My name is Elham Nasr-Azadani; you can call me Ellie; a Ph.D. in Geography, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Landscape Architecture. Prior to coming to Penn State for doctorate degree, I earned my bachelor’s and master’s in environmental engineering in Iran. Then I worked as an Environmental Educator for five years and founded the Chaarbagh children’s nature school in Isfahan, where I call home. In 2017, I was selected as one of 30 under 30 EE game-changers by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE).

My research mainly focuses on engaging Landscape Visualization in the form of Immersive Experiences for competency-based sustainability education. We have various ways to define competencies, but as for sustainability, it is a combination of knowledge with skill and attitude, which enables individuals to act and behave concerning the environment. My research will be conducted in the Spring Creek watershed as a smaller section of the Chesapeake Bay. Building competency among stakeholders of this watershed, I expect to achieve better implementation of practices on Earth, which eventually leads to pollution reduction in the Spring Creek watershed and the whole Bay.

During my academic and professional life, I have mainly focused on Environmental Education, Sustainability Education, Competence-Based Education, and in all, facilitating the relationship between nature and modern society. I believe that each person is given specific responsibility for particular work; the duty of individuals is to discover their abilities and their positions according to their talent and capacity. I am sure that as a part of my own responsibility, I have to conserve the environment through direct connection with society, and children, and I am doing my best to achieve these goals.