Steering Committee

Gregory Bratman (he/him) is the director of the Environment and Well-Being Lab in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. He also has adjunct positions in the Departments of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and the Department of Psychology. His work takes place at the nexus of psychology, public health, and ecology, and is focused on investigating the ways in which the environment is associated with human health. He takes both empirical and theoretical approaches to understand how nature experience impacts outcomes related to well-being, including inflammatory biomarkers, physiology, cognitive function, mood, and emotion regulation, with an emphasis on people living in urban environments. He is also working to inform the ways that the mental health effects of nature can be incorporated into ecosystem service studies, and in efforts to address health inequities. Gregory is a Senior JPB Harvard Environmental Health Fellow and the Doug Walker Endowed Professor.

N&H publications Gregory’s website Google Scholar profile

Howie is a physician and epidemiologist with a longstanding interest in the health benefits of nature contact.  He also works on the health implications of climate change and of the built environment. He realized, embarrassingly late, that these topics are all connected. He pursues these connections through a Planetary Health framework, working toward a vision of a healthy, sustainable, and equitable world.

N&H publications  Howard’s website Google Scholar Profile

Michelle Johnson-Jennings, a Choctaw Nation-enrolled tribal member, serves as a UW full professor and director of the division of environmentally-based health and land-based healing at the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute. She holds joint/affiliate appointments at the University of Colorado’s School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Waikato. As a clinical health psychologist, her therapeutic expertise lies in working with Indigenous communities and decolonizing healing approaches. She has partnered and received large-scale funding with many international and national Indigenous nations, organizations, and communities. Together they have co-developed health interventions entrenched in ancestral guidelines to encourage a renewed commitment to health and revitalize land-based healing practices.

N&H publications Michelle’s website Google Scholar Profile

Psychologist Peter Kahn is the director of the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems (HINTS) Lab at the UW, where he explores two trends that are reshaping human existence. One is the rapid degradation of the natural world. The other is the speed of technological development, both in terms of its computational sophistication and pervasiveness. Peter and his team look at how interaction with nature benefits people physically and psychologically, the psychological effects of technologies that simulate, mediate, or argument nature, and using deep and meaningful interaction with nature to revision and contribute to urban sustainability.

N&H publications Peter’s website Google Scholar Profile

Josh Lawler (he/him) is an ecologist driven by applied conservation questions and their real-world applications, with a focus on climate change and land-use change. His work explores how climate change affects animals and plants as well as the ways that human health, climate, and the environment are connected.

N&H publications Josh’s website Google Scholar Profile

Dr. Edmund Seto is a professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. He received his PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the quantification of exposures and risk as they relate to environmental and occupational health. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial methods, mathematical models, and novel information technologies, Dr. Seto has conducted exposure assessments for built environment studies of air pollution and noise exposures, as well as assessments of exposures to infectious agents in global health contexts.

A computer scientist by training, Dr. Seto and his lab group explore new technologies such as the use of mobile devices and low-cost sensor systems to infer the relationship between individual and population behaviors and how they relate to exposures to environmental and workplace hazards. Dr. Seto’s rapid prototyping lab fosters interdisciplinary collaboration to create new technologies to improve public health.

Before coming to the University of Washington, he was associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley. He co-directed the UC Berkeley Health Impact Group to advance the field of Health Impact Assessment. He also served as associate faculty Director for the UC Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).

Dr. Seto currently serves as director of the UW Center for Environmental Health Equity, a US EPA- and DOE-funded Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC) for EPA Region 10 states (AK, ID, OR and WA).

N&H publications Edmund’s website Google Scholar Profile

Usha Varanasi was the science and research director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Northwest Fisheries Science Center from 1994-2010, where she was the first woman to lead a fisheries field office. She also served from 2004-2010 as the director of NOAA’s Westcoast Center of Excellence for Ocean and Human Health which was dedicated to studying and informing policymakers how the degradation of oceans and aquatic ecosystems can affect the health and well-being of people. Currently, as the College of the Environment Distinguished Scholar in Residence, she is interested in the projects on the boundary of science and policy that define and encourage positive engagement of people with nature.

N&H publications Usha’s website

Spencer is a senior research scientist with EarthLab in the UW College of the Environment, where he studies the ways that people interact with and benefit from nature. Recently he has been researching outdoor recreation, using empirical and mathematical approaches to model the distributions, behaviors, and preferences of park visitors.

N&H publications Spencer’s website Google Scholar Profile