Lead instructor

Missy Rohs

Missy Rohs is a community herbalist, a queer nature geek, and a co-founder of The Arctos School. She grows, scavenges, and wildcrafts her own herbs with a focus on sustainable herbal remedies: those that grow easily in populated habitats, and those that can be harvested in the wild with minimal impact or beneficial impact. Her ecological ethos drives a slightly over exuberant love of weeds.

Missy’s path to herbal teaching began with grassroots labor activism and cross-border solidarity. As part of her activism, she joined the Black Cross Health Collective, a group that provided integrative first aid and aftercare for activists and garnered attention for their pepper spray trials. Missy used her experience in Black Cross as a springboard to dive head-first into the world of herbal learning. Encouraged by her herbal mentors, Krista Olson and Colette Gardiner, she packed her bags to study with Michael Moore at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine. Upon her return to Portland, she began selling her herbal tinctures at a farmers’ market and leading plant medicine classes around town.

As the Arctos School has thrived, Missy has remained active in other parts of the herbal world, teaching at conferences, volunteering with the Portland street medic community, and providing aftercare for protesters. In between herbal endeavors, she can be found concocting delicious meals, snuggling with her cats, or hiking her favorite trails. For information on herbal health consultations or customized classes with Missy, visit our Consultations page.

recent guest instructors

Gradey Proctor

An ecologist and botanist, Gradey Proctor has spent years studying the flora and fungi of Oregon's forests. He fell hopelessly in love with the Northwest upon his arrival in the '90s. Through classes, volunteer work, and employment, Gradey dove into the world of plants head-on. His longing to develop a sense of place has driven his passion for sustainably harvesting medicinal and edible plants -- and he loves supporting his community by teaching others to do the same.

Gradey is a co-founder of the Arctos School. In 2023, he shifted his focus to give his other herbal endeavor, the Medicine Garden, his primary attention, while continuing to teach botany and ecology with Arctos. The Medicine Garden is an independent micro nursery in Portland, Oregon, specializing in healing herbs and hard-to-find plants. Learn about Medicine Garden plant sales, garden design consultations, and cultivation-focused classes here.

When not hanging out with plants, Gradey spends his time with his kids.

Candace Larson

Candace Larson is a field biologist with the Bird Alliance of Oregon, and is obsessed with the birds, plants, and fungi of the Pacific Northwest. Trained as a wilderness first responder, street medic, and urban disaster responder, Candace has built their skills and dedication to keeping people safe in the streets and in the back country through their work as a wilderness fire lookout, a street medic for political demonstrations, a hike leader with Bark, and a birding guide with Bird Alliance.

Abigail Singer

Abigail Singer is a community herbalist, facilitator, and grief worker. She’s been active in movements for social and environmental justice since the late ‘90s, and believes everyone has a right to compassionate, respectful, and empowering health care. Abigail is inspired by vitalism and folk herbalism traditions in which health care is accessible, connected to place, and honors each person's unique experience and capacity for healing. 

Abigail has worked as a clinical herbalist and medicine maker, and is a co-founder of the People’s Health Clinic of Portland, a multi-modality free clinic serving Portland’s houseless community. Over the years, Abigail has come to see grief work as a necessary and powerful tool for healing and transformation on personal, community and societal levels. She is a graduate of the Blue Iris Mystery School and a facilitator of The Work That Reconnects, a framework for processing collective grief. She offers seasonal workshops, rituals and retreats through Tending the Web.

Tiffany Garner

Tiffany is a native Pacific Northwesterner with a deep love for the outdoors. She spends her time gardening, foraging for mushrooms, and exploring the wild corners of the region she calls home. Passionate about sharing her knowledge, she hopes to spark curiosity and appreciation in others for the forests, trails, and public lands that make the PNW so special. Check out her forays, gardening services, and handmade crafts at Quick and Dirty Gardens.

Alex Rae

Alex Rae was born in the rural western NY, amongst national forests and wild waterways. She is a trained community/clinical herbalist and full spectrum doula who is passionate about accessible herbal care. Alex was raised around her Southern great grandmother who was a birthing assistant for her mother who worked as a midwife and herbalist with the Chestnut Ridge People. This could explain her passion to marry the plant world with reproductive justice. 

Alex wears many hats. She is the founder of the Community Care Camper, a free mobile herb clinic that focuses on underserved populations in and around Ann Arbor Michigan. She is the co-owner Bloodroot Herb Shop, a coordinator for the Great Lakes Herb Faire, an herbal educator, and a mom, animist, pagan, and writer. She works on a sliding fee scale and weaves together harm reduction with a client- and heart-centered lens. She works mostly with AFAB people through postpartum, pregnancy loss & release, gut healing, and hormonal/mental health.

Kristin Currin & Andrew Merritt

Kristin Currin and An"Drew" Merritt, authors of The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer, are the co-founders of Humble Roots Nursery, a native plant nursery in the Columbia River Gorge recognized for its efforts in sustainability and promoting native plants. While ethically propagating many important species, their passion for plants has involved them with innumerable native plant endeavors including pollinator and conservation plantings of all shapes and sizes, school gardens, backyard habitats, restoration projects, and rare plant conservation.

Silke Akerson

Silke Akerson, MPH, CPM, LDM is a mother, midwife, and herbalist with a passion for connecting people with plants and with their own self-knowledge for healing. She was raised here in Oregon in a back-to-the-land family where plant medicine, home birth, home health care, and home death are normal. True to her roots, she hopes to help people return to their bodies and to the land and plants around them, wherever they are. She works in maternal and infant public health in Portland, Oregon.