Lora Cantele
ARC CHAIR
Lora Cantele is a Registered Aromatherapist (RA), Advanced Practice Clinical Aromatherapist (APCA)
As the owner of Enhancements Aromatherapy LLC, she offers private consultations specializing in children with special needs and their families, business-to-business consultations, and bespoke products. She is the editor and publisher of the International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy (IJPHA), a peer-reviewed quarterly journal. She offers advanced continuing education courses taught by her as well as leading experts from around the world. She is the co-author of The Complete Aromatherapy and Essential Oils Handbook for Everyday Wellness. As an international speaker, she has presented in several countries about aromatherapy for children with intellectual disabilities, Aromaflexology, and the importance of professional aromatherapy training.
Lora is a co-founder of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists and served on AIA’s Board of Directors for more than 13 years, and later as its Executive Director. She is also a co-founder of the Case Study Collaborative – a repository for case studies for the purpose of data collection and publication. She is a Certified Aromaflexologist/Instructor through its creator, Shirley Price.
Lora can be contacted via email at gro.licnuocyparehtamora@riahc and by phone at (815)814-1444.
Venessa Levin
ARC Secretary
Venessa (Venetsana) Levin RA, BA, MEd. is a Holistic Aromatherapy Practitioner, Life-long Student, and NCTBMB Certified Educator. Venessa began her aromatherapy studies at the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy in 2015 and has continued studying plant and aromatic medicine ever since.
Venessa is a retired High School English teacher and the founder of Grateful Aromatics LLC. Her passion is education and aromatherapy safety; teaching others how to harness the powers of herbs and essential oils safely, effectively, and sustainably.
Venessa is currently a member of AIA (Alliance of International Aromatherapists) and has previously served on the Board of Directors, as Media Committee Coordinator, and on the Review Committee at AIA.
Venessa can be contacted via email at gro.licnuocyparehtamora@yraterces.
Jackie Glinkie
ARC Treasurer
Jackie is a Certified Aromatherapist with training from Aromahead Institute, Tisserand Institute, and the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy. She became interested in aromatherapy and essential oil education when she heard unsafe advice promoted at an essential oil class for beginners.
As the founder of Infinite Aromatics and Essential Oil Navigators, she empowers essential oil enthusiasts to master essential oils safely, effectively, and sustainably through online education and community.
Jackie is a professional member of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA) and the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA).
Jackie can be contacted via email at gro.licnuocyparehtamora@rerusaert.
Jennifer Eden Clark
ARC Board Member
Jennifer initially came to aromatherapy through the back door of soap making, wherein essential oils were used for fragrancing, which led to her first book on aromatherapy in 1999. She practiced on her five children for the next several years with great success! She sought formal training from the Australasian (now American) College of Healthcare Sciences to become certified in 2009, then graduated in 2011 with a Master’s Diploma in Aromatherapy.
She wrote Essential Oil Basics: The Complete Pocket Guide to Safe & Effective Essential Oil Use in 2014 to help in the education of new essential oil users, specifically those being introduced to them by MLMs. It is an unbiased guide, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions based on solid facts. It has been revised six times and is in its second edition, with two active foreign editions.
Jennifer has been a Registered Aromatherapist since 2010. She is a Professional Member of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA), serving on the board, then as secretary for two years, and on the international conference committee as Liaison to Speakers and Volunteer Coordinator. She also belongs to the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapists (NAHA).
Jennifer serves as the ARC Liaison to Schools and can be contacted via email at gro.licnuocyparehtamora@sloohcs_ot_nosiail.
Jennifer Wilson
ARC Board Member
Jennifer is a Registered Aromatherapist (RA), the owner and founder of Aromatic Elements, LLC, and the owner and director of the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy based out of South Carolina. Her passion and focus is in aromatherapy education and research to which she has devoted countless hours in addition to her formal education, which includes studying with the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy under the direction of Sylla Sheppard-Hanger and the Tisserand Institute.
She is a Professional Member of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA), the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA) and the International Clinical Aromatherapy Network (ICAN). She is also serving as both the South Carolina and the Atlantic Region Representative for AIA, and has served as the secretary for the United Aromatherapy Effort.
Because there is still so much misinformation regarding aromatherapy, Jennifer has spent the last few years creating, and/or helping to admin, several social media pages and groups that are dedicated to providing reliable aromatherapy information and resources. A couple of these have a specific focus on awareness about the safe use of essential oils, and the support of individuals that have been injured by them.
In addition to serving as a student mentor and teacher, she provides writing, editing, consulting, and supportive administrative services to others in the industry. She is also the author of several articles, one of which has been published in the International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy (IJPHA).
Jennifer serves as the Director of Public Relations for ARC and can be contacted via email at gro.licnuocyparehtamora@ofni and by phone at (803) 378-3220.
Sylla S. Hanger
ARC Board Member
Sylla Sheppard-Hanger is the founder and former director of the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy in Tampa, Florida. She brings 45 years of experience and personal research into the practice of aromatherapy and essential oils.
Her fascination with this subject led her to study with the most knowledgeable scientists in the fields of aromatic and medicinal plants, essential oil research and herbology. In 1993, she completed the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Program at Purdue University in Indiana, and she continued on to complete the International Training in Essential Oils: Advanced Studies, Parts 1 and 2 (1996-7). She was a founding member of the American Aromatherapy Association (1988) and served two terms on the Board of Directors. As former Chair of the Safety Committee with the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (14 years), she saw an influx of essential oil related injuries and began annual Injury Reports, which were available at the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy’s website.
After the September 11th tragedy, Sylla volunteered with the Carolina Emergency Relief Massage Team, whose four deployments provided complimentary chair massages and aromatherapy treatments to over 3,500 relief workers and volunteers. During this time, Sylla formed the United Aromatherapy Effort, Inc. (UAE) a non-profit charity with the mission to collect and provide donated aromatherapy products to those affected by critical incidents and emergency work. The UAE was active in Florida during the aftermath of the 2004 hurricanes, and they supported the community in Biloxi, MS, after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The UAE also collected aromatherapy supplies for NATO soldiers in Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan.
Sylla is a licensed Cosmetologist/Esthetician, a Licensed Natural Health Care Practitioner and a Massage Therapist. She has provided introductory through advanced aromatherapy education since 1988 and has developed comprehensive educational programs that are presented throughout the United States. The Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy is a Continuing Education Provider (Boards of Massage and Acupuncture) for the state of Florida, as well.
Sylla is the author of The Aromatherapy Practitioner Correspondence Course and The Aromatherapy Practitioner Reference Manual, the latter of which is a complete reference book with over 350 aromatic plant extracts and phytochemical, clinical and botanical indexes. Most recently, she began publishing her SBS Series, which includes the Aromatic Spa Book (2007) and the Aromatic Mind Book (2008). Since 1996, Sylla has also been involved with an on-going research project called Psychosocial Aromatherapy Research Project (PARP) with Dr. Trevor Stokes from the University of South Florida. The project studies the positive benefits of aromatherapy for children with autism and other disorders. She has also partnered with colleagues Dr. Robert Pappas, Martin Watt, and Tony Burfield for various academic papers and studies including the recent publishing of Tony Burfield’s second edition of Natural Aromatic Materials: Odours & Origins.
Besides teaching and mentoring students, writing aromatherapy articles for magazines and journals, Sylla also consults for private-label aromatherapy companies and other clients in need of her expertise. She volunteers her time and aromatic counseling skills to organizations within her community, and she continues to maintain her private aromatherapy practice in Tampa, Florida, where she resides.
Sylla can be contacted via email at gro.licnuocyparehtamora@ofni and by phone at (813) 265-2222.