Rachel Han is a Ph.D. candidate in Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Washington. After completing her B.S. in Psychology at Yale University, she sought to pursue her interest in early childhood education, especially in learning experiences that foster social-emotional, cultural, and community wellbeing for children and their families. Her current academic and research work are focused on nature-centered and land-based pedagogy for young children. In particular, she is interested in how these outdoor learning environments can be more supportive of children’s different culturally situated ways of knowing and being in nature as well as their caring relationships and practices within local ecological systems.

Rachel supported during the earliest days of the Contentment Foundation. Rachel was part of the original curriculum development team for the Four Pillars of Wellbeing v.1, and she also helped collect, analyze, and publish some of our early data on the efficacy and outcomes of wellbeing in the classroom.