Dr. Martha Mathews Libster is an educator,
Advanced Practice Nurse, healthcare historian, and Herbal Diplomat^® known internationally for her work on the complementarity of nursing practice, technology, and healing traditions, in particular the use of botanical therapies.  She is the author of numerous journal and book publications including: The Integrative Herb Guide for Nurses, Enlightened Charity, and the award winning Herbal Diplomats, a history of nurses’ botanical contributions to 19th century healthcare reform. Her newest book, The Nurse-Herbalist: Integrative Insights for Holistic Practice, will be released Jan. 2012.

Dr. Libster is Director and Chair of the Department of Nursing at Governors State University near Chicago, USA. She is also Director of Golden Apple Healing Arts, LLC, a consultation and education firm that promotes self-care and informed, holistic health decision making. She is a Board-Certified Advanced Practice Holistic Nurse and Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist specializing in the care of infants 0-3 and their families, people living with chronic illness, infertility, wounds that won’t heal, anxiety disorders, and parapsychology. She has over 20 years of experience working in a variety of health care settings where she has developed the integration of conventional nursing and technology with the use of herbal remedies and other healing traditions. Dr. Libster has practiced as a clinician-consultant in Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine and European and Western herbal therapies for over 25 years. Her first herbal teacher was her grandfather Arthur of the Cornish Celtic Rankin family. Dr. Libster focuses her botanical practice on the use of herbal and floral teas, syrups and topical remedies and teaching her clients to make their own simple “medicines” for use in self-care.  She has also practiced and taught European Foot Reflexology with Herbal Applications since 1986. Dr. Libster is the Associate Editor for Botanicals for the Journal of Holistic Nursing and a member of the advisory board of the American Botanical Council.

As an educator, Dr. Libster has developed numerous curricula in nursing, natural healing, and the integration of healing traditions and nursing practice at the graduate and undergraduate levels in nursing.  She offers Herbal Diplomat^® - an exemplary comprehensive certification program for nurses. She is known for her work in developing online and tele-health education programs and health resource centers. She has directed the Natural Healthcare Hotline for the Herb Research Foundation, the Rose Medical Center Medical Library in Denver, CO. and The Integrative Resource Center for Cancer at the University of Colorado. Dr. Libster is the founding director of The Bamboo Bridge international online community that promotes global health partnerships and cultural diplomacy between nurses and traditional, community healers through education and research. She began developing her passion for creating caring communities using distance technology while working in 1997 as a telehealth nurse-counselor for Health Decisions International under the tutelage of company founder, Dr. Don Vickery, author of the best-selling book, Take Care of Yourself.

Dr. Libster has spoken for the World Health Organization, the Royal College of Nursing, the United States Botanic Garden, professional organizations, healthcare providers, and the public on integrative care, botanical therapies, health care reform, self-care, healing traditions, and the history of nursing.  In May 2010, she was a Visiting Research Scientist in Nursing and Indigenous Knowledge Systems at Northwest University in Mafikeng, South Africa.