Co-Founders
Jade Shutes
Jade Shutes holds a Diploma in Holistic Aromatherapy, Holistic Massage, Anatomy and Physiology, and Reflexology from the Raworth College of Natural Medicine in Dorking, UK, and a Diploma in Aromatherapy from the International Therapist Examining board (ITEC). Today she is the visionary and director of education for the School for Aromatic Studies.
An aromatherapy practitioner, researcher, and educator for over two decades, Jade opened her first aromatherapy school, The Institute for Dynamic Aromatherapy (IDA), in New England in 1991. She has also taught at Bastyr University, Duke University, Ashmead College, San Diego Hospice, and throughout North America. Recognized as one of the vanguard of professionals who helped introduce aromatherapy to the US, she has since played an active role in the setting of standards for aromatherapy education in North America.
Jade is the past president for the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy. She served two highly successful and rewarding terms as NAHA President (2000-2003 and 2013-2015). She is the author of "Aromatherapy for Bodyworkers", one of the most widely used textbooks for massage therapists learning about aromatherapy.
What keeps her passion and love for aromatherapy going? “I am a strong advocate for the use of aromatherapy and herbal medicine for self care healthcare and believe education is the key to self empowerment. I believe aromatherapy 'plants a seed' in each of us, awakening our inherent relationship with the beauty and wisdom of the natural world.”
Amy Galper
Amy Galper, B.A., M.A., Co-Founder of the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies, has been a Certified Aromatherapist since 2001, as well as a passionate advocate, entrepreneur, formulator and consultant in organic beauty and wellness. She has also co-authored the newly released book, “Plant Powered Beauty,” published by BenBella Books and endorsed by beauty industry visionary Bobbi Brown, Credo Beauty’s Annie Jackson and Sophie Uliano, author of Gorgeously Green. Amy is honored and proud to be a member of Credo Beauty’s Clean Beauty Council, celebrating, advocating and educating for Clean Beauty and Wellness, along with other influencers and thought leaders in the field.
Over the past several years, Amy has also built a vibrant consultancy practice, offering her expertise in plant-based beauty ingredient research and sourcing, product formulation and private labeling, as well as corporate and private wellness event planning; She is currently an advisor and educator to a number of beauty and wellness brands and companies.
Amy has appeared as a featured speaker at the Indie Beauty Expo, Women in Flavor & Fragrance Conference, EcoSessions, along with dozens of media events and conferences. She is a guest lecturer at NYU, and has presented at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and is a member of the Visiting Faculty at Arbor Vitae School of Traditional Herbalism in New York City.
She has been featured on FOX NEWS, CUNY TV, and FAT MASCARA, and has been quoted as an aromatherapy expert for countless of articles and posts about essential oils, as seen in Cosmopolitan Magazine, Vogue.com, Extraordinary Health, Dr. OZ, Prevention, Well and Good, Better Homes and Gardens, Mind Body Green, People, Allure, Refinery29 and many many more.
Amy’s first aromatherapy teacher was Jade Shutes, and Jade, now her partner, continues to mentor and inspire her.
Meet our Teachers: The Heart of The School
Amy Anthony
Senior Instructor
NYC Live Classes and Live Stream
Amy Anthony B.A, is a certified clinical Aromatherapist with a private practice in Manhattan, NY. Her focus is on customized aromatherapy and education: she consults with clients and teaches classes and workshops at the NYIOA and around the NY metro area. Amy also enjoys formulating customized delivery methods that encourage the safe, practical use of aromatherapy for her clients—like lip balms, fizzing bath balls, shower bars, body butters, creams and more. More can be found about her aromatherapy practice at A.roma.
Amy has been a gardener since the age of 5 and has continually found ways to connect with plants since moving to NYC in 1999. Her connection with plants brings a holistic, plant-based approach to her teaching and practice of aromatherapy. She spends time between NYC and the North Fork of Long Island, where she can be found getting dirty at the East Side Outside community garden or her own garden on Long Island. She also spends as much time as possible in her garage, with her copper still, to obtain beautiful, artisanal hydrosols from plants she grows or other locally sourced botanicals.
Amy is also a certified master composter, has volunteered and helped run Saint George’s Common Table since 2012 and is a doula with The Doula Program to Accompany and Comfort since the fall of 2016. She studied herbalism under Jim Mcdonald and continues to explore the world of herbalism.
Larken Bunce
Online Instructor
Tongue Assessment for Western Herbalists, Nutritionists and Aromatherapists
Larken Bunce, MS is a clinical herbalist, educator, writer, gardener, and photographer. She is founding co-director and core faculty at Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, which runs a full-time sliding-scale community clinic and a 3-year training program for clinical herbalists. Her practice and teaching draw equally from science and spirit, novel practice and tradition, clinic and garden, reflecting her diverse experiences in over 20 years in the field. She is committed to the ongoing work of social and ecological justice and repair, especially as these relate to herbal medicine. She holds a Master of Science in Clinical Herbal Medicine, as well as certificates in Zen Shiatsu, Swedish/Esalen Massage, and Mind-Body Skills. Larken is passionate about clinical mentorship, bridging traditional healing models with biomedical sciences, and restoring Nature to culture through herbal medicine.
Erika G. Galentin
Online Instructor
Demystifying Essential Oil Research: An Evidence based Practice Approach
Erika is a Clinical Herbalist and an ITEC-certified Clinical Aromatherapist consulting from Sovereignty Herbs in Athens & Columbus, OH. She holds a degree in Herbal Medicine from the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK and Scottish School of Herbal Medicine, Glasgow, UK. She is a professional member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (UK) and the American Herbalists Guild (USA). She is also a proud member of Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society in Horticulture (USA).
A decade of clinical practice has provided a platform for a deep and influential understanding of the efficacy of medicinal plants within a clinical environment. It is through this clinical practice that Erika is able encourage positive, learned relationships between plants and people. She is a firm believer in celebrating the role humanity plays in the ecology of our landscapes and that our relationships with the natural world should be based upon reciprocity and exchange.
In addition to clinical practice, Erika is both a student and teacher of horticulture and native medicinal plant conservation and ecology. Erika is also deeply passionate about the history of botanical medicine in the United States as depicted by the American Botanical Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and has built her clinical philosophy around the principles and practice of Physiomedical and Eclectic traditions.
Amandine Peter
Senior Instructor
NYC Live Classes and Live Stream
Amandine Peter grew up in the French countryside surrounded by nature, family houses and gardens. Plant medicine was already a part of her life then: as a kid, she would pick up mullein flowers for her mother to make a delicious cough syrup, and eucalyptus essential oil would be diffused in her house come winter. Naturally, she started getting into essential oils and educating herself. In 2014, she moved to New York to join her husband, who owns a French restaurant in the city. She perfected her education with the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies, and eventually became a Certified Clinical Aromatherapist and a Certified Aromatic Studies Method Teacher. She is also a reiki master, as well as a published science-fiction author in France.
Amandine believes that aromatherapy is more than just using a specific oil to solve a problem. Behind each and every essential oil, there is the soul of a plant, a wisdom, hundreds of years of relationship with us. Being and staying connected to nature is the key to a happy and fulfilled life. You will not find any industrial foods or cosmetics in her house, as she enjoys homemade and organic products. She is a superfood enthusiast and is naturally drawn to healthy foods and exercise.
She enjoys versatile activities such as a being a graphic designer, traveler, scuba diver and cosplayer, and welcomes every new day as a gift.
Justin Wertz
Senior Instructor
NYC Live Classes
Justin Wertz is a certified aromatherapist, teacher, and founder of Brooklyn-based Dirty Dude Apothecary. Justin started making beard oil in 2013 inspired by his obsession for fragrance and raw materials. He launched his first batch of Wertz all-natural beard oil in fall of 2014. For Justin, a beard embodies gentlemen qualities such as patience and commitment balanced by a "life is an open rode" mentality. All of his company’s personal care products are 100% organic, safe, plant based and awesome. See for yourself at https://www.dirtydudeapothecary.com/
Course Contributors
Juliet Blankespoor
Juliet Blankespoor started the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine in 2007, after deciding to become a professional plant-human matchmaker. She lives with her partner Tom outside of Asheville, NC, in a wee handbuilt home where they nurture a medicinal herb garden and a delightfully hilarious daughter. Juliet has been sharing her passion for plants for over twenty-five years through teaching herbal medicine and botany. Despite a seemingly single-minded obsession for medicinal plants, she’s branched out in the last few years, exploring new territory and interests—namely photographing, videoing, and writing about: medicinal plants.
Juliet is an unabashed botanical entrepreneur –her earliest project during her collegiate years included a get-rich-quick-scheme involving papaya trees. After graduating from University of Florida with a degree in botany, Juliet founded and formulated a tincture line, Green Faith Herbals. She spent her twenties growing and wildcrafting medicine for her tincture business.
http://chestnutherbs.com/
Eli Ramos
Eli is an aromatherapist, mother and nature lover. She combines her passion for essential oils with her language skills (is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish). She has been an Aromatherapy interpreter for courses in Europe, Colombia and Brazil for international renowned aromatherapy authorities. She volunteered in local Hospices and Hospitals, not only with her time, but also as an aromatherapy consultant. She has also volunteered in orphanages in Brazil and had the opportunity of using Aromatherapy for a more peaceful ambience. She is part of a group of Aromatherapists from Brazil who works with the staff of a Foundation in Colombia that works with orphans, drug addictions and severe trauma to use Aromatherapy as a therapeutic tool. She teaches Aromatherapy and Herbalism in camps for kids in the US and Brazil. She has studied two years of Curative Education and Social Therapy (Anthroposophy) in Brazil. She has a BA in International Business Administration and currently is studying Tibetan Medicine.
She believes in the beauty of the world, in kind hearts and in walking together.
Lindsey Feldpausch
Lindsey Feldpausch is a clinical herbalist and professional member of the AHG. An instructor
and program director at the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine, she teaches materia medica
and medicine making. Trained in the art of western herbalism, she believes in the healing
powers of plants and our innate abilities to tap into this knowledge. Kindling this belief in
others and showing people the way of the herbs, is one of her life’s objectives.
Nicholas Zemp
Nicholas Zemp is a Clinically Certified Western & Chinese Herbalist, educator, aromatherapist, and avid naturalist and gardener. He is the founder of Grey Mountain Herbs and Director of the Grey Mountain Herbs School of Botanical Medicine.
Growing up close to nature in Southeastern Idaho, Nick has always loved the outdoors and been fascinated by the Earth’s natural abundance and innate intelligence. At the age of 15 he (precociously) threw off modern medicines and began to voraciously devour any book regarding herbal medicine and natural therapies he could find. After moving to Oregon at the age of 18 and volunteering on a medicinal herb farm, he devoted himself to an herbal healing path. In 2007, he received a Traditional Western Herbalist Certificate from the Appalachian School of Holistic Herbalism, and in 2010 received an Advanced Chinese Herbalist Certificate from the Institute of Chinese Herbology. Nick continues to educate himself and others in the wonders of botanical medicine and Gaian consciousness.
Administrative team
Celeste Knopf
Director of Operations and Programming
Celeste Knopf, the Director of Operations and Programming at NY Institute of Aromatic Studies, is a graduate of Florida State University. Originally in fashion merchandising and PR, Celeste decided to move into a world that focused on inner wellness rather than outter.
Currently working in a stress free, magically aromatic environment, Celeste gets to help students connect with plant medicine on a daily basis. Maintaining the website, scheduling new and exciting classes, creating newsletters and everything in between, she gets to flex her creative and organizational prowess and work with an amazing loving team.
Nancy Cyr
Director of Student Services
Nancy is a graduate of San Jose State University and of the Brian Utting School of Massage in Seattle, Washington. She has also studied nutrition at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado. In 1996 she began her aromatherapy education with Jade Shutes. She has studied with many others in the aromatherapy field, including Jan Kusmerik, Jeanne Rose, Shirley Price, Valerie Cooksley, Cathy Skipper, Madeleine Kerkhof-Knapp Hayes, and Annette Davis.
Nancy had a full time massage practice in the Seattle area for 8 years. In her practice she specialized in supporting the emotional and physical health and wellbeing of her clients through an eclectic blend of techniques, often creating custom essential oil blends. She also assisted a local surgeon, developing pre and post surgical massage protocols, including essential oils there as well.
She wrote and taught Anatomy for Yoga Students for the Yoga Center in Bellevue, Washington andwas a teacher of Aromatherapy for Massage at Ashmead College in Tacoma, Washington.
Nancy has had many lives in her career, also spending time in organic farming and years in the nutritional supplement realm in education, sales and management. Throughout them all, she remained connected with her true love – health and wellbeing via support from nature.
“My passion for natural methods of healing and health care has been nearly life long. That which supports the body’s innate wisdom has always felt aligned for me with how I want to live, how I want to treat my own body and how I most enjoy empowering others.”
Rahel Neirene
Customer Experience Specialist
Rahel Neirene is a budding herbalist and seasoned scent storyteller whose work brings ancestral history, lived experience, and paths to embodiment together to lay the foundation for trauma healing and body awareness. She is forever growing and learning and is always finding ways to stay playful and curious. Her work here at the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies honors her grandmother Wilma Porter who came from a lineage of folks who worked with the land, teaching her children and grandchildren the importance of growing their own food and taking plant medicine.
School Ambassadors and Supporting Educators
Michelle Ensley
Cert. Aromatherapist, Flower Essence practitioner and educator.
Michelle’s love for plants started as a young girl, helping in the flower and vegetable gardens with her mother and father. She studied horticulture in high school and college. She now utilizes plants in the form of essential oils and flower essences with clients and patients.
Michelle is a graduate of the Brenneke School of Massage and a graduate of The School for Aromatic Studies (now the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies). She has studied various types of bodywork and energy work and has continued her education in Aromatherapy and Aromatic Medicine to enhance not only her practice but also self care.
Michelle is the owner of Soulscents & Bodywork in Enumclaw, WA. She works as a comfort therapist for Multicare Home Health and Hospice utilizing Aromatherapy, Massage and Reiki.
She has been teaching for the New York Institute of Aromatic studies for a decade. She also teaches Australian Bush Flower Essences course for the ABFE co in Australian and Reiki Classes. Teaching and sharing her experiences with health and healing is her passion.
Gergely Hollodi
Gergely holds an BA in English teaching and after a 12-year long period spent in the advertising-marketing world decided to change his life and started his journey in the field of healing. Gergely is a graduate of the Cortiva Institute: Seattle School of Massage and is a nationally certified (NCBTMB) and Washington state licensed massage therapist. He completed the Masters Apprenticeship program with the School for Aromatic Studies (now, the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies) in Seattle. He is professional member of the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy and the International Federation of Professional Aromatherapists.
He currently lives in Budapest, Hungary where he practices massage as a certified therapeutic massage therapist and offers aromatherapy courses to the public. He is the lead instructor in Hungary for the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies. He continues his study of alternative medicine/herbal medicine and is a certified phytotherapist.
I have a passion towards massage and aromatherapy. I am committed to helping my clients with massage for stress reduction, treatment of and rehab from common injuries, relaxation, and discomfort associated with everyday activities. My massage and aromatherapy practice is grounded in the union of East-West healing traditions. I approach healing with healthy curiosity and invite my clients do the same.
Heidi Nielsen
Heidi Nielsen is a certified Aromatherapist with the School for Aromatic Studies (now, the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies) and the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy (PIA)
As well as being certified in Holistic Aromatherapy Massage with Lynda Henderson and Paul Crowder in 1997, Heidi has completed Christine Selda’s Indigo Bridge Medicine Wheel training and is a mesa carrier in the Andean Shamanism Tradition and incorporates these ancient techniques into her healing treatments.
Her studies in Aromatherapy and Holistic Health began in 1994 while working at Escents Aromatherapy and taking a course with Jade Shutes, teacher, mentor and co-founder of the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies.
Her interest in holistic health has evolved during her mentorship with Jade giving her a great respect for plants & nature. This in turn has broadened her landscape for training in many different healing modalities including Herbology, Ayurveda, Shamanism and Natural Medicine.
Heidi is the creator of "From Nature to Nurture" - Learn more about her work here.
Certified Aromatic Studies Method TMTeachers
Kathy Klug
St. Louis, MO
Kathy has been practicing Holistic Aromatherapy for over 30 years. She became a Certified Aromatherapist, Level 1 and 2, many years ago through the School of Aromatic Studies(at that time known as the East West School of Herbal and Aromatic Studies) at Cheryls Herbs in Maplewood, Mo. and was taught and mentored by the late Cheryl Hoard. She then went on to receive her Registration in Aromatherapy.
As a retired nurse of 36 years, she has used her medical knowledge and training along with her knowledgeof Essential Oils and Herbs to create a successful practice in Aromatherapy and Holistic Health. She is a Reiki Master Practitioner, owns her own home based business, supplies several locations with products she has designed and created and is invited to deliver presentations for various groups and organizations, regarding the use of Essential Oils in different situations and conditions. Kathy also writes a quarterly article for Spirit Seeker Magazine, a local St Louis publication and has been featured on their local radio show.
She has been a member in good standing with NAHA, AIA and AHNA for several years. Kathy was born, raised and continues to reside close to St Louis, Mo where she has been teaching at Cheryls Herbs since Cheryls passing in 2015 along with various other facilities in Missouri and Illinois.
Margo Hertzfeld, Cert. AT.
Margo received a B.S. in Merchandising from Indiana University in Bloomington, and later went on to create Rosy Glow Beauty Company, a line of all-natural personal care products for moms. When she realized the most fulfilling part of this business was researching essential oils for the line, Rosy Glow Aromatherapy was born!
Margo’s aromatherapy education began in 2011 with a Level I certification from Jade Shutes, B.A., Dipl. AT, Cert. Herbalist, Director of Education for the School for Aromatic Studies (now the New York Institute for Aromatic Studies), and David Crow, founder of Floracopeia, with an emphasis on the priciples of Ayurveda. She went on to receive her Clinical certification with the School for Aromatic Studies. She went on to become an instructor for the school, focusing on teaching the live Level I Foundations course.
Margo has expanded her natural therapy education with a certification in Reflexology from the Guardian School of Massage and Reflexology in Sterling Heights, MI, as well as Level I certification in flower essence therapy from The Bach Centre’s education center in the U.S.. Other coursework completed includes natural perfuming, meditation, yoga, mother and baby care, natural oncology therapies, hydrosol applications and botanical skin care.
She is currently completing a certification as a holistic wellness coach.
Margo is a professional member of the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy, as well as the Regional Director for Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan, and a member of the Natural Perfumers Guild.
Michelle Ensley
Cert. Aromatherapist, Flower Essence practitioner and educator.
Michelle’s love for plants started as a young girl, helping in the flower and vegetable gardens with her mother and father. She studied horticulture in high school and college. She now utilizes plants in the form of essential oils and flower essences with clients and patients.
Michelle is a graduate of the Brenneke School of Massage and a graduate of The School for Aromatic Studies. She has studied various types of bodywork and energy work and has continued her education in Aromatherapy and Aromatic Medicine to enhance not only her practice but also self care.
Michelle is the owner of Soulscents & Bodywork in Enumclaw, WA. She works as a comfort therapist for Multicare Home Health and Hospice utilizing Aromatherapy, Massage and Reiki.
She has been teaching for the School for Aromatic studies for a decade. She also teaches Australian Bush Flower Essences course for the ABFE co in Australian and Reiki Classes. Teaching and sharing her experiences with health and healing is her passion.
Aromatic Studies Bloggers
Camille Charlier
Camille is a clinical herbalist, artist, mole enthusiast, and literary sleuth. A recent graduate of the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine's Clinical Intensive Program, Camille aims to support marginalized people and populations confronting complex trauma. With a background in academia -- a degree in biology from Reed College -- Camille interweaves rigorous scientific research, plant medicine, queer theory, and an impish appreciation for encounters with the mystical, the inexplicable, and the absurd. When Camille isn't jamming on trumpet and accordion, you'll find them clowning, making comics, and reading Borges.
Vember Connor
Vember Conner is the Founder of Cāru, an organic high-performance luxury skincare line crafted in the Ayurvedic mind-body tradition. Cāru offers aromatic blends based on an individual’s biologic blueprint, their dosha. The doshas - Vata, Pitta, and Kapha - are energetic constitutions based on the five elements and known as mind-body types. These doshas express unique blends of physical, emotional, and mental characteristics. Each Cāru product is formulated to deliver real, and visible results without synthetic chemicals.
Vember speaks on how to incorporate Ayurvedic wellness into our fast-paced lives, and has had engagements at The Soho House, The Ludlow House, Hub Seventeen and Holisticsm. She previously provided one-on-one client consultations, with the goal of promoting good health, rather than fighting disease, and developed an Ayurvedic pet line - The Healing Hound, in honor of her dog, Lu.
She is a certified Ayurvedic Holistic Health Counselor under world-renowned Ayurveda Physician, Vaidya (Dr.) Naina Marballi (Ayurvedacharya). She also studied Aromatherapy with David Crow of Floracopeia, and Jade Shutes, Co-Founder of NYIAS, and product development with Amy Galper, Co-Founder of NYIAS to create signature scents aligned to Ayurvedic balance.
www.carunyc.com Instagram: @caru_nyc