Formulary Book Club: The Unconquered

Amy Greeson, BSPharm ’90, has our October ’22 book recommendation, plus a freebie from Dean Kashuba

Story by Ryan McDaniel | Published October 25, 2022

Each month, the Formulary Book Club introduces a staff, student, faculty, or alumni of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and gets their recommendation for a great read.

This month we meet Amy Greeson, a 1990 alumna of the School and former CEO of Natural Discoveries, Inc. Amy’s Formulary Book Club recommendation is The Unconquered by Scott Wallace.

“The book details Scott and his thirty-plus member team in search of an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon. On assignment from National Geographic, Scott describes the many unexpected challenges and issues along the way, forcing them to dig deep within and to work closer as a team, in order to push forward.”

“I love a great nonfiction book that is based on difficult challenges and one that demands a drastic change in thinking and planning. It is life. And it parallels the same difficulties, pursuit, and ambition for every great endeavor… whether you are searching for an uncontacted tribe… or seeking to create the newest antiviral.”

Amy is no stranger to travel adventure or nonfiction writing. She has taken many expeditions with the nonprofit she founded, Healing Seekers. In the past 16 years, she has led a team of porters, trackers, and guides, as well as a film crew, on more than a dozen international expeditions, exploring indigenous medicine in remote tribal villages in unexplored regions of Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, and the Congo. In 2019 she published a memoir of her travels, And the Silent Spoke, which has since garnered national attention with awards from the Nonfiction Authors Association and as the 2019 Winner Multicultural Nonfiction Award by American Book Fest.

“This book is a fascinating glimpse into the world of natural medicine in other cultures,” says Dean Angela Kashuba. “Amy’s adventures and experiences to seek out active compounds are so incredible, I was compelled to read this book twice!”

In 2018, a documentary produced by Healing Seekers about the two-month long 2016 Congo trek, ‘Expedition Congo’, was released. It soon garnered 11 national and international film festival awards. Six other educational video productions have received Telly Awards.

In 2019, Amy was inducted as a Fellow into the prestigious ‘The Explorers Club’ in New York. In 2020, she was inducted into the esteemed ‘Society of Woman Geographers’ in Washington, D.C.

Looking ahead, Amy will continue to embrace her passion for seeking novel compounds, working with Wake Forest University analyzing plants using mass spectromety.