marlene Renee Adelmann

Marlene Adelmann is the Founder and Director of the Herbal Academy, international school of herbal arts and sciences, and The Herbarium, a virtual membership publication for herbalists. Through the school and online herbal classes, Marlene has brought the wild and wonderful world of plant medicine to 25,000 students across the globe. Marlene spent eight years studying herbalism and learning under and with some of the most revered, modern herbalists, such as Rosemary Gladstar and Susun Weed, and continues to practice herbalism through ongoing correspondence courses and teaching others.

Marlene’s passion for herbalism started with her studies in Culinary Arts. In 1989 she opened her own catering company and through her passion for food and good healthy living she began learning about herbs and how to use them both for food and medicine. She has been a vegetarian for 25 years and teaches cooking classes promoting eating close to the source. She believes that learning to create health through the foods you eat is life transforming. “When you truly understand that your food choices are powerful and life affirming, you can exercise control and restraint without deprivation.”

As a contributor to a number of publications including Mother Earth News Magazine, Taproot Magazine, The Essential Herbal, Natural Herbal Living Magazine, and From Scratch Magazine, Heirloom Gardener Magazine, Plant Healer Magazine, and Sheknows.com, Marlene is a trusted voice in the holistic healthcare industry.

Marlene and the Herbal Academy

Marlene Adelmann started the Herbal Academy in 2011 out of a passion for sharing herbalism with the world. Six years later the school has blossomed from a small group study based in Bedford, Massachusetts, to an international online classroom with staff located around the world. With Marlene at the helm, the Herbal Academy has pioneered the quest to make herbalism education accessible across the globe via their online platform. In 2017, Marlene and the Herbal Academy took this quest to a new level by offering a completely free, online herbalism course which has engaged over 20,000 students across the globe.

Herbal Mission

Marlene’s personal mission to bridge the gap between herbalists and everyone else to create collaborative, meaningful community amongst all runs deep and roots the Herbal Academy. The Academy aims to teach the art and science of plant medicine honoring our intrinsic connection to nature. Marlene and her team are dedicated to teaching and promoting a lifestyle of wellness and vitality through the use of herbs, sound nutrition, and optimal health practices.

The Herbal Academy offers high quality, affordable herbal studies programs to empower students, and celebrate the community- centered spirit of herbalism by collaborating with a wide diversity of herbalists to create an herbal school that presents many herbal traditions and points of view. The Academy holds sustainability and stewardship dear, and these are guiding principles for them. So, too is their commitment to not only providing a path for herbal studies, but also making it affordable and supporting their students all along their way.

Herbal Academy Values

Sustainability: We are committed to educating our community about the importance of sustainability in herbalism – from the ethics of sustainable wildcrafting to the critical need to protect threatened and endangered plants and trees and find sustainable ways of production or alternative plants to use. In our opinion, responsible production and gathering of our plant allies is part and parcel to the study of herbal medicine. As gardeners, wildcrafters, and herbal consumers, our choices can send an important message and advocate for a truly sustainable approach to procuring the plants we use for healing. After all, if we cause harm in our ecosystem, how can we support healing in ourselves?

Stewardship: It is through understanding that we come to appreciate what is before us. Through herbal education in our online classes we help build a bridge between uncertainty about the natural world to a place of knowing. We begin to recognize not only the beauty of this world, but also of its complexities, and the importance of stewarding a thoughtful approach to our interaction with our ecosystems. A rose may be just a rose to some, but a rose to an herbalist is quite something else. An herbalist knows how to use the rose in all its stages from bud to bloom to rosehips, and also knows how to steward the plant so it can continue to thrive.

Herbal Education with an Online Format: By providing our herbal studies programs in an online format, we can provide our students with a world of herbal education by linking them to many resources and trusted mentors and teachers. Online education has the benefits of flexibility and independent study, and we can work together at a pace that allows our students the freedom to get hands-on experience in fields and forests as well as study at their computer.

Support: We offer support during our students’ online herbal studies journey through printed materials, live forums, and social media platforms. We enjoy being able to make those connections with our students. Through this work at the Herbal Academy, we are provided many opportunities to work in the community to help raise awareness, reach out to those who are in need, and provide quality herbal education globally. As an herbalist school, we believe it’s important to give back to organizations and communities that help spread herbal education and support the vitality of our plant partners. As a member of Partners in Education with United Plant Savers, we are not only able to support sustainability with our annual contribution, we are also able to provide UpS membership discounts to our Herbarium members and students, who can choose to support UpS as well. We are always looking for collaborative relationships such as these that support groups doing important work in the field of herbalism.

Affordability: At the Herbal Academy we have made a very conscious decision to keep our programs affordable. As an herbalist school, it is our mission to provide as many people possible the gift of Earth’s health-supportive plants. Herbalism is not something to hold onto for ourselves; it’s something we want to share widely with all. We offer our herbal studies courses online so we can reach an international audience and enrich so many more lives through herbal education. We understand the role herbal education has played in our lives and want to empower as many people as possible with a foundational herbal education at an affordable price.