In her undergraduate program at UC Santa Cruz, Brooke studied Political Science and Spanish. After college Brooke worked doing grassroots lobbying and while social justice work was her passion, she found herself angry at a system that was flawed. Brooke soon realized that being angry wasn’t helping anyone. It was then that she traveled extensively in Mexico and Central America where she worked and lived in communities that were more connected to cultivating their land and well-being. Brooke learned more in her travels about sustainability in food systems and health than she had ever before, and eventually this led her to move back to LA to become a Master Gardener with the hopes of having a positive, proactive impact on her community.
Soon after, she also got a job as the Executive Assistant at Emperor’s College of Chinese Medicine in Santa Monica. It was through her work at the school of Chinese medicine and her work at the community gardens that led Brooke to realize she needed to pursue a career in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
It also became clear to her during that time that she wanted to work to help empower communities back to the source of their food and medicine through growing plants, and offering affordable, integrative medicine.
In 2006, Brooke began studying in the Masters of Science in Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine program at Bastyr University in Seattle, WA. During her time there she managed the Chinese Medicinal Gardens at the school. She also completed externships at community acupuncture clinics, hospital in-patient clinics, low income and private practice clinics.
Brooke completed up to level 2 Craniosacral Therapy Certification, as well as the training in Community Acupuncture Models in Portland, Oregon. She also received a research grant to study the integration of Public Health and Urban Agriculture in post-revolutionary Cuba and published an article about her research. Brooke has traveled to China twice to study both herbal medicine traditions and acupuncture in hospital settings.
When Brooke is not in the clinic, she loves to cook and eat good food, garden, be with her family, hike, run, surf, dance, camp, travel and hang with her friends.