NutraWomen Wednesday: Holly Johnson, PhD, Chief Science Officer, AHPA
Johnson said her passion for botanicals started early in life, before she even remembers.
“When I was a little toddler, I apparently would walk into friends or relative’s houses, and I was obsessed with house plants. I would go up to their house plants and like grab a leaf off and be examining it. And my parents were like, ‘Holly, plants are your friends do not destroy them.’ So I feel like…I've had the passion for plants since I was a wee toddler.”
Whether it’s ayahuasca, kava or some other botanical, Johnson said she’s had plenty of experiences that helped her realize the cleverness of the indigenous systems and their knowledge.
One memory she shared involved driving around a Samoan village to sign benefit-sharing agreements with the chiefs.
“So we had to get these agreements signed at four different villages around the island. Well, they do kava ceremonies, which welcome you to the village. And so the more important or revered you are as a visitor, the longer the kava ceremony, the more speeches and high praise and the more kava you drink,” explained Johnson.
“By the time we were getting to the third or fourth village, all of us in the van were really relaxed on our kava, and I was like, okay, this beverage definitely works, and I feel like that was another experience with the indigenous humans where I was like, wow, this is quite a powerful beverage.”
Today, Johnson enjoys her work at AHPA, a place that allows her to interact with over 400 member companies.
“I do direct member service for scientific and technical things, and what's cool about that is I get to peek inside a whole bunch of different varieties and types of companies where I might help one company with their sourcing, another company with their analytical chemistry and choosing methods to support specifications for regulations. And so I think every day there's a new challenge and a new issue that's happening at one of our member companies…It just keeps it spicy, right?”
