MaryCarol Hunter

MaryCarol Hunter is an Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources. As a landscape architect and ecologist, her research program encompasses social, psychological and ecological aspects of sustainable urban design. She received a PhD in Ecology from S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook in 1981 and an M.L.A from the University of Georgia in 1999. Current and recently funded work focuses on the role of urban nature on mental wellbeing and extends to studies about a) the impact of spending time in nature on restoration of wellbeing, b) interpretation of preferred scenes in terms of content and spatial configuration, c) the role of neighborhood social facilitation in the development of environmental stewardship, and d) the production of an ecological framework for urban planting design that offers resilience for both personal wellbeing and urban ecosystem function under threat of unpredictable disruptions such as climate change and densification.