How Nature Experiences Improve Human Health with Dr. Kathy Wolf

Dr. Kathleen Wolf (she/her) is a research social scientist at the College of the Environment and a researcher with Nature and Health at the University of Washington. Based on theory and methods of environmental psychology, her research explores human response to outdoor spaces in cities. Kathy's mission is to discover, understand, and communicate human behavior and benefits as people experience nature in cities and towns. She was a research associate with the US Forest Service Pacific NW Research Station from 2010-2018 working on studies of social dimensions of urban ecosystems. And she has also worked professionally as a landscape architect and as an environmental planner. Moreover, Kathy is interested in how scientific information can be integrated into local government policy and planning. She has served with national organizations that promote nature-based health and quality of life in cities, such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Sustainable Sites Initiative, the American Planning Association, the TKF Foundation, American Forests and Transportation Research Board national committee on Landscape and Environment. Kathy really enjoys planning, then doing, outdoor adventures with her partner and daughter, a wilderness guide in Alaska.