People

Jessica Pratt is a community ecologist and teaching professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. She is broadly interested in the application of ecological theory to environmental problem-solving, what some might call Conservation Science, and in effective pedagogy to train the next generation of environmental leaders and Earth stewards. She primarily teaches courses in the undergraduate Minor in Global Sustainability and the Masters in Conservation and Restoration Science program.

Dr. Pratt’s research interests are motivated by a deep desire for improved environmental literacy in K-12 education, greater self-efficacy and transfer of knowledge to action in our emerging environmental leaders (e.g. college students), and increasing diversity and representation of minoritized groups within education and the environmental sciences. Dr. Pratt’s current research examines the affective dimensions (i.e. emotions, moods, attitudes) of learning and working in the environmental and climate justice space. She seeks to understand the emotional responses that students have to learning about the state of the environment and how faculty can best address these emotions in the classroom. Through her research and teaching, she hopes to develop effective approaches to teaching about planetary crises while also instilling critical hope, emotional resilience, and a determined self-efficacy in her students.

When not working, Jessica can be found spending time in nature, hitting the trails with her puppies, out on the soccer field with her kiddos, cooking from her home garden, on her yoga mat, or tucked in with a good book and cup of tea. All of which are effective coping strategies for her own ecological grief and climate anxiety.

Greenscore Podcast interview, Climate Anxiety – Turning tough feelings into real change – in which Jessica describes her eco-grief research and coping strategies for climate anxiety.

Earth Day 2021 Webinar, Confronting Eco-grief and Climate-anxiety in the Undergraduate Classroom – in which Jessica presents her approaches and research on the effectiveness of addressing these topics in her classes.

Earth Day 2022 Webinar, Let’s Learn – the Connection of Nature and Wellbeing – in which Jessica presents research on the benefits nature to human wellbeing.

From Existential Crisis to Action Planning – Building Individual and Community Resilience, in An Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators (book chapter in press)

Dr. Mahtab Jafari is professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Founding Director of “The UCI Center for Healthspan Sciences”, and the Equity Advisor at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. She is also a Master Certified Health Coach and a Nationally Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

She received her Doctorate in Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) and completed her residency at the University of California, San Francisco.

She has 29 years of experience in basic, translational, data mining, educational, and clinical sciences research in academic and private settings.  Over the past 19 years, using fruit flies and mice as her main model systems in her research laboratory, her research has focused on identifying and evaluating botanicals and dietary supplements that extend lifespan and improve healthspan through a science that she introduced as Healthspan Pharmacology.

In the main 3 courses that Mahtab teaches at UCI, Life101: Mental and Physical Self-Care, Healthspan Sciences, and Evidence-Based Self-Care, she emphasizes the importance of science-based interventions to improve healthspan. The living lab for her educational research is the Life101 course where she evaluates the impact of intervention such as Nature Therapy on the mental health of her students. Life101 is offered to students on all 10 University of California campuses and for free on the Coursera platform (coursera.com).

Dr. Jafari has evaluated the impact of nature therapy on her students’ mental health. At UCI, she encourages students to walk through Aldrich Park to practice nature therapy. In the 2020-21 academic year, during the peak of pandemic induced stress, she offered Life101 every quarter. She saw a 107% increase in the practice of nature therapy among the 18,00 students who took this course.

Dr. Jafari is also passionate about educating the community about topics on scientific wellness and is the author of the award-winning book, “The Truth About Dietary Supplements: An Evidence-Based Guide to a Safer Medicine Cabinet”.

When not working, Mahtab can be found spending time in nature, mountain biking, at the farmers market to find ingredients for her cooking, beekeeping, spending time with her sons, or reading a book with a cup of good herbal tea.

Nature as Medicine, A plenary presentation at the National Academy of Sciences and Medicine workshop: “What has been learned about how to integrate public health and nature into research, policy, and practice to foster resilience?”
Minute 43: National Academy of Sciences workshop

Life101: Mental and Physical Self-Care (Free on Coursera)

New York Times. October 31, 2023. Should I be taking supplements?

New York Times. September 13, 2023. What Can Turmeric Actually Do for Your Health?

Forbes Health Interview. June 20, 2023. Best Turmeric Supplements of 2023, According to Experts.

NPR Interview. May 1, 2023. A Recent Study Pulled Back The Curtain On Melatonin Supplements – What’s A Bad Sleeper To Do?

Benis Egoh is an Assistant Professor in the Dept of Earth System Science (ESS) at the University of California, Irvine. She is an expert in modeling, mapping and valuing ecosystem services, the benefits humans get from nature. She applies her modeling work within the context of prioritizing areas such as protected areas and restoration areas for conservation action as well as understanding human impacts.  She is also interested in the links between ecosystem services and human health and acted as a reviewer for WWF’s “One Health” framework.  As an interdisciplinary scientist, her work cuts across various disciplines, including but not limited to conservation, restoration, economics, hydrology and health. She has a strong focus on policy and was actively involved in the development of a framework for mapping ecosystem services that is currently being used in 27 European Union (EU) countries. She was a committee member on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) workshop on Integrating Public and Ecosystem Health Systems to Foster Resilience. She is the coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)’s Business and Biodiversity Assessment and an executive member for the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), a vibrant global network of about 3000 scientists. Benis is widely published and has generated several well cited peer reviewed papers and policy documents (>13000 citations).

Coming soon…

Lizzie Braver is a third-year Social Ecology major and Global Sustainability minor. She is incredibly passionate about the environment and sustainability, but also deeply interested in psychology and research. Through this intersection, she hopes to continue into a career in research science, exploring how psychology can be used to better understand human responses to climate change and improve social and behavioral strategies to mitigate and adapt to environmental issues. She is currently conducting her own independent research project related to individuals’ wildfire experience and climate change engagement through UCI’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).

She is enrolled as a student in Dr. Pratt’s Global Sustainability capstone sequence, where she initially met Dr. Pratt and started getting acquainted with her work. Inspired by Dr. Pratt’s projects and the alignment of their interests, Lizzie became Dr. Pratt’s research assistant to actively contribute to these ongoing projects.

Beyond her involvement with Dr. Pratt, Lizzie serves as a research assistant in Dr. Oliver Sng’s Evolution, Culture, and Stereotyping Lab as well as in the Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship under Dr. Maureen Purcell. Additionally, she is an intern at Orange County Coastkeeper in their Research and Advocacy division.