Shay DeGrandis is an artist, community herbalist, kitchen medicine maker, plant walker, ancestor talker, funeral celebrant, death doula, drummer in the Southern Italian popolare tradition, storyteller, and accidental comedian based in the Orlando area. She leads local plant walks that help people discover the gifts of the plants often dismissed as "weeds" and teaches courses on incorporating wild plants into everyday food for their nutritional, medicinal, and aesthetic benefits.

In partnership with Sage Mountain, Shay co-teaches a course exploring herbal support for the emotional, spiritual, and nervous system aspects of dying, as well as the role of herbal allies in sacred rituals during the final phase of one’s life. While often attended by caregivers, death-care practitioners, and those interested in approaching mortality with curiosity and intention, the course is intended for anyone who is going to die — that is to say, everyone —particularly those with a willingness to wonder at the ultimate shift in consciousness.

Shay earned a BFA from Florida International University (via New World School of the Arts), an MFA from the University of Maryland, College Park, and studied Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she worked for 20 years. She also produced the Chicago edition of Mortified, preparing everyday people to share the embarrassing journals of their youth with live audiences under the tagline, "Personal redemption through public humiliation."

Between 2016 and 2019, Shay trained with death midwife Angie Buchanan, became a certified funeral celebrant through the Celebrant Foundation & Institute, attended Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School, and served as a hospice volunteer. She completed the Community Herbalist Program through the Florida School of Holistic Living, where she also teaches and helps administer the Community Herbalist Clinic.

Shay's herbal practice centers on compassionate listening and the belief that healing begins with a person's story. She supports physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being through herbal medicine, nutrition, ritual, mindfulness, and creativity, with a particular focus on stress, anxiety, heartbreak, grief, and ancestral tending. As an animist, she is devoted to fostering deeper relationships with plants, the earth, our ancestors, and one another, drawing on these connections to help people live more fully and meet life's transitions with grace and curiosity.