Our Team
Dr. Janet Loebach
Director, DECA Lab
Evalyn Edwards Milman Assistant Professor in Child Development
Human Centered Design
Olivia Gillett
Masters Student
Human-Environment Relations, HCD
2026
Assessing Restorative Museum Design: Developing an Audit Tool to Address Museum Fatigue
Jiayi Guo
4th Year Undergrad / PRYDE Scholar 2024-2026
Human Centered Design
2026
Improving children's engagement and interaction with plants in botanic gardens
Della Blossom Alderson
Masters Student
Urban & Regional Planning, CRP
2026
Gender sensitive planning: Designing parks for women and caregivers
Thomas Morgenthaler
Postdoctoral Researcher
Understanding neurodiverse children's experiences to improve outdoor playspaces
Previous Lab Members
Abigail Brown
PhD Student, Human Behavior & Design, 2025
The role of immersive nature experiences in helping youth cope with climate change
Carol Green
Masters Student, Horticulture 2023
Biophilic design with indoor plants to improve wellness of healthcare workers
Chunan Gao
Masters Student,
City & Regional Planning
2021
Children's mobility analysis: Urban vs Rural
Hanfei Sun
Masters Student, City & Regional Planning 2024
Critically assessing seniors housing programs in NYC
Irene Feng
Undergrad PRYDE Scholar in DECALab, 2023-2025
Helping youth reimagine public play spaces through participatory design and research
Julia Jaffe
PhD Student, Human Behavior & Design, 2025
Youth participatory action research and environmental assessments to improve community spaces for youth
Karen Joyce
Masters Student,
Human-Environment Relations, HCD
2024
Co-designing children's playspaces: Evaluating participant priorities and outcomes
Kelsey Coats
Masters Student, City & Regional Planning 2022
Creating healthy communities in rural areas
Luke Kerr
Masters Student, City & Regional Planning, 2025
Age-friendly planning in rural areas
Lydia Camel
Masters Student, Landscape Architecture 2022
Is green space inclusive, and for whom?
Marcus Benoff
Masters Student,
Landscape Architecture II
2024
Guiding the design of affordances for children's play in natural playspaces
Ruth Barankevich
Masters Student, Human-Environment Relations, HCD 2022
The role of the built environment in social interactions and loneliness
Sarah Carillo
Masters Student, City & Regional Planning 2023
Disconnect between young adults with disabilities and NYC's paratransit system
Yu Gu
Masters Student, City & Regional Planning 2021
Evaluating accessibility to public natural outdoor environments in Tompkins County
Zhiyu Zhang
Masters Student, Landscape Architecture 2023
Reimagining public spaces for elderly inhabitants in Guangzhou's historic neighborhoods
Some of Our Partners & Funders
