Our Founders & Key Team Members

Nome McBride, Head Herbalist, President & Cofounder 
Nome brings to the table an experienced and richly diverse background in all aspects of production, as well as a strong foundation in herbal medicines and their clinical uses and indications.  Much of Nome’s free time is spent reading the Eclectics’ texts from yesteryear in search of modern day insights and reinforcing what he’s learned through his clinical practice.  Nome not only understands which herbs to use when, but also makes invaluable connections about which herbs to combine, which herbs our society’s qualms will demand next, and how to do it all to further the health of the environment and the society.  Nome grew up farming and has had extensive experience and education specifically on organic and sustainable farming practices.  Nome teaches extensively in the Northwest at herbal fairs, conferences, and as a guest teacher in many reputable herbal schools and naturopathic universities.  He is respected in the herbal community for his concise and relevant approach to herbal healthcare.  He has been trained in the use of European herbs by The Academy of Scottish Herbalism, and trained in field botany and native plants of the Northwest by The Columbine’s School of Botanical Studies. Nome has also had personal training in pharmocognosy, phytochemistry, clinical and physical assessment skills, herbal formulating, and anatomy and physiology.  Nome was formerly a Co-Founder of Under the Yew Botanicals, est. 2004 and is also a Co-Founder of the Institute of Contemporary Ethnobotany, est. 2005 and the Northwest Sustainable Wildcrafter’s Guild, est. 2005.

Carissa McBride, LMT, CNA, Cofounder
Carissa adds her experience from 9 years of clinical work to the company. With her herbal expertise, she helps formulate and design our products.  Carissa grew up in the lush foothills of Mt. Hood, a child of nature since birth.  She has fostered and developed her connection with plants over the years and is especially good as using the herbs in her healing practices with her clients.  In 1999 Carissa graduated from the East West College of Healing Arts in Portland, highly regarded nationally for their programs in massage therapy.  She began formal training in Botany in 2000 and has been fascinated with all the edible and medicinal plants around her ever since.  Before long she was inspired to learn more about using plants as food and medicine and graduated from the Academy of Scottish Herbalism in 2003.  Carissa has integrated essential oils, infused oils, and liquid herbal extracts with her clients ever since and found amazing results.  Her specialialties are sports massage, Swedish massage, hot rocks, steamed towels, trigger point therapy, cranial sacral, aromatherapy, and massage as an adjunct to chiropractic manipulation.  Currently Carissa is teaching health and nutrition classes locally as well as furthering her practice.  Carissa is formerly a Co-Founder of Under the Yew Botanicals, est. 2004. 

Peter McGlenn, Tracker, VP Sales & Cofounder
Peter brings his knowledge of both plants and animals with him to Pharmacopia Herbals.  Peter has lived in the Pacific Northwest his whole life, originating from West Seattle and the banks of Puget Sound.  With a love for native fauna and flora, his work is constantly all around him.  Peter serves as our wildcrafting assistant manager, spending most of his time in the forest searching for medicinals to collect and monitoring our stands for sustainability, wildlife interaction, and impact.  For the last four years, mostly during the winter months when not working with Pharmacopia Herbals, he has worked in a group setting with publicly funded restoration organizations in the greater Puget Sound.  He has 6 years experience harvesting, planting, and tending native plants of the Pacific Northwest.  He started his tracking career over ten years ago searching for coyote and other urban animals adjacent to West Seattle.   He eventually attended Tom Brown Jr.’s famous Tracker School in almost all of their locations and is now volunteer staff in many of their programs each year.  Since completion of the Tracker School coursework Peter has been pursuing a personalized degree in tracking through The Evergreen State College in Olympia.  His awareness of animal signs and plant communities allows us to locate and transit large amounts of medicinal herbs much faster than using botany alone.  Peter has studied with Seattle area herbalists, as well as with the Tracker School, the uses of Native American edible and medicinal plants and lends knowledge and insight into new product possibilities and sustainability measures when wildcrafting native and exotic medicinals.  His mastery of tracking techniques like search and rescue are invaluable for teaching work-study participants how to get around in the forest and how to remember where they came from and are going next during picking. Peter keeps the voice and passion of the majestic Cascades alive in the heart of our products. 

Tobias Policha, BSc, VP R&D, Education Director                                                   Field botanist, laboratory botanist, chemist, biologist, published natural products author, educator,  BSc (Hons.) in Biology from the University of Oregon, graduate of the Columbine’s School of Botanical Studies and now frequent guest lecturer.  Tobias grew up farming biodynamically in Pennsylvania at Camphill Viallage in Kimberton Hills.  He has studied intensively on numerous production based organic farms around the world from New York to Santa Cruz, Canada to Mexico and beyond.  Over the years Tobias has worked in several herbal apothecaries and is proficient in all stages of agricultural and processing production, and is an invaluable asset to the company.  Tobias has experience as crew leader for native seed collection for Oregon State flora preservation and regeneration projects.  He has also extensive experience in NW native restoration work through multiple years employment with Walama Restoration in Eugene.  Tobias’ vast experience in both the field and lab make him the perfect Team member to be the liaison between the farm and lab, serving as our VP of Research and Development.  Recently, he has conducted primary research on fungal mimicry of orchids in the cloud forest of Ecuador through National Geographic funding and in collaboration with the UofO.  In addition to his work with the American Herbal Dispensary he is currently working on his PhD at the UofO's Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  Tobias is also a Cofounder of Cascadia Food Not Lawns , the Institute of Contemporary Ethnobotany, and The Northwest Sustainable Wildcrafter's Guild.

As we like to say, its a full life.  Enjoy it!