joAnna Castigliego Sanchez
1 Course • 157 StudentsBiography
joAnna Sanchez’s vocation as an herbalist has been a professional calling she has answered with devotion since 1979. Her journey began through mentorship with two elder plant women, sparking a lifelong path of learning and teaching in service of both people and plants.
Her collegiate studies include social work, forestry, and botany—an interdisciplinary foundation that informed her early work in the natural foods industry as a retailer, broker, and educator. Over time, her passion for education became more formalized, evolving into clinical engagement through dedicated self-study and mentorship with the pioneering herbalists who shaped the renaissance of American herbalism in the 1980s and 1990s.
For the past three decades, joAnna has focused on creating coursework and botanical gardens at a southwestern naturopathic university, where she contributed to the botanical medicine department. More significantly, she founded a nationally accredited herb school and botanica, offering two comprehensive programs: a 100-hour personal training course and a 750-hour professional herbalist program, both supported by five curriculum textbooks she authored.
Having provided this well-rounded professional training for more than a quarter century, joAnna recently transitioned her legacy work at both the naturopathic university and her herb school to a new generation of teachers. She now dedicates her time to her passions as a plant hunter, conservationist, and historian of herbalism—continuing to serve the plants and the herbal community with her wisdom and deep respect for the living traditions of this land.
