Thriving Nature Virtual Panel
MAY 5, 1-2:30 VIA ZOOM
While engaging with nature has demonstrable benefits to mental health, evidence is also emerging that concern for our changing environment and the health of the planet contributes to people’s anxiety. Thus, we need to consider how engaging with nature can help us thrive, but also how we can engage to help nature thrive. In recognition of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, Brushwood Center has partnered with Nature, Culture and Human Health to explore the mental health impacts of climate change. Panelists include Elena Grossman and N. Masani Landfair, scientist and artist from Third Coast Disrupted, Cassandra Powell, and Dr. Louise Chawla.
While engaging with nature has demonstrable benefits to mental health, evidence is also emerging that concern for our changing environment and the health of the planet contributes to people’s anxiety. Thus, we need to consider how engaging with nature can help us thrive, but also how we can engage to help nature thrive. In recognition of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, Brushwood Center has partnered with Nature, Culture and Human Health to explore the mental health impacts of climate change. Panelists include Elena Grossman and N. Masani Landfair, scientist and artist from Third Coast Disrupted, Cassandra Powell, and Dr. Louise Chawla.
Panelists:
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Elena Grossman is the Program Director for the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects in Illinois (BRACE-Illinois) Project. BRACE-Illinois is a partnership between the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and the Illinois Department of Public Health to help prepare Illinois for the health effects from climate change. She is very interested in built environment and nature-based solutions, climate change and health communication strategies, and climate and health equity. In her free time, she is an avid biker, gardener, eater of delicious foods, and enjoys dance party breaks in the kitchen with her wife and 2-year old son. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala, re-ceived her BA from Franklin and Marshall College, and her MPH from University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.
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N. Masani Landfair's work explores the impact of years of living in a chronically flooded home on Chicago’s South Side and her efforts to heal. She will discuss the role nature figures in her art, daily life, and efforts to heal, both mentally and physically. Her work has shown at the Museum of Science Industry’s Black Creativity (first place winner), Zhou B. Art Center, Prizm Art Fair, Global Art Project in Italy and Mexico, Prizm Art Fair, the San Francisco In-ternational Arts Festival, Miyako Yoshinaga and is in the collection of the Illinois State Museum. N. Masani Landfair lives and works between Chicago and Northern Georgia.
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Cassandra Powell is a Professor of Linguistics and Communications. She has earned five academic degrees and two Master’s level certifications. As a PTSD survivor, Cassandra provides access to tools that can help us to be in great contact with ourselves and our world through self-love and self-acceptance. In addition, through the non-profit organization she founded in Chicago in 2017, Light of Loving Kindness, Cassandra’s goal is to provide access to hope, health, healing, and wholeness to communities that are underserved and trauma-affected through holistic integrative solutions.
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Louise Chawla, PhD, is professor emerita in the Program in Environmental Design and a current Fellow of the Community Engagement, Design and Research (CEDaR) Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. She serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Children and Nature Network, as she has conducted ex-tensive research on the importance of engaging with nature for healthy child and youth development. Her most recent book, co-authored with Victoria Derr and Mara Mintzer, is Placemaking with Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities (New Village Press, 2018), which won the 2019 Achievement Award from the Environmental Design Research Association.
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