VANESSA CHAKOUR

ARTIST AMBASSADOR

Nature as Self is at the core of Vanessa Chakour’s work. From medicinal plant walks and herbalism courses in Brooklyn to partnerships with the Wolf Conservation Center in New York and The Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica, she facilitates courses and retreats, helping students access their inner wild while learning from the plants, fungi, and animals that share their ecosystems. Vanessa’s teaching and work experience spans herbalism, competitive boxing, nature connection, writing, and visual art. Practices that have helped her heal, peel back layers of conditioning, and connect more deeply to her animal nature. Rooted in the belief that healing happens through reclaiming an intuitive connection to ourselves, the natural world, and our own “inner-wild,” Vanessa has been curating and facilitating rewilding retreats and workshops for over a decade.

Vanessa’s writing and work have been featured in Spirituality & Health, Town Hall Seattle, The Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation, Aligned Magazine, Ravenous Zine, and more, and she has shared her work as an inspirational speaker at the United Nations, Brown University, the Muhammad Ali Center, and Harvard University. She is a long-time member of United Plant Savers, is on the external advisory committee of the Program For Evolution of Spirituality (PES) at Harvard Divinity School, and is proud to be an Artist Ambassador for Project Coyote.

Compelled to work on behalf of wild kin such as coyotes, wolves, and so-called weeds who cannot speak for themselves, she collaborates with wildlife organizations, speaks on behalf of the wild, and writes regular Weeds, Wolves & Wild Women essays on Substack. She recently founded Wild Voices Collective to amplify voices of artists and the wild. Her memoir, Awakening Artemis (Penguin 2021), shares her journey of healing through the lens of 24 medicinal plants. Her new book, Earthly Bodies: Embracing Animal Nature  (Penguin 2024), explores inner and outer landscapes through the lens of wild animals.

Vanessa lives with her partner in Western Massachusetts where they steward Mount Owen Forest Sanctuary, part of United Plant Savers’ Botanical Sanctuary Network. Together, they  promote ecosystem diversity and resilience through forest stewardship and propagation of native and endangered plants and fungi.