Our School was founded in 2003 by Matthew Alfs, MH, RH (AHG), an herbal educator and clinician--now for over a quarter of a century.  As a clinician, he is one of only about 300 practicing herbalists to have achieved the status of Registered Herbalist (R.H.) after having undergone a rigorous peer review of his education and clinical practice by the major professional body of practicing herbalists in the USA, the American Herbalists Guild. He has been in clinical practice since 1997 and is the founder and director of an integrative, natural-health-care clinic located in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota (see "Herbal Clinic" on our menu).
  As an author, he has written MWSHS's textbook (300 Herbs: Their Indications & Contraindications. Rev. Ed. 2020) and its 1500-page series of Workbooks. He has also written the highly-acclaimed, regional, wild-plant guide entitled Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants of the Midwest (Third Ed., 2020) and has been published in a wide variety of both scholarly journals (incl. Journal of the American Herbalists Guild, Medical Herbalism, Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation, Journal of the American Chiropractic Association, and Natural Product Communications) and popular magazines.
   As an educator, he has served as a faculty member of two major universities and two colleges in the Twin Cities area. However, the Midwest School of Herbal Studies is now his chief instrument in sharing the joys and rewards of herbal healing with as many people as possible.  As the school's founder and director, he is dedicated to making it the foremost forum for herbal education in the entire world!