With a background in landscape architecture, dance, ecological design and global health research, Leann's work fuses the arts and sciences in community activism that examines how the built environment can be artfully designed and stewarded to mutually improve human and ecological health and address systemic social equity and environmental issues. At Penn State, Leann Andrews leads courses on community design, social equity, landscape materials and One Health. Leann co-founded the design activism non-profit Traction that bridges research and practice in transdisciplinary action research. Her practice and research works with vulnerable communities around the world including informal communities in Iquitos Peru and Seattle WA, and her research has found measurable community improvements in food and water security, anxiety and depression, biodiversity, nutrition, diarrhea risk and more. Leann was an NIH Fogarty Global Health Scholar, an LAF National Olmsted Scholar and she completed her bachelors at The Ohio State University and graduate degrees from the University of Washington.

View a video of Leann’s work: https://youtu.be/CWgel2X6MoE