Our staff and holistic health practitioners believe in health equity. We support access to culturally relevant and holistic health practices that foster agency and healing. We are committed to trauma-informed care that empowers individuals and communities.
The nested circle images in our logo tells some of our story. The golden center represents principles of care, healing, justice, and sustainability. The concentric rose-colored rings surrounding that center represent our staff and core volunteers that put our vision into practice. We are nourished and inspired by our connection to the earth and the healing plants. From that place, we sow the seeds of community partnership, and health justice.
PMP Staff
Leslie Chaison, Director
Leslie (she/her) is a mother, gardener, land-tender, and connector of people, food, plants, and resources. Her white ancestors came from Western Europe, some through Acadian Canada. Leslie co-envisioned People’s Medicine Project with a group of herbalists in 2013 after many years of doing food justice work. Her initial passion to make herbal medicine more accessible to her local community has evolved into a deeper understanding of how traditional medicine is central to health sovereignty. She is committed to redistributing resources in ways that support communities to access traditional plants, gain a sense of health agency, and tend to the earth.
Leslie loves seeing her children grow into inspiring young people, swimming in clear lakes and rivers, cycling, pollinator plants and the bees they attract, and singing with friends. One of Leslie’s dearest plant companions is the Birch tree (Betula pendula).
Contact Leslie: Leslie@peoplesmedicineproject.org
Jesse Muzzy, Assistant Director
Jesse (she/her) is a Fertility & Birth Doula, and student of herbal medicine. She is a second generation Cuban immigrant and 15th generation Massachusetts occupier. Her work and healing journey is guided by her beliefs in bodily sovereignty, service, and living in harmonious relationship with Nature’s cycles. She is committed to co-creating communities and systems that are autonomous and regenerative for all living beings.
Jesse enjoys gardening, sharing meals, lounging in the sunshine, and dancing to live music. Some of her closest plant allies include Rue (Ruta graveolens), Nettle (Urtica dioica) and Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).
Contact Jesse: Jesse@peoplesmedicineproject.org
Jiyanna Vagedes, Apothecary Coordinator
Jiyanna (she/her) is a mother, beloved, sister, daughter, & friend. She is an earth and community tender, believer in the importance of cooperation, compassion and inclusion, and striver of deprogramming her mind from the patterns of patriarchy and oppression. Her white ancestors came from Western Europe, in the mid 19th Century and settled in the plains of western Ohio.
Influenced by the peaceful, spiritual, connected way of her grandparents lives raising a large family off the grid, Jiyanna aspires to a similar lifestyle living close to the land in Western Massachusetts. She co-tends Abbott Hollow Sanctuary with her beloved Gerry. They hope the land will be preserved to witness the wonders of nature.
Some of Jiyanna’s dearest plant companions include pine, tulsi and yarrow and she loves making connections between the plants of the world and their uses in various times & places of history & lore.
Jiyanna spends most of her time tending Abbott Hollow grounds, but when she isn’t there, you might find her swimming in a natural body of water, adventuring with her beloved or wandering in magical places, making music with friends, building something clever (to her) or connecting with loved ones.
Contact Jiyanna: apothecary@peoplesmedicineproject.org
Our History
PMP began its health justice work in the soil! In 2013, a group of herbalists started a medicinal plant garden at the Just Roots Community Farm. We shared the desire to address the disparity of access to healing services in Franklin County. We saw our role, and still do, as a bridge between health-promoting resources and the community members in need of those resources.
Today, we are a core staff, a team of skilled practitioners, an engaged group of volunteers, and an apothecary/homestead crew. We work together toward PMP’s vision of health justice and inclusive access to plant medicine, integrative healing services, and educational resources.
We remain rooted in and responsive to our community needs. Our work continues expanding as new needs arise across our communities. We continue to provide innovative responses to specific health crises, such as the opioid epidemic, COVID-19, and farm worker health access, across Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties.
