Award-Winning Research
Since 2022, I have been investigating how viewing nature-focused livestream broadcasts enhance human well-being and social connectedness.
This research received the Gold Award from the Mather Institute for Innovative Research on Aging. It has been featured in articles in The Guardian, Deutche Welle, and through The University of Texas at Arlington. I have been interviewed about it by the Texas Standard radio show and my collaborator, Keith Anderson, has discussed the research on The Last Show with David Cooper (starting at 1:13:36). In April 2026, I will present my research at the Arlington Public Library in Arlington, TX.
- What’s the state of our knowledge about how viewing nature-focused livestreams relates to well-being? Read this article to discover what our review of research conducted through May 2023 or this commentary to learn about future directions in research of nature-focused livestreams.
My current research brings nature-focused livestream broadcasts to groups of older adults in a shared experience that entails connecting to nature, each other, and other online viewers in a program called RASCALs: Reinforcing and Advancing Social Connectedness in Aging Lives. Much of this work is in collaboration with Days at Dunrovin, a platform that provides views from four webcams on a ranch in rural Montana, USA. Below you can read my publications and view my presentations about this research.
- When delivering RASCALs in an assisted living community, my team and I found that viewing nature-focused livestreams in a group was associated with higher levels of social well-being compared to regular group activities. You can read about this research here.
- In a separate article (available upon request), we reported our findings that RASCALs was both feasible and had a variety of positive outcomes for participants.
- Another great outcome from this research was that we applied the framework of Interpretation to implementing RASCALs and share our experiences for innovation in developing, delivering, and evaluating group programs and activities for older adults.
- The presentation below was given at the 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America and discusses how RASCALs was associated with changes in social networks for assisted living residents who attended RASCALs sessions more often.