THE CDH TEAM
Jenny Roe
Director of the Center for Design + Health
Jenny Roe is the inaugural Mary Irene DeShong Professor of Design and Health and the Director of the Center of Design and Health with a multi-disciplinary background in the humanities, design and environmental psychology. She is the former Senior Research Leader in Human Wellbeing and Behaviour Change for the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) where she worked with environmental scientists and health professionals to explore how best to build sustainable, resilient and healthy cities.
Jenny is a Landscape Architect and Environmental Psychologist who explores the interactions between people and their environment. She is a specialist researcher in restorative environments and places that actively improve our health, such as high quality urban parks, water settings, and well designed buildings with good daylight. She has built a reputation for pioneering innovative methods in disadvantaged communities in order to quantify the health benefits of good neighborhood design and green space, using physiological indicators such as cortisol – the stress hormone – and mobile Electroencephalography (EEG) to explore emotional activity on the move.
Prior to her current career in academia, she was Principal Landscape Architect in a multi-disciplinary architectural practice in London called Sprunt specializing in social housing, educational and healthcare design. Access to all her publications, blog postings and films can be found at jennyjroe.com.
REUBEN Rainey
Co-Director of the Center for Design and Health
Reuben M. Rainey, Ph.D., is William Stone Weedon Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture, where he has taught for 40 years. His present courses focus on the design of various types of healthcare facilities. He is the Co-Director of the School of Architecture’s Center for Design and Health and has engaged in a number of research projects centering on the design of patient-centered medical facilities and healthy neighborhoods and cities. A former professor of religious studies at Columbia University and Middlebury College, he entered the field of landscape architecture in mid-career. His publications cover a wide range of topics, including 19th and 20th century urban parks and the work of 20th-century American landscape architects. His co-authored book on the garden of the Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer received an honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. A documentary filmmaker as well, he co-produced the PBS series GardenStory, depicting the way gardens improve the lives of individuals and their communities. A recipient of five teaching awards, he is also a member of the Council of Fellows of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He is the co-author of Architecture as Medicine, a critique of the design features of an innovative cancer hospital at the University of Florida, Gainesville. His current research focuses on the use of art in healthcare facilities to reduce stress and the design of spaces for worship and meditation in acute care hospitals. He was awarded the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award by the UVA School of Architecture.
TIM Beatley
Senior Director of the Center for Design and Health
Timothy Beatley is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where he has taught for the last twenty-five years. Much of Beatley’s work focuses on the subject of sustainable communities, and creative strategies by which cities and towns can fundamentally reduce their ecological footprints, while at the same time becoming more livable and equitable places. Beatley believes that sustainable and resilient cities represent our best hope for addressing today’s environmental challenges. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Biophilic Cities and the Senior Director of the Center for Design + Health.
SCHAEFFER Somers
Associate Director of the Center for Design and Health
Schaeffer Somers is a registered architect and assistant professor in Architecture and Public Health at the University of Virginia. Schaeffer incorporates a human-centered approach in all of his research and teaching in the Schools of Architecture and Medicine. His current research focus in Architecture concerns the design of healthcare environments. His courses in Public Health Sciences explore evidence-based and collaborative research methods with the goal of creating a healthy, equitable and resilient future.
JULIE Mollica
Affiliated Researcher
Julie is a PhD student in the Constructed Environment Program at the University of Virginia where she investigates the psychological and neurophysiological impacts of the built environment on stress.
JAMES Barnes
Affiliated Researcher
James is a PhD candidate in the Constructed Environment Program at the University of Virginia where he investigates human engagement with biodiversity in the context of learning environments. His work responds to the trend of adolescence (and broader society) becoming increasingly disconnected from our surrounding, often declining ecosystems. Through a “More than Human” architectural frame that centers plants, he postulates that design-mediated plant ecologies could produce novel landscape possibilities that encourage positive trans-species interactions and support broader sustainability goals. His dissertation interrogates this through plant-based tactical urbanism installations at a 1:1 scale, situated in a K-5 schoolyard. This work draws from methods in horticulture, fabrication and computation, behavioral science, education, and entomology. James’s research is tangible and applied, aiming to shift landscape management paradigms through scalable interventions. Yet it also seeks to theoretically intertwine the practices of science & design through the neutral territory of plants.
CHRIS Neale
Affiliated Research Fellow
Chris is experienced in undertaking various research projects looking to understand the impact of external factors on health and wellbeing outcomes. He brings experience and expertise in running research studies from lab settings to ‘real world’ settings in participant groups across the lifespan. He is also experienced in the administration of various technology, such as neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG) and/or tasks to understand health and wellbeing outcomes in participants.
Having completed his post-doctoral fellowship, Chris continues to collaborate with the Center for Design + Health from his current post as Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom.