Claudia Joy Wingo

Claudia Joy Wingo is Department Chair of Health Promotion and faculty at MUIH. With a background as an RN, Chef, Certified Naturalist, Public Health Educator, and practicing Clinical Herbalist, she enjoys sharing her rich knowledge base with both students and the general public as a lecturer and botanical explorer.

Along with the Department Chair role at MUIH, Claudia is an instructor in the health promotion, herbal, nutrition, and acupuncture departments and the MS, Physiology (CAM) program at Georgetown University. Claudia’s interest in health, nutrition, and herbalism has a long history; when after completing a chef's apprenticeship in Europe, she became a student of medical botany and Unani Tibb herbalism in Israel. Keen to continue her education, she moved to Australia to study naturopathy and herbalism professionally, then trained there as an RN, working both as a hospital and community-based nurse.

Moving back to the US in 1995, she worked in private practice as a clinical herbalist and was recruited as core faculty and then Clinical Chair for the newly formed MS in Herbal Medicine at TAI Sophia Institute (MUIH) from 2002-2009. She then returned to Australia in 2009 to complete her MPH in Tropical Medicine, Communicable Diseases, and Health Promotion, working in Outback Australia, Central America, PNG, and Bangladesh as a health educator and public health nurse while also exploring indigenous plant use. As an active practicing herbalist, she was Head of Education on the Executive Board of the Naturopath & Herbalist Association of Australia for nine years and helped align professional standards for the profession. She is currently a fellow of the organization.

Claudia has been part of MUIH's Health Promotion Program since its inception in 2015, lured back to the US by her passionate interest in the field of collaborative and integrative health. She is part of the American Public Health Association's leadership team in the Integrative, Complementary, and Traditional Practice Section and was the recipient of their Impact Award in 2020 for lifelong achievement in the field. In line with her interest and expertise in environmental medicine, Claudia is an Officer on the Rachel Carson Executive Board, serving for the past 12 years.