Meet the NOHMies!
The NOHM Collective, was founded by Wren in 2015 in efforts to bridge mindful conversation and self care with collective consumption while in event and social settings. When choosing a business status she incorporated The NOHM Collective as a triple bottom line Benefit Corporation in efforts to keep transparency and integrity alive when it comes to The NOHM’s business practices from the ground up. As an embodied student of permaculture and herbalism her holistic mindset is seeded in the business’ mission to employ regenerative systems and practices in sourcing and production methods every step of the way. Wren believes that transformation starts in your cup, whether that be through a beverage or through the embodiment of our own selves as the vessel.
Medicine Maker + Supply Chain Manager
Wren Lizabeth
For the last decade+ Wren has been spearheading efforts toward more efficient and responsible waste streams as well as conscious consumer experiences in the event industry throughout the United States and at Costa Rica's annual Envision Festival. She holds a BFA in installation art from FSU, has managed a nomadic event based career in waste management + holistic event production, and has been culture shift curious contributing to the green movement and the sober curious movement, grounding her aligned action in social impact projects like The NOHM Collective, Permaculture Action Network, Waste Busters, Project Nuevo Mundo and Village Witches.
She is quite fond of the supply chain involved in the manufacturing & distribution of goods, which has been at the core of her studies and career as an educator, business owner and the head brewer of The MerTails and Herban Mylk elixirs. To Wren this chain is more of a mycelial network of relationships enriched with stewardship of seeds and stories that imbue an energetic imprint on everything we consume and so she has passionately curated an apothecary and elixir bar menu of mindful offerings that meet the ethics and standards of The NOHM from seed to cup.
Her continuing education is with many of our partners and collaborators today; Permaculture Action Network, Tucson Watershed Management Group, Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine, The Village Witches, Herbal Academy and Earth Activist Training.
Engaging in creative pursuits and empowering initiatives like #ElixirsasMixers with The NOHM Collective, the #EndSingleUse campaign pioneered with Lucidity Festival, and the Envision Festival #CompostCrashCourse via Facebook, she focuses on collaboration and cooperative action, employing this righteous alliance in a myriad of endeavors.
You can follow her journey on the road chefing for retreats, foraging herbs and sourcing directly from farms in our network, [ @herban_urbalist ] and off the road in the greater Asheville area as she builds a zero waste business + lifestyle, while leading a new discussion on waste streams, conscious consumption, and how you can help transform the norm by taking the conversation home with you.
Content Creation | Socials + Newsletters
Elizabeth Scranton
A professional dabbler in design, crafting, sustainable homemaking, photography, movement, history, and language, she has been at the helm of The MerTails marketing and content creation since 2020. A Virgo through and through, she is ruled by the principles of aesthetics, and how they come together in everyday life, nature, and one’s home.
A Floridian at heart, she met Wren in her hometown of Tallahassee while at Florida State in 2010, where she holds a BA in History & Education. Legend has it, a bottle of peppermint essential oil she gifted from New Leaf Co-op sparked Wren’s life-long herbalism journey. After Elizabeth migrated to Austin, the two remained close and would reunite in Asheville in 2016, working collectively in the realms of photography and marketing for both The NOHM Collective and The MerTails.
Her comprehensive goal is to move others through words and visuals, and to create spaces that inspire living in harmony with your surroundings, while simultaneously expressing yourself as the one and only you. In life you can find her covered in paint, concocting a new recipe, or watching Jeopardy! ..as well as living in her true essence in the deep seas on our bottle of Circulation MerMosa.
Creative Director + Event Manager
Jacquelyn Alexa
Curator of LivingEartharian, an ideology rooted in vital independent actions encouraged by holistic education and conscious consumption. This endeavour aims to inspire awareness through the evolutionary lens of what it means for modern humans to be in cooperation with the ancient earth.
With a wide spectrum of scholarly pursuits and lifestyle passions, Jacquelyn has developed an integrative approach to fuse health with wealth in career as well as community. Early on, she became distraught with the effects of corporatism, agricultural industry and the pharmaceutical epidemic on the human psyche and society at large. Her independent entrepreneurial spirit has always been met with parallel focus and consideration of collective success and planetary perspective. Jacquelyn is perpetually nurturing and weaving specializations of nutrition, psychology, somatic therapy, herbalism, womb wisdom, communication, permaculture, event production and installation design.
She utilizes her skillset to consult and implement psychologically based and ecologically sound marketing strategies, dynamic management systems as well as creative content and programming for companies, centers and individuals in the fields of nutrition and healing arts. In balance to her intellectual endeavors, Jacquelyn can be found behind the tea table, cultivating in the garden, harvesting in the wild or in the kitchen brewing with medicinal plants for skincare products, culinary delights or herbaceous remedies.
Local Elixir Bar Manager + Education Lead
Nikki Eldred
Nikki is in service to plants + humans. She is a certified community herbalist, Gong Fu Cha teacher, endocannabinoid health consultant, and the director of our regional elixir bar collabration in Asheville, NC & Chattanooga, TN - Plant Bar. One of her primary passions is helping us to build deeper relationships with plants we know but often misunderstand in our culture - coffee, tea and cannabis, for example. She considers these plants life partners, and devotes herself to sharing them with the world and altering how we typically see and work with them.
She has been integral in the transition of our collaboration with Asheville Dispensary's Elixir Bar to Plant Bar - where NOHM magic is shared on a daily basis through a diverse selection of herbal elixirs & products. Plant Bar specializes in the fine craft of artisanal coffee, Chinese and Taiwanese tea, cacao, and herbal elixirs. Plant Bar is one of the only coffee shops in town that directly sources coffee, and carries the entire line of NOHM offerings.
It is of utmost importance to her to know where the plants we use came from and who grew them. She holds honor and reverence for the true masters of these plants, the farmers. She works diligently to directly and ethically source coffee, tea, and other ingredients at Plant Bar.
You can often find her serving tea in Asheville. She is passionate about sharing the tea plant, Camelia sinensis, through the mindful art of Chinese tea - Gong Fu Cha. She regularly holds tea service at community events in Asheville and teaches classes on Gong Fu. She also offers lifestyle and endocannabinoid health support through private consultations.
Event Team + Graphic Designer
James Sauter
I am in service to the alchemical vapour of dreams. I actively seek to materialize these dreams of a more colorful and harmonious world into being. The nature of the NOHM has provided a fitting platform for my myriad talents and interests to find more deeply rooted purpose and deeper fulfillment of my expressions. A Jack of All Trades, and master of none, to me is more vital than a master of one! Shapeshifting my expression of service to fit the needs of the collective or project at hand has allowed for me to connect to these collaborative visions on many levels. This provides insight on how to connect and communicate clearly the needs of my team and lead by example. My overarching goal is to catalyze, to inspire others to empower themselves to realize their authentic expression and deeper potential.
You may find me telling stories through many mediums and services. Painting large murals or small canvases. In the movement of animation and illustration. Through poetry and words, or in the design and creative guidance of intentional spaces. Or perhaps in a freshly prepared cup of tea. This world is a rainbow of wonder, and I wish my response to it be expressed with mutual color and diversity.
So let’s dream it. Let’s build it, but first… let’s have some tea! Cheers!
Event Team + Ritual Lead
Violet Hayes
Violet Julia aka “VioLet Go” specializes in Creative Movement Facilitation, Health Education, Herbalism, Yoga, Integrative Massage, Vibrational Therapy, Ceremonial Performance and Visual Art. She devotes her life to the celebration of embodiment, through a myriad of healing techniques, integrated to nourish the whole self. Through dance, plants, energy medicine, and bodywork (Embodywork), she encourages all to call upon the wisdom of our inner compass. To support growth, remain balanced, present, and dedicated to our vital mission.
Violet offers a bountiful buffet of dance flavors including various forms of belly dance, hip hop, modern, jazz, ballet and continues to taste and integrate many fine art forms from around the world into her practice. With the foundation of yogic principles and qi gong, her intention shares these practices as nourishment to feed the hunger that heals, and connect to our natural rhythms. Whether developing choreography, improvising, or simply warming up, Violet believes our motion holds the power to unwind trauma, process emotions, channel prayer, manifest our reality, and ignite our intuition to bring greater harmony.
The foundation of her herbal practice remains in revealing relationship. Violet inspires a deepening connection to our actions, consumption, thoughts, feelings, dreams, communications, self and other creatures. She does not simply hand out a tincture for others to “use”, She treats the medicine as a living entity, and within a growing, respectful relationship, remains an opportunity to receive healing on levels beyond just the physical. The elements will remind us to listen to what the whole self needs and emphasize the dialogue with all our relations. Our water, food, fire, breath all have consciousness, so when we engage with the world through this lens, we reflect this nature and create greater impact in whatever we do.
Production Assistant + Shipping and Fulfillment
Tara Perna
My journey is like a patchwork quilt, stitched together with threads of curiosity, intuition, and connection-woven from the plants, the coffee beans, the music, and the sacred teachings of travel. My first plant love, coffee, began in England in 2015 and has remained a constant, grounding presence in my life since. Founder of the Asheville Coffee Club and self-proclaimed “cup filler,” I have come to know that it’s not just about brewing the perfect cup; it’s about creating a sacred, shared space where souls gather, stories flow, and energies intertwine. Each cup holds more than flavor—it holds comfort, connection, and love.
Music holds the other part of my heart. The musical stylings of my alter ego DJ HausMaus blossomed as I traveled the world, soaking in the rhythms of drum and bass in England, the cosmic trance of techno in Germany, and the raw energy of dubstep in the United States. Alongside this, I have created a rich and diverse portfolio, spanning from musical theatre in Florida to fronting a psychedelic jam band in Vietnam. I continue to explore, refine, and harmonize my personal sound, ever-grateful for the eclectic influences that have shaped my journey.
Herbalism is where my heart truly feels at home. It’s a thread that runs through my bloodline, passed down from my grandmother—an old-world herbalist, who taught me to honor the sacred wisdom of the earth. My life has been immersed in the healing power of nature, and I am honored to continue this legacy through The NOHM. This path has always been about more than just knowledge; it’s about listening deeply to the whispers of the earth and trusting the wisdom that flows through us when we align with nature’s rhythm.
It wasn’t until 2024, when The NOHM spoke to the depths of my soul in Costa Rica and called me home. I found a place where I truly felt I could settle and plant roots, deep in Asheville. For the first time, I felt I was truly home. Rediscovering myself, my purpose, and a vibrant community that shares the same heart for deep healing and growth. With The NOHM collective, I am more than a dancer, an environmentalist or apprentice —I am an eternal student of life itself, ever-curious, ever-evolving. My journey of connection, discovery, and healing has found its place within the nurturing, intentional community that The NOHM has fostered, a space where we honor the plants, the people, and the experiences that shape us.