In my blood is the love of nature, and of traveling. Herbalism is an inherited gift from my maternal granny, Luiza Maria Antao, a native village herbalist in Goa, India who later migrated to Kenya in the British colonial era. My paternal grandfather, Andrej Lazorcak, came from Slovakia to Pittsburgh's South Side. There he worked in wrought iron mills and cultivated an urban garden to feed the family.
My parents settled in the United States after years of international relief work when I was two. They continue to teach me about the importance of social justice, community, the wisdom of nature, and preserving the wild. My birthplace is Chennai, India, and I was raised in East Hardwick, Vermont.
Coming from an international bent, what I do incorporates awareness and action, impact and responsibility inherent in being a global citizen. I have been fortunate to spend time with traditional healers hailing from different parts of the world. I have worked on projects involving traditional and ancestral medicine, disaster relief through herbalism, food as medicine, art and grassroots activism in India, Haiti, Palestine, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and different parts of the USA, primarily in the Northeast.
While a student at Hampshire College in the 1990's I was part of the vibrant community gardening movement in New York City and Holyoke, Massachusetts.
For a decade I was a food justice educator with the Good Food, Good Medicine Program, co-facilitating gardening, backyard herbalism, affordable nutrition, food as medicine, seasonal cooking, and community organizing at affordable housing complexes in Barre, Vermont.
I began working in a hospital two months before the COVID-19 global pandemic was declared. Working in a rapidly changing biomedical setting, attending to family emergencies, and completing nursing school during a pandemic shaped my path. I now work in geriatric care.
Central to my work is exploring how marginalized communities facing challenges such as systematic oppression, war, and climate change, can build resilience through locally based healthcare systems.
