Michael Friedman, ND
Dr. Friedman is a naturopathic doctor, educator, author, and founder of the Restorative Medicine Conference. He is known for translating complex integrative and herbal therapies into clear, clinically actionable strategies for healthcare professionals. His teaching emphasizes mechanism of action, safety, clinical applicability, and real-world outcomes, grounded in decades of experience treating chronic and complex illness.
Dr. Friedman is also the founder of the Association for the Advancement of Restorative Medicine (AARM), an organization dedicated to advancing evidence-informed botanical and restorative medicine education for practitioners. He has lectured internationally on herbal and integrative medicine and previously served as adjunct faculty in endocrinology at the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine.
Throughout the weekend, Dr. Friedman will share practical clinical pearls and real-world herbal medicine case studies drawn from decades of clinical experience, including cases published in peer-reviewed medical journals.
Rocío Alarcón Gallegos, PhD
Dr. Alarcón Gallegos is a highly regarded ethnopharmacologist who combines her scientific training with her ancestral curandero and shamanic heritage. Her work bridges traditional healing practices and modern herbal medicine, including the ceremonial and ethnobotanical study of Ayahuasca—a psychoactive botanical preparation originating from Indigenous Amazonian traditions and traditionally brewed from Banisteriopsis caapi vines and companion plants.
Her teaching explores the cultural, historical, and botanical foundations of Indigenous Amazonian plant medicine traditions while fostering respectful dialogue between traditional healing systems and contemporary scientific inquiry.
Rosemary Gladstar
Widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern herbalism in the United States, Rosemary Gladstar has spent more than five decades teaching, practicing, and advocating for the use of medicinal plants. She is the founder of the California School of Herbal Studies — one of the first formal herbal schools in the United States — and the founder and former director of Sage Mountain Herbal Retreat Center in Vermont.
She also co-founded Traditional Medicinals, one of the leading botanical tea companies in North America, helping bring herbal medicine into mainstream wellness culture. An internationally respected author, educator, and community herbalist, Rosemary has trained thousands of students and practitioners through her books, lectures, apprenticeship programs, and herbal conferences. Her work emphasizes the traditional roots of herbal medicine, sustainable plant stewardship, women’s herbal traditions, and the deep relationship between people and healing plants.
John M. Woytowicz, MD
Dr. John M. Woytowicz, MD is a Maine physician and longtime integrative medicine educator. Dr. Woytowicz has served as Director of Integrative Medicine at the Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency and as an assistant clinical professor affiliated with Dartmouth’s Department of Community and Family Medicine. He will discuss the evidence-informed use of herbal medicine in cardiovascular disease, including:
- Chronic inflammatory contributors to cardiovascular dysfunction
- Circulatory support & hypertension
- Autonomic balance & metabolic cardiology