The Department is pleased to welcome Claire Latané ASLA, LEED AP, SITES AP to our tenure-track faculty. Claire is a writer, community advocate, and ecological designer. She applies research connecting designed environments with mental health and safety to design school and everyday environments with empathy. Working with both EPTDESIGN and Studio-MLA for twelve years, Claire is now focusing on design strategies to support mental health and well being. As one of six inaugural Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellows for innovation and leadership, she explored the connection between high school design and mental health. She organized the first Designing Schools for Mental Health Workshop with support from the Prevention Institute, Cal Poly Pomona’s Department of Landscape Architecture, LA Unified School District, and a number of nonprofit organizations to bring together designers, educators, mental health professionals, and environmental justice groups. A mid-career fellowship from the Association for Women in Architecture Foundation supported her in developing school design strategies based on love instead of fear. Her book on designing K-12 schools to support mental health and well-being will be published by Island Press in 2020 or 2021. Claire earned her BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her Master of Landscape Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona.