamerican and Caribbean studies. She has been a Reiki Practitioner since May 2019 and a Certified Herbalist as of June 2021. She began her doula studies in 2019 with a 3-day (36 hrs) Doula Skills + Emergency Midwives Skills training and has a special passion for womb wellness. She has studied ethnobotany as well as basic plant chemistry in her herbal studies. She launched Oka Ohoyo LLC in the summer of 2020 in which she offers Indigenous plant medicines, spiritual services, and Indigenous cultural education to her local community.
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Levi Dixon is our "Walking Library" and has been assisting and contributing his wealth of knowledge since the program's inception. He hails from the Cayman Islands with Indigenous American and African roots. He has been on the holistic wellness and self-knowledge journey for decades and has studied bush medicine on his native island as well as a slew of other islands including Jamaica. He is very well-versed in the herbal knowledge, spiritual knowledge, and social justice. He also is a whiz in the anatomy and biomolecular nutrition of Aboriginal peoples. Levi is very knowledgeable, you will never engage in a conversation with him without learning something that will broaden your scope.
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Kathy Barnett is a highly accomplished entrepreneur with strong creativity, leadership, and cooperative skills. Kathy has been on our team since 2019 connecting us with powerful resources in the city and strengthening her herbal and reflexology studies. For years Kathy has been an Environmental advocate for civil engagement with the citizens of Detroit. She has spent two years as a Community Liaison with DWEJ. She has degrees of Nursing Assistant and Medical Assistant and is currently studying reflexology and herbs to incorporate in her practice. She's a team player, a woman of her word, and a woman of honesty who takes pride in her work. Kathy has launched her business Divine Essence of Pure Herbal Essentials in which she offers reflexology services and education as well as herbal products to aid in pain management.
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