Louise Chawla, professor emerita in the Program in Environmental Design and CEDaR fellow, received a 2020 SHIFT (Shaping How We Invest for Tomorrow) Award for Research for her investigations of connections between access to nature, children’s health and wellbeing, and childhood sources of lifelong care for the natural world. Established in 2014 and based in the nonprofit organization, the Center for Jackson Hole, SHIFT highlights connections between public health and public lands, in urban as well as rural areas, and makes the case for community greening and the protection of natural lands as a component of comprehensive health care, with attention to environmental justice and social equity. The mission of SHIFT is to bring together researchers, advocates for outdoor recreation and land conservation, and members of the health care industry to identify how time spent outdoors in nature benefits the health and wellbeing of all people. As an award recipient, Chawla’s work will be featured at the annual SHIFT Festival in October, this year to be held virtually, which convenes hundreds of participants from across the nation.
Read more about Louise Chawla's research, recently published in the British Ecological Society Journal People and Nature.