AC21 - IIC - Part 1: How All Children and Families Can Blossom Through Nature-Based Mindfulness

Maria is deeply committed to and passionate about supporting relationships, especially the earliest ones, with a spirit of nurturing and inquiry. In her current role, she does this through directing the Mindfulness in Early Childhood Project at ZERO TO THREE. Her current work focuses on increasing understanding and use of mindful awareness and compassion strategies in early childhood settings and parenting. As a trained meditation instructor, Maria supports others in discovering creative ways to integrate mindfulness in their parenting, relationships and work.

Michael Yellow Bird, MSW, PhD, is Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba. He is an enrolled member of the MHA Nation (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) in North Dakota, USA. He has held faculty and administrative appointments at the University of British Columbia, University of Kansas, Arizona State University, Humboldt State University, and North Dakota State University. His research focuses on the effects of colonization and methods of decolonization, ancestral health, intermittent fasting, Indigenous mindfulness, neurodecolonization, mindful decolonization, and the cultural significance of Rez dogs. He is the founder, director, and principal investigator of The Centre for Mindful Decolonization and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. He serves as a consultant, trainer, and senior advisor to several BIPOC mindfulness groups and organizations who are seeking to incorporate mindfulness practices, philosophies, and activities to Indigenize and decolonize western mindfulness approaches in order to address systemic racism and engage in structural change.

He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, research reports, and the co-editor of four books: For Indigenous Eyes Only: The Decolonization Handbook, 2005; For Indigenous Minds Only: A Decolonization Handbook, 2012; Indigenous Social Work around the World: towards Culturally Relevant Education and Practice, 2008; and Decolonizing Social Work, 2013. Choice Magazine, selected Decolonizing Social Work as a 2014 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Choice Outstanding Titles are given extraordinary recognition by the academic community and are designated to be “the best of the best.” He is the co-author of two recent books,: A Sahnish (Arikara) Ethnobotany (2020), and Decolonizing Holistic Pathways Towards Integrative Healing in Social Work (2021). His most recent co-authored mindfulness article, Defunding Mindfulness: While We Sit on Our Cushions, Systemic Racism Runs Rampant (October, 2020), can be found at: https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/3715-perspectives-defunding-mindfulness-while-we-sit-on-our-cushions-systemic-racism-runs-rampant

Ashby Leavell is a PhD candidate in Environmental Studies studying loneliness, social connectedness, and prescribing time in nature with the Renee Crown Seed Grant under guidance by Dr. Jill Litt. In the decade prior to coming to CU, Ashby completed a Master's fellowship in Public Horticulture with Longwood Gardens and the University of Delaware and worked in botanic gardens and public park systems in the U.S. and the U.K. as a horticulturalist, educator, administrator, fundraiser, and researcher. Ashby is a Graduate Research Assistant on the Meeting In Nature Together (MINT) study that aims to co-design and test a Nature-Based Social Prescribing (NBSP) intervention for pregnant and parenting adolescents to address loneliness and promote social connection.

Dr. Litt is a Professor of Environmental Health in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder and an Associated Researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). Dr. Litt received her PhD in environmental health and public policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has experience in the area of urban environmental health and neighborhood design. She has worked over the past two decades in the neighborhoods of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Denver in the United States as well as neighborhoods in Barcelona, Spain and Montpellier and Marseille, France on a variety of issues related to neighborhoods and environment health including urban brownfields cleanup and redevelopment, lead poisoning, residential demolition, environmental justice, chemical risk assessment, and most recently, housing, community gardens, neighborhood greening, local food systems, and nature-based social prescribing. As an interdisciplinary researcher, Dr. Litt utilizes the methods of community-based participatory research, epidemiology, risk assessment, and ethnography to study the relationships between residential environments and health. In 2018, Dr. Litt was awarded a fellowship with the European Commission to study the relationships between nearby nature and physical health and mental well-being. She is also PI of a 4-year community-level randomized controlled trial (RCT) of community gardening, entitled Community Activation for Prevention (CAPS). The main outcomes of interest include diet, physical activity, physical health, and mental wellbeing. The study is funded by the American Cancer Society (2017-2020). Most recently, Dr. Litt received the Crown Institute Award to design and test a nature-based social prescribing intervention to address loneliness and social isolation among young people in Denver, Colorado, and was selected for funding by the European Commission Horizon 2020 Program to conduct a five-year study of nature-based social prescribing in six urban areas in Ecuador, Finland, Czech Republic, France, Spain, and Australia.

Dr. Hill (she/her) utilizes neuroscience and her broad Early Childhood experience, to maximize community capacity to cultivate stable, nurturing environments supporting optimal health & well-being in young children and their caregivers. She believes building resiliency is essential for mitigating the negative impacts of trauma and toxic stress on health & well-being, and advancing equity. She also believes change must confront institutionalized racism and empower disenfranchised communities by grounding in community engagement, voice, & shared leadership with families. Dr. Hill’s time at Woodland Park Zoo (Sr. Mgr. Early Childhood), expanded her focus to include building resiliency via relationships with nature, mindfulness, & advancing equity with outdoor opportunities.

Dr. Hill is an: Infant Mental Health Mentor E® (Policy); Founding Member, Academy of ZERO TO THREE Fellows; Faculty, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ Child Abuse & Neglect Institutes; and former Faculty Lead on Policy for the Barnard Center on Infant Mental Health & Development in the University of WA School of Nursing. She is a highly regarded trainer locally, nationally and internationally. She has a: Post-Graduate Certificate in Infant Mental Health from UW SON; PhD in Developmental Psychology from UW; MEd in Speech-Language Pathology from University of VA. She is an actively certified Speech- Language Pathologist having provided clinical services across the lifespan including home visiting early intervention services for Washington State.