Emily Ruff, Director of the Florida School of Holistic Living, is a community herbalist and health educator who has practiced the art and science of plant healing for over a decade. Her studies have taken her around three continents, where she has studied under indigenous healers of many traditions.
Ms. Ruff inherits a strong background in gardening and botany from her family, including several generations of small farmers and botanists. The roots of her study came in childhood wandering the wilderness of Florida with her botanist father, learning latin names and botanizing, and digging in the soil with her grandfather, an urban farmer, to cultivate nourishment for her family.
Her journey into herbalism continued as she apprenticed with a curandero in Guatemala while living abroad. Upon returning to the United States, she completed apprenticeships with many admired Western herbalists, including Rosemary Gladstar and George D’Arcy, in between visits abroad to study under medicine men and women of many traditions. She continued her path in academics, studying ethnobotany at the University of Central Florida, and studying flower essences extensively with the Bach Foundation. Her work has also taken her to the woods of Central Florida, where she lived off the grid and applied the principles of holistic living in an experiential research setting.
Emily is currently serving her local community as a board member of the Homegrown Local Food Cooperative. She has dedicated much of her work to preserving medicinal plants and their eco-systems as a member of United Plant Savers, and her recent research and publication work focuses on biodynamics, bioregionalism, and biorhythmic-influenced cultivation and healing. She is past-president of the Herb Society of Central Florida, and is a published author whose writing is frequently found in regional publications, including regular publications as Gardening Columnist of Edible Orlando and Green Editor of Velocity Magazine. She has taught at such venues as the Winter Park Public Library, the Orange County Library, the University of Central Florida, the New England Women’s Herbal Conference, and the Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference. Emily is recognized by membership in several professional organizations in the holistic health field, and lectures throughout Florida to groups, organizations, garden clubs, and schools. She is the founding director of the Florida Herbal Conference.
Before becoming a professional herbalist, Ms. Ruff enjoyed a successful career in journalism, and helped establish non-profit organizations which remain active and thriving today. She traveled extensively teaching environmental justice and fair trade workshops around the country, and served as a US representative to numerous international environmental, fair trade, and social justice conferences throughout the world.
Today, Emily maintains an urban homestead and herb farm with her family and practices her joy spending her days immersed in the plant world. She delights in being part of the awakening of her students, and is honored to share in service as a guide along their path. Emily’s classes are heart-filled, informative, and fun, and seek to create a bridge between the teachings of our ancestors and the technology of our modern world. Her students and the plants continue to be her greatest teachers.
