The Gaia Gathering is made possible by the generous dedication and skillful contributions of many hands, minds, and hearts. Our staff are all past participants who became inspired to contribute their time and creativity to help make Gaia happen, year after year. We’re a growing team that’s rooted in collaboration and mutual support. Here are the talented women who are working behind the scenes to co-create our organization & weave the container for this beloved gathering.

Gaia Admin, WRC Co-Director, ...

Alexis Yamashita, Co-Director of Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance and Co-Manager at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. As a Japanese-American, she dedicates her work with UCFA and SESE to supporting Asian Americans and other BIPOC communities in accessing and reclaiming culturally meaningful foods. Alexis creates spaces of suspended judgment that bring opportunities for truthful self-examination to dismantle supremacy culture within ourselves and create communities of change.

Site-Coordinator & Team Manifestation

I am a friend of trees and squirrels, student of the plants, and stargazer. I love learning, expressing myself through creating- specifically writing and designing gardens, and stargazing. I am fascinated by the planet we live on and feel deeply connected to her and the other beings living here with us. In my Earthly work, I travel around selling silks dyed with plants, design and care for gardens, and also pet/plant sit. For fun, I rollerblade, hike, fish, visit the ocean, kayak, go birding, garden, and find myself interacting with squirrels and trees.

Gaia Admin, WRC Co-Director, Business Team

Anne is a grower of gardens, fine-tuner of numbers, singer of songs and tender of creative engagements. She is curious and inspired by the wide world and enjoys going on explorations with her family, friends, and animals. Anne is currently working on co-facilitating historic connections, establishing permaculture gardens, and building an herbal apothecary on her family's farm.

Programming Team, BIPOC Circle Support

Jamila is an herbalist, sound healer, mother of five, partner of one, and reluctant pet parent. The goal of her energy and herbal pracitce is to cultivate nourishment and safety within her community. Jamila also enjoys sewing, jewelry making, and getting outside to befriend random rocks. Jamila offers classes & consultations through Mama Luvs Herbs: Approachable Herbs & Spiritual Care.

Gaia Admin, WRC Co-Director, Programming  Co-Lead

Kate Adamson is an ordained interfaith minister living in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She serves as a compassionate guide and chaplain through the turning points of life, including birth, marriage, death, and other rites of passage. Her work centers on the transformative power of ritual, deep awareness, and collective experience. She has studied and practiced Embodied Spirituality for over 15 years, and loves facilitating her experiential course, “Body of Knowledge”. Kate's herbal allies include Comfrey, Motherwort, Sage, and Mimosa. Favorite travels include Peru, Sierra Leone, and Norway. She speaks a little bit of Spanish, French, and Norwegian, and is currently studying Arabic on Duolingo!

Programming Team, Creative Pollinator of Joy

Liz Henke (she/her) is the creatrix behind Dreamseed Apothecary. She received her core herbal education under the wing of Rosemary Gladstar. Liz furthered her education and found her calling after working with several spiritual herbalists and the indigenous healer, Rocío Alarcón. She combines her love of plants, ritual, the sacred feminine, creativity and art in her work and play. Liz offers classes on a variety of topics from sacred sensuality to incense making. She leads circles and ceremonies in the Charlottesville area, as well as offering energetic healing sessions. She facilitates therapeutic art experiences to further engage with self and the sacred feminine. Liz also has a line of herbal and craft goods that she offers online.

Gaia Admin, WRC Co-Director

Maya is a Virginia native who has lived in the Shenandoah Valley on and off for twenty years. She attended her first Gaia Gathering in 2008, and has contributed to the community in many ways over the years by serving in the kitchens and also teaching classes on Fertility Awareness and plant identification. Maya has had a diverse and windy career path - she's been a licensed midwife, a native plant landscaper, helped run a conservation non-profit, and now works for a small marketing agency. Through all these roles, the common threads are her love for traditional lifeways, honoring the rhythms and cycles of nature, and creating cultures of care and transparency in the workplace. When not at work, Maya can be found playing in rivers with her family, studying traditional astrology, reading Tarot and digging around in her garden. 

Programming Team, Planning-Dreaming Committee

Meg is a clinical and community herbalist, apothecary manager, and gardener. She grew up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge where her love for native plants and local ecology was born, and she is dedicated to bringing medicine of place to all of her practices. In addition to herbalism, Meg finds artistic and emotional outlet through beadwork, adornment, divination, holding space, writing, cooking, and relationship. She works as a community herbalist at The Elderberry, as a gardener and consultant, and as a clinical herbalist, etc., through her budding practice OneFlower.

Gaia Admin, WRC Co-Director, Vision & Production Organizer

Mihr is a mother, artist and designer inspired by the beauty, patterns and rhythms of our natural world. Her heart & hand-crafted approach to growing gardens, creating art and cultivating community lets her dabble in a versatile range of projects. Her work with Sylvan Designs has enhanced the imagery of local businesses, grassroots organizations and creative enterprises since 2014. She lives on her family farm in the Virginia foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mihr's work with Woven Roots Collective & The Gaia Gathering are a catalyst for many of her passions: art, healing, community, social justice, education, herbalism and the creation of sacred spaces. She is currently nourishing her joy by taking walks with friends, drawing, gardening, and reading with a cup of tea and a cat on her lap.

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