With a deeply rooted curiosity of the world around her and a love of novelty and life in all its forms, Tatiana has spent her life seeking to deepen her understanding of the interconnected nature of life; learning and finding the threads of connection between various ways of knowing. Her academic training is as an ecologist and she has worked in the fields of western scientific research, science communication, environmental policy, and community organizing and advocacy, among others. Simultaneously, she is a trained herbalist and wildcrafter, an interfaith minister, energy healer, and intuitive. As a highly sensitive person, she often spends her time communing with the nature spirits to fill her energy reserves and obtain guidance on her path forward.  

Since a small child, Tatiana has always had a deep connection with the natural world and, as a highly sensitive and attuned person, a calling to care for and protect the quieter forms of life—the plant spirits, our animal relatives, the rocks, the mountains, the sea. Seeking to have the largest impact within society, she turned to western science. A western Ecologist is taught, everything within ecosystems are connected: the actions animals take, what they eat, how they use the land, where they go. In this way, as a collective we are now remembering that we are not separate from these systems. We are organisms too, impacting the land and other beings with every decision we make. We are part of a worldwide society—  interdependent in so many ways, physically, spiritually, psychologically, economically, among others. The notion that we can exist and prosper just individually based purely on what we do and what we earn is a rather new notion historically and it doesn’t work.

While valuing her western knowledge and the teachings she's garnered from the institution, there was always internal tension, a push back on the rigidity of it all. A deep internal knowing that this could only provide such a small part of this story. In turning inward toward that voice, she sought after, learned, and embodied the Indigenous wisdom from her West African ancestors, the wisdom holders of the land in which she resides, and that of other lineages worldwide that have told a more comprehensive story. She has done the work to unlearn a ‘survival of the fittest’ colonialist and patriarchal mindset of scarcity, to transition into that of collective care and responsibility, which our ecosystems teach us so well, if we take the time to sit and listen. Her knowledge is grounded in many Indigenous traditions such as Yoruban, Kemetian, Andean, and Potawatomi teachings and wisdom, and those are the roots in which ground her work. 

We all reside within societal systems that perpetuate and encourage, or even discourage, certain behaviors or changes. Our work at Ecologist Says is rooted in a deep understanding that these living legacies of systemic injustices result in oppression for some and unearned privilege for others—and that it actually de-humanizes all of us.

The importance lies then in the individual—as systems, by their nature, change when we do. The focus of Ecologist Says is to create the space for us to come home to ourselves, to reconnect with the small voice within, and to learn from the plants and the natural relationships that exist all around us. Here in this community we honor the inherent wisdom, intelligence, and sovereignty of our non-human relatives, our older siblings in creation. We adhere to the sacred reciprocity of nature by practicing respect, only taking what we need, and thanking Mother Earth for the gifts we have received. We cannot see peace in the world unless we have peace within ourselves and feeling loved, seen, and whole is our birthright. As we are approaching this time of activation and evolution within society, we must remember that every action we take has a larger impact.