Anya Contreras is the Director of Earth-Based Activities for 3 Wombs Academy and is currently working as a professional herbalist at Orion Herbs. Anya has several years of hands-on experience in various schools of herbalism, farming, and foraging. From her time as one of the pioneers who helped break ground at Finca Morada, an urban permaculture community garden in North Miami, to her seasons of permaculture market farming at Aloha Redlands and Tiny Farm in Homestead, Anya dove head-first into the profound worlds of edible and medicinal plant cultivation and soil microbiology. She continually seeks instruction through classes, apprenticeships and workshops with local organizations such as Botanica Organica, Little River Co-op, Tree Amigos Growers, UF/IFAS, Buenezas and Miami Seed Share, as well as supplementary courses with wild food chef Pascal Baudar, Grow Forage Cook Ferment, Host Defense, the Herbal Academy and Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. She has been known to attend Tropical Beekeeper Association meetings, National Park Service education programs, local bio-blitzes and general ecology nerd events. Anya has also contributed to many other local regenerative earth-based organizations such as Watershed Action Lab, Grow Roots Miami, Earth ‘n’ Us Farm, and Schafer-Bradley Farms, to name a few. Anya is an alumni of New College of Florida and New World School of the Arts.

Daniel Atchison-Nevel, founder NSEV Healing Academy, has been an innovator in the fields of holistic health, acupuncture and Chinese medicine for nearly four decades. In 1982 Dan and his wife Jane Atchison-Nevel launched one of the country’s first collaborative health centers on Miami Beach. Together they also organized one of the pioneering events in American acupuncture history, the International Acupuncture Symposium (San Francisco, 1987). For the past thirty-five years, he has specialized in the use of the Extraordinary Vessels for cultivation and clinical practice. Dan has been practicing herbal medicine for forty years. He has been a leader in Chinese herbal education & product development since the 1980s. In 1989 he co-wrote one of the country’s first Chinese herbal medicine curriculums for acupuncturists. During that time he consulted in the research and development of several different professional herbal brands. More recently, he has developed more than 30 innovative herbal products for Chinese medicine professionals and the general public in conjunction with Orion Herb Company.