Nature as Self is at the core of Vanessa Chakour’s work. A fierce advocate of Earth, she founded Sacred Warrior to inspire ecological awareness — from medicinal plant walks and herbalism courses in Brooklyn to partnerships with the Wolf Conservation Center in New York, The Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica, and Alladale Wilderness Reserve in the Scottish Highlands. Her teaching and work experience spans herbalism, competitive boxing, nature connection, writing, and visual art. Practices that have helped her heal, peel back layers of conditioning and connect more deeply to her animal nature. Rooted in the belief that healing happens through reclaiming an intuitive connection to ourselves, the natural world, and our own “inner-wild,” Vanessa has been curating and facilitating rewilding retreats and workshops for over a decade.

Vanessa’s writing and work have been featured in The Rumpus, The Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation, Psyche/Aeon Magazine, Yes! Magazine, Ravenous Zine, and more, and she has been invited to share her work as an inspirational speaker at the United Nations, Brown University, the Muhammad Ali Center, and Harvard University. A life-long activist, Vanessa created events & non-profit initiatives on behalf of luminaries such as The Dalai Lama and Hip Hop Legend, KRS One. She is a long-time member of United Plant Savers, is on the external advisory committee of the Program For Evolution of Spirituality (PES) at Harvard Divinity School, and is an Artist Ambassador for Project Coyote.

Compelled to work on behalf of wild kin such as wolves and so-called weeds who cannot speak for themselves, she collaborates with wildlife organizations, speaks on behalf of the wild, and writes regular Weeds, Wolves & Wild Women essays on Substack. She recently founded Wild Voices Collective to amplify voices of artists and the wild. Her memoir, Awakening Artemis published in 2021 by Penguin Life in the US and UK, and Ullstein Press in Germany, shares her journey of healing through the lens of 24 medicinal plants. Her next book, Earthly Bodies: Embracing Animal Nature  (Penguin 2024) explores inner and outer landscapes through the lens of wild animals. 

A USA Boxing certified coach, Vanessa lives in Western Massachusetts where she coaches boxing and is part of United Plant Savers’ Botanical Sanctuary Network. In collaboration with her partner Enrique, (and a forthcoming local network of stewards) she promotes ecosystem diversity and resilience through forest stewardship and propagation of native and endangered plants and fungi.