About

Claire Latané (la-ta-nay) is a writer and ecological designer. She is an Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Claire practiced landscape architecture for EPTDESIGN and Studio-MLA before starting her own consultancy: Design with Mental Health in Mind. She applies landscape architecture and neuroscience research connecting designed environments with mental health, safety, academic success, and physical and social outcomes to create healthier school and community environments. Her book Schools That Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind, was released by Island Press in June 2021. This work began with support from the Landscape Architecture Foundation, the Association for Women in Architecture Foundation, the Prevention Institute, and Cal Poly Pomona’s department of landscape architecture. Claire is a founding member of the Los Angeles Living Schoolyard Coalition and founded and organized the year-long Emergency Schoolyard Design Volunteers program with the National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative. In 2021 she founded the Collaborative for Healthy and Inclusive Learning Environments through Cal Poly Pomona’s Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Schools That Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind. Claire Latané. 2021. (Use the code LATANE for 20% off through Island Press)

“Let’s Keep Teaching Outdoors.” In The Progressive. Claire Latané. April 29, 2021.

Schools That Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind. Claire Latané. 2020. Webinar for the National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative.

National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative

Nature Play at Home: Creating Outdoor Spaces that Connect Children to the Natural World, Nancy Striniste. 2019.

Jane Margolies, “The Schoolyard is Sick,” Landscape Architecture Magazine. June 2019.

Physical Activity and Social Behaviors of Urban Children in Green Schoolyards, Dr. Marcella Raney. 2019.

Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives, by Sarah Williams Goldhagen. 2017.

Love and Fear in Los Angeles, by Claire Latané. 2017.

Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, by Sharon Gamson Danks. 2010.

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Attention Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. 2005.