Fall 2025 Community Dinner

Join the Nature and Health community on Tuesday, October 14 for our fall community dinner. Learn about programs, policies, and research that are advancing equitable engagement with nature around Puget Sound. Anyone with an interest in the field of Nature and Health is welcome to join.

Nature and Health Community Dinners include:

  • A plant-based dinner
  • Drinks
  • Networking
  • Short talks from a wide variety of professionals, including researchers, community leaders, policy-makers, program managers, etc.

About Our Guest Speaker

Our Fall 2025 community dinner will feature a talk from Sarah Brandt.

Sarah leads King County Parks’ Environmental Policy & Initiatives section. Her team works to acquire, restore, and steward open space and forestland throughout King County, and ensures that Parks’ work aligns with key conservation, climate, and equity initiatives. Most recently, Sarah helped lead the effort to develop King County’s Parks, Recreation, Trails, and Open Space levy, which received nearly 73% of voter approval in August 2025!

Prior to joining King County, she spent 18 years in private consulting, focusing on environmental planning, technical facilitation, and community engagement. She attended Harvard University, earning a degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy. When not at work, Sarah enjoys a good book, seeing live music, carpooling to her kids’ various sporting events, and encouraging everyone to reap the health benefits of getting outdoors!

At October’s community dinner, Sarah looks forward to sharing:

  1. How participating in this Nature & Health community has unlocked several creative projects and partnerships;
  2. Other King County programs that bridge nature and health; and
  3. Exciting efforts underway as 2026 approaches.

Supported By

Our community gatherings are supported by the REI Cooperative Action Fund. We are extremely grateful to the Fund’s commitment to making the outdoors more accessible and inclusive for everyone.


Spring 2025 Nature and Health Community Dinner

Our June 10, 2025 community dinner featured speed talks from three JPB Environmental Health Fellows. Established in 2014, The JPB Environmental Health Fellowship was developed in response to the urgent need for a new interdisciplinary group of young environmental health leaders. The Fellowship aims to advance the careers of junior faculty from institutions across the U.S. whose research examines the influence of both the social and environmental determinants of health in under-resourced communities. Unique to the program is the inclusion of senior research scientists who are engaged in research, policy and practice at various federal agencies. This shared partnership among academic and agency Fellows serves as a catalyst for innovative research that responds to the health challenges in the communities they serve.

 


Spring 2025 Newsletter

Dear Nature and Health Community,

Here in Seattle, the bigleaf maples are beginning to unfurl their leaves, salmonberry blossoms brighten the trails, and the cheerful calls of yellow warblers once again fill the air—sure signs that spring has truly arrived. After months of gray skies, these familiar sights, scents, and sounds feel especially precious.

In these uncertain times, many of us have found deeper meaning in the comfort of green spaces and the strength of our Nature and Health community. They’ve reminded us how healing it can be to connect—with nature, with one another, and with a shared vision for a more just and accessible outdoors. This May, we’re coming together for a community symposium, and in June, we’ll gather for a community dinner. Both events are designed to inspire, reconnect, and energize our collective work to expand equitable engagement with nature. You’ll find more details below—we’d be honored to have you with us.

The Nature and Health team