Her Early Years:
Hana grew up in a 432 acre off-grid community, Common Place Land Trust, in the remote hills of Central New York. She was born in a quiet room of the community farm house during a blizzard while the community gathered for a potluck dinner party. Her parents & the other founding members of Common Place were "Back to the Landers". They strived to live in intentional community & step lightly on the earth. They all helped one another build their own off-grid houses out of repurposed & reused materials (such as old barn wood & telephone poles). Bonding over the process of community-sufficiency. Utilizing the consensus decision making process to co-steward the land. They grew their own food & raised their children collectively. Hana and the rest of the feral children ran wild on the land. Rather than watching tv they built forts, climbed trees, swam in the ponds, went sledding, had mud fights & burdock fights, and slept out under the stars. At a very young age Hana began developing a deep relationship with the land, becoming friends with all of the plant & animal beings that shared it with her. She knew every square foot of those 432 acres like the back of her hand. One of her earliest childhood memories of plants was learning how to harvest Stinging Nettle without being stung, by harvesting respectfully and simply asking the plants nicely to not sting her.
Foundation & Formal Education:
Throughout her childhood the principles of off-grid living, sustainability, permaculture, and self/community-sufficiency were instilled in the foundation of her being. Starting in her early teens and throughout her early twenties she worked seasonally for her father's perennial garden design business - further solidifying a strong foundation in understanding plants. In High School, she chose a specialized path spending her senior year attending a year-long program called New Visions Environmental Science & Careers where at graduation she was voted "Most Dedicated To The Environment". As a young adult she attended the State University of New York - College of Environmental Science & Forestry, graduating Cum Laude in 2009 with a Bachelors Degree in Conservation Biology with a minor in Plant Ecology. During college she completed an internship with a summer long Nesting Sea Turtle Conservation Program in Costa Rica.
​Her Vagabond Years:
After college, driven by wanderlust (and disheartened by the grim reality of conservation work seeming like an exercise in futility), she packed a bag and took off for Europe. She spent 3 months train-hopping & couch-surfing throughout 9 countries in western Europe. Ultimately falling in love with Italy and returning often for several years to come. The following summer, in 2010, she returned to Costa Rica to spend a summer living & working on a permaculture farm (Rancho Mastatal: Sustainability Education Farm & Community) where she learned natural building skills and became Permaculture Design Certified. In 2012, she spent 4.5 months living in her car and driving 18,000 miles exploring every corner of the United States, working as a model and living payday to payday. The following year, in 2013, she set off for what was intended to be a grand round-the-world journey. Only getting as far as Hawaii. Here she spent most of a year living on Maui in an off-grid jungle shack and working at a flower farm outside the remote town of Hana. This transformative place is where her daughter came through in 2014.​
Returning to The Land:
After fumbling for a few years as a single mother she decided to return to where it all began. In a humble quest for the support of her parents & the community that raised her, she returned to Common Place to raise her daughter. Here she felt so safely held by the community and the land she knew so intimately, she wondered what she had been looking for all those years of vagabonding. For the first time in her life, she truly understood what Home felt like. She knew that while there were beautiful places and people all around the world, there was no where else she'd rather be. She finally put away her traveling shoes and decided to sink her toes deeply into the earth. Putting down roots and exploring how deeply she could feel grounded in place. Or as Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer ever so eloquently states "to become indigenous to place". Getting to know the land all over again, as if for the first time, through her daughter's eyes. They went for daily meanders through the forest, gathering food & medicine. Or simply talking to the newts and building fairy houses. They raised chickens and grew a garden. Started keeping bees and annually making maple syrup from the trees around their home. Hana's home apothecary comprised of wildcrafted medicine, which she utilized to keep her daughter & herself healthy, began bursting at the seams. 
Seeking A Sense of Purpose:
Through her challenges of single motherhood she felt called to support other women on the journey. How could she be of service in a society where the village mentality has all but disappeared? Growing up in a community of women who all had home births it never occurred to her that birth itself was something to fear. Hana learned from a young age to believe in the intuitive and biological wisdom held within each woman to bring forth life. Even with the birth of her own daughter, it was everything that came after the birth that gave her the most anxiety because her partner was lacking. This is why she believes we need to rewrite the conversation around birth in our society. To stop fear-mongering women into handing over their power into the hands of strangers. Most importantly, to show up to provide the village support they need in order to be able to put that power rightfully back into their own hands. She believes that when the village shows up, when a woman feels well supported in their journey to motherhood, they are equipped to raise children to be healthy and whole members of a functioning and sustainable society. If mother's experiences are more supported and healing, if our children's introduction to the world is more supported and healing, then perhaps our future society will be more supportive and healed.​
Continuing Education:
With all that being said, Hana chose to pursue the Doula path, training and certifying as a Birth Doula through DONA International in 2017. Later joining the Ithaca Doula Collective and participating in many continuing education opportunities. She then trained through PBi and became a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist in 2021. Hana began attending births and offering various prenatal & postpartum support services. She fortified her home library of herbalism books, studied up on her own, as well as through the online courses at The Herbal Academy.​
A Business Is Born:
The common threads between these passions and skillsets led to a strong belief in autonomy in wellness. Through her supporting roles in birth & motherhood, as well as a foraging guide & herbalist, Hana hopes to guide folks into remembering that the power lies in their own hands. To live in deep relationship with the land and it's natural rhythms, to find and make their own medicine, to believe in their power to give birth. To Overgrow the System. Thus a business was born, Wild Woman Botanicals & Birth Services.