Ina Vandebroek

Ina Vandebroek is an ethnobotanist working in the areas of floristics, ethnobotany and community health. Since 2005, she has worked at the New York Botanical Garden in the Institute of Economic Botany. She has worked on ethnobotanical projects in North America, the Caribbean, and South America.

Education

In 1991, Vandebroek received a BSc. in biology from Ghent University in Belgium with research in the fields of morphology and systematics. Her undergraduate dissertation was on the effects of naloxone and apomorphine on captivity-induced stereotyped behavior in the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus). In 1998, she received a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from Ghent University with a graduate dissertation titled "Research into the neurobiochemical background of captivity-induced stereotyped behavior in the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus): ethopharmacology and intra-cerebral microdialysis".

Career

Ghent University

From 2000 until 2002, Vandebroek worked as a postdoctoral researcher and was the lead researcher on a project funded by the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology of the Belgian government through Ghent University. The project was based in Bolivia and known as "Medicinal Plant Explorations in the Andes and Amazon Regions of Bolivia Ethnographic and ethnobotanical research was conducted in a traditional farming community in the Andes and in indigenous communities in the Amazon in Bolivia." She summarized the results as follows. "The results demonstrated that knowledge held by traditional healers about medicinal plants can also be high in an environment such as the Andes that is significantly affected by human activity and is less diverse as compared to the tropical rainforest.