Steering Committee

Our Steering Committee is an interdisciplinary group of volunteers from diverse backgrounds. Each member brings a unique perspective that helps shape the Center’s strategy and programming. We are grateful for the richness they add to our work.

Gregory Bratman, PhD (he/him)

– Co-director, UW Center for Nature and Health
– Associate professor, UW Environmental and Forest Sciences
– Director, UW Environment and Well-Being Lab
– Senior JPB Harvard Environmental Health Fellow
– Doug Walker Endowed Professor

Gregory is the director of the Environment and Well-Being Lab in the UW 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

Dr. Howard Frumkin, DrPH, MPH (he/him)

– Professor Emeritus, UW Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
– Board of Directors, Washington State Academy of Sciences

Dr. Frumkin, a physician and epidemiologist, is Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Previously he was head of the Our Planet, Our Health initiative at the Wellcome Trust (2018-19), Dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health (2010-16), Director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2005-10), and Professor and Chair of Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University (1990-2005). His career has focused on health aspects of the built environment, climate change, energy policy, nature contact, and sustainability. He is the author or co-author of over 250 scientific journal articles and chapters, and his nine books include Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-Being, and Sustainability (Island Press, 2011), Environmental Health: From Global to Local (Jossey-Bass, 3rd Edition 2016), and Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves (Island Press, 2020).

N&H publications Howard’s website Google Scholar Profile

Michelle Johnson-Jennings, PhD, EdM (Choctaw Nation), (she/her)

– Co-director, Indigenous Wellness Research Institute
– Professor, UW School of Social Work

Michelle, 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

Peter Kahn, PhD (he/him)

– Director, HINTS Lab
– Faculty, UW Department of Psychology

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, PhD (he/him)

– Co-director, UW Center for Nature and Health
– Orin and Althea Soest Professor
– Faculty director, UW Botanic Gardens
– Professor, UW Environmental and Forest Sciences
– Director, UW Landscape Ecology and Conservation Lab

Josh 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

Edmund Seto, PhD (he/him)

– Professor, UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
– Co-director, UW Center for Environmental Health Equity
– Deputy director, UW Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomics & Environment (EDGE)

Edmund is a professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. 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, Edmund 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, Edmund 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. His rapid prototyping lab fosters interdisciplinary collaboration to create new technologies to improve public health.

N&H publications Edmund’s website Google Scholar Profile

Usha Varanasi, PhD (she/her)

– Affiliate faculty, UW School of Aquatics and Fishery Sciences

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 Wood, PhD (he/him)

– Principal research scientist, EarthLab
– Director, UW Outdoor Recreation and Data Lab

Spencer is a principal 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

Former Steering Committee Members

To our former Steering Committee members — thank you! Your insights and steady guidance helped shape the Center’s mission and vision in ways we still feel today. We’re genuinely grateful for the time and guidance you shared.

Jesús Aguirre (he/him)

– Superintendent, Seattle Parks and Recreation

Jesús began his career as a middle school science teacher in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. Most recently, he served as the State Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, overseeing an agency responsible for childcare licensing and subsidy programs for over 500 childcare providers, statewide K-12 education policy-making, support and accountability for over 200 public schools, and post-secondary and adult education. Prior to his role as State Superintendent of Education, Aguirre served as the director of the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation.

Aguirre has been Superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation since May 2015 and takes great pride in the agency’s focus on healthy people, a healthy environment, and strong communities. Seattle Parks includes 6,200 acres of park land (11% of the city’s land total) and 24 miles of shoreline.

Dr. Carolyn Parsey (she/her)

– Assistant professor, UW Department of Neurology
– Neuropsychologist, UW Medicine

Carolyn Parsey, ABPP-CN, believes that patient care should be collaborative. She is passionate about non-pharmacological interventions for cognition, and helping those with neurodegenerative conditions remain engaged mentally and physically, as well as living independently, for as long as possible.

Publications Website

Dr. Pooja Sarin Tandon, MPH (she/her)

– Associate professor of pediatrics, UW School of Medicine
– Adjunct associate professor, UW School of Public Health
– Researcher, Seattle Children’s Research Institute
– Health director, Trust for Public Land

Dr. Tandon is a general pediatrician and health researcher who has dedicated her career to advancing children’s health by promoting healthy behaviors and reducing disparities. In particular, her work has focused on play equity, and promoting access to physical activity and outdoor recreation.

In her book, Digging into Nature: Outdoor Adventures for Happier and Healthier Kids, Dr. Tandon explores how and why children and their families are happier, healthier, and more resilient when spending time outdoors.

Dr. Tandon was the senior author of a landmark 2021 paper in the journal Pediatrics, on the relationship between nature contact and children’s health. She has published numerous other research papers including a study on the correlation between park access and mental health among parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic, and synthesis of research on nature-based engagement by Latinos in the United States.

She has served on the Board of Directors of Islandwood, a leading environmental education center in the Pacific Northwest, and on Washington state’s Parks Rx Legislative Task Force, where she worked to develop a pilot statewide “Parks Prescription” program. Dr. Tandon also co-founded the Climate Change CARE Committee for the Department of Pediatrics Committee at the University of Washington School of Medicine and led her division’s Diversity in Hiring working group. Her powerful TEDx talk titled “The Power of Belonging in Nature” underscores her commitment to ensuring that every individual has the right to play, learn, and thrive in the outdoors.

Publications Website