Ina Vandebroek, PhD., is a biologist and ethnobotanist. She is the Mathew Calbraith Perry Associate Curator of Economic Botany and Caribbean Program Director at The New York Botanical Garden. Ina is the Principal Investigator of the research project “Comparative Exploration of Plants and Local Knowledge in Portland Parish, Jamaica”, funded by the National Geographic Society, Committee for Research and Exploration (grant #9339-13). She studied Biology at the University of Ghent in Belgium and holds a PhD. in Medical Sciences from the same university. After earning her doctorate, Ina specialized in ethnobotany, the science that investigates how people perceive, use, and manage their plant resources in traditional, culturally-appropriate ways. Through interviews with local community members and plant identification, Ina documents the traditional knowledge, beliefs, and practices of these communities, to help preserve their cultural heritage and contribute to plant conservation.She also trains medical students and healthcare providers in developing a more culturally appropriate and sensitive clinical practice.David Picking, PhD., came to Jamaica as a Commonwealth Scholar in 2008 and went on to complete a doctorate in biochemistry at The University of the West Indies (UWI). David previously graduated from the School of Integrated Health, University of Westminster, London, as a medical herbalist and naturopath in 2007. David is currently a Research Fellow at the Natural Products Institute, UWI, where his research focuses on documenting traditional knowledge and the contemporary use of medicinal plants by Jamaicans. David has a particular interest in the integration of medicinal plants into the Jamaican healthcare system, and, as part of his PhD, screened a number of the most commonly used plants for their potential interaction with pharmaceutical drugs, a key aspect of medicinal plant safety. David was part of a team that successfully undertooka TRAMIL survey and completed Jamaica’s first contribution to the TRAMIL database and online plant pharmacopeia (www.tramil.net), adding to the body of knowledge from over 50 surveys completed across the Caribbean to date (the name TRAMIL is derived from “Traditional Medicines in the Islands”).
