2015 AHPA Awards

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) presented the 2015 AHPA Awards to individuals and companies that have made substantive, positive contributions to the herbal products industry during AHPA's Annual Member Meeting and Breakfast held March 5 at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California.

 

This year's AHPA Award winners are:

Dick Griffin, former owner of Grifcon Enterprises, was awarded the AHPA Herbal Hero Award in recognition of the tremendous benefits that his insurance programs provided to the dietary supplement industry.

James Prochnow, a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, presented the award highlighting that Griffin "is one of the pioneers of developing product liability insurance for the dietary supplement industry." Prochnow also noted that Griffin has been a generous and active supporter of AHPA.

In accepting the award, Griffin said, "Everything I've helped to accomplish was possible thanks to the support from others in the industry." 



Mountain Rose Herbs was presented the AHPA Herbal Industry Leader Award for taking steps above and beyond normal business practices to advance the herbal products industry. The award was presented by Beth Lambert, CEO of Herbalist & Alchemist to Mountain Rose Herbs Co-President Shawn Donnille and other employees of the company.

"Mountain Rose Herbs is raising the bar for environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility," Lambert said. She also highlighted the company's support of educational events and industry initiatives.

Donnille noted that the company has borrowed best-practices from companies that came before him and attributed Mountain Rose's success to what they learned from these companies. He also recognized the dedicated staff who helped build the company into the industry leader it is today.



Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., was awarded the AHPA Herbal Insight Award in recognition of her efforts to significantly increase and further knowledge and understanding of botanicals and their uses.

Dr. Low Dog is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of dietary supplements, herbal medicine, women's health and natural medicine. She has spoken at more than 550 scientific/medical conferences, published 40 peer-reviewed articles, and written 20 chapters for medical textbooks.

Roy Upton, founder and executive director of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, presented the award and described Dr. Low Dog as a "moving force of change" in the world of integrative medicine.

"I am humbled and privileged to be a part of this community," Dr. Low Dog said when receiving the award. "If others better understood the intimate connection we have to plants, it would be a much different world."