An Evening with NatureBridge

A firm believer that nature is human right, pediatrician and researcher Dr. Nooshin Razani has dedicated her career to connecting children to nature. The founder and director of the Center for Nature and Health, based at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Dr. Razani is a passionate advocate of the healing power of nature—particularly for those who do not have access to green spaces.

The Center for Nature and Health is the very first nature-based clinic in the U.S. that’s connected to a major health provider. The team conducts original nature research, offers clinical care outdoors and provides resources for other health care practitioners to bring nature into their practices. For nearly six years, Dr. Razani has been prescribing time in nature to not just her patients, but their parents as well—a slowly growing practice in the field that has seen incredible results. This prescription, made possible in collaboration with a number of community partners and parks, includes a monthly nature shuttle enrollment. Currently, Dr. Razani is leading a team of clinicians conducting a randomized clinical trial to examine how to operationalize a park prescription program in a low-income setting.

Dr. Razani is an attending physician at UCSF Beniofff Oakland’s Ambulatory Department and Assistant Clinical Scientist at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI). She attended medical school at University of California San Francisco, completed a pediatric residency at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, and has a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Razani has conducted primary research on the clinical applications of nature; given presentations about nature and health across the U.S., and published peer reviewed articles about the topic.