Join Us for Our Spring Member Meeting!

Enjoy drinks, snacks and networking, plus hear quick "speed talks" from some of members in our community working at the intersection of outdoor access, sustainability and equity:

• Ashley Cleveland (Outdoor Auntie) - Ashley is an ecologist turned city planner whose expertise focuses on equity, representation and designing solutions for underserved communities.

• Crystal Chen (Save Our Canyons) - Crystal is an advocate for public lands conservation who worked for years doing geospatial analysis and science communication for national parks.

• Muskan Walia (Utah Youth Environmental Solutions) - Muskan is a student activist who has successfully advocated for local school districts to commit to 100% clean energy transitions.

• Matthew Fry (University of Utah) - Matthew is an environmental geography professor whose research examines human-environment topics through a political ecology lens.

• Jerry Lee (University of Utah) - Jerry is a social and environmental justice researcher focused on park access, outdoor rec, subjective wellbeing and more.

Come learn about their important work, mingle with other engaged community members, and enjoy some light bites and refreshments!

Date: Wednesday, May 8th

Time: 5:00pm - 6:30pm

Location: Tracy Aviary’s Chase Mill (589 E 1300 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84105)

This is a free event open to members and the general public. RSVP below to reserve your spot.

The Office of the VPR and Nature and Human Health Utah invite you to a 2-hour, in-person town hall to interdisciplinary, large-scale research capacity building in the area of the Nature and Human Health at the University of Utah. RSVP is required.

Join us for Nature and Human Health Utah's February Membership Meeting, where we're excited to introduce our newest pilot grant recipients! Learn how these innovative projects are advancing our mission to promote health and well-being through engagement with nature and increasing accessibility to nature. We will also have time for networking and conversations during the event to facilitate opportunities for connection and collaboration amongst organizations working in nature and health. Mark your calendars and join us for to learn about these amazing projects happening in the community. Please register below:

Link to Video Recording

Lincoln Larson, Ph.D.,is an Associate Professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at NC State University. His work is designed to understand and promote positive interactions between humans and nature, covers a range of themes including natural resource management and conservation, environmental education and stewardship, and connections between outdoor recreation, health and well-being. Lincoln will be presenting on “Next steps in nature-based health promotion: What have we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic?

And,

Jay Maddock, PhD, FAAHB, is a professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the School of Public Health at Texas A&M University. He is the Co-Director of the Center for Health & Nature and serves on the Brazos County Board of Health. Jay will introduce the Center for Health and Nature and the work they've done including those they've partnered with, their findings with land access, and valuable insight about what's worked, and what hasn't worked with efforts to make nature accessible to a wide range of the community. 

We are excited to welcome a guest speaker from the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute of the Environment. Carlos Andres works with indigenous populations in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia to bring new and critical understanding to connections between nature and mental health among populations that are typically overlooked by research, which has been focused in urban Western societies. He draws upon a decade of interdisciplinary experience with community leaders, governments, non-governmental organizations and international organizations in Ecuador, Australia, and the U.S. Below is the abstract of the recent paper that Dr. Gallegos RioFrio co-authored.

We will also hear brief progress reports on two of the ongoing pilot projects that are supported by NHH-UT.

And we will briefly discuss plans for a new award for NHH-UT from the REI Cooperative Action Fund.

Alessandro Rigolon, Assistant Professor of City & Metropolitan Planning: “Not a walk in the park: The complex journey toward park equity”

Austin Green, “Community Conservation through Camera-Trapping”

With the help of our pilot grant review team task force, we are pleased to have invited select groups to submit full proposals. As we begin that next stage, we have asked that the teams who will be preparing full proposals present their ideas to the larger group at this meeting. 

We will be hearing from teams represented by: 

Andy Hong

Tracy Hermann

Joanna Bettman-Schaefer

Jeff Rose 

David McNay

Please join us for the third speaker in the inaugural University of Utah Nature and Health Speaker Series! Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier and More Creative, and Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey will speak on Tuesday, April 12 at 4pm (MDT) on Zoom. Ms Williams will share her insights on the research she has done about the links between nature and human health, and field questions from the audience. 

Applications of Virtual Nature in Health Promotion: Opportunities and Limitations

The Links Between Immersive Nature Experiences and Awe on Mental Health and Wellbeing