About Us
About Herban Garden
Herban Garden offers a multitude of services and programming that are infused with the values of community-building, accessible learning, and the betterment of the environment through low-cost or free educational services, namely, providing consultations, as well as training or re-training through online webinars and intense interactive virtual or in-person workshops, along with outdoor activities, such as nature walks focused on plant identification, gardening and horticulture (in relation to both outdoor and indoor flora), herbalism, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, urban ecology and ecosystem management.
Our Forest Assessment and Advocacy Pilot Program, and the Herban Youth Explorers Pilot Program are both slated to start in Summer 2023.
About Jocelyn
Jocelyn Perez-Blanco, Founder of Herban Garden, is an educator, herbalist, urban naturalist, Flower Essence Therapist, conservationist, and avid gardener with a background in biology, animal husbandry and agriculture.
She lives in NYC with her fellow plant-loving husband, 300+ houseplants, and their various pets of the furried, feathered, and scaly variety.
She serves as Executive Director of Herbalists Without Borders, an international non-profit who's mission is to empower and mobilize herbalists working within their communities, and is the Coordinator of the HWB NYC Queens Chapter, and is the organizer for the Herbalists MeetUp Group of NY. She is a member of the American Herbalists Guild’s Board of Directors, serves as Treasurer for the AHG NYC Chapter, and is a member of the Governance Committee, as well as the Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee.
She will be teaching two classes at the American Herbalists Guild’s upcoming 33rd Annual Symposium in October 2022.
Jocelyn is also a member of the Student Support Team at The School of Evolutionary Herbalism, and works as an educator and guide with NYCH20.
Her classes have been recommended by The New York Times, and have been offered through different organizations, such as Simpli, NFC Lifestyle Live, and T-Mobile.
As a Citizen Pruner with TreesNY, and a Super Steward, Trail Maintainer, and Corridor Keeper for NYC Parks, Jocelyn leads botanical walks, and participates in street tree care, invasive plant removal, and reforestation projects.
She has also partnered to lead walks for Latino Outdoors, Alley Pond Environmental Center, and the Natural Areas Conservancy.
She was part of the 2020 cohort for Cornell's Community Mushroom Educator Training, and completed the Watershed Forestry Institute for Teachers Summer 2021 program.
Jocelyn is currently compiling research for a book series and developing an interactive app, with plans to break ground on an Ecology Center and sustainable farm in their land in Costa Rica in late 2022.