Founder & Partners

Founder and Director

Claire Latané, MLA, FASLA, LEED AP, SITES AP
calatane@cpp.edu 

Claire Latané (la-ta-nay) is a writer and ecological designer. She is Associate Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Claire practiced landscape architecture for EPTDESIGN and Studio-MLA before starting her own consultancy: Design with Mental Health in Mind. She applies landscape architecture and neuroscience research connecting designed environments with mental health, safety, academic success, and physical and social outcomes to create healthier school and community environments. Her book Schools That Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind, is a call to action and a practical resource to envision and implement nurturing and inspiring school environments that support health, equity, and climate resilience. This work began with support from the Landscape Architecture Foundation, the Association for Women in Architecture Foundation, the Prevention Institute, and Cal Poly Pomona's department of landscape architecture. Claire is a founding member of the Los Angeles Living Schoolyard Coalition and founded and organized the year-long Emergency Schoolyard Design Volunteers program with the National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative. In 2021 she founded the Collaborative for Healthy and Inclusive Learning Environments through Cal Poly Pomona's Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies.

Research Partner

Marci Raney, PhD

Marci Raney, PhD, is currently a Senior Program Manager in the Office of Well-Being at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and former Associate Professor of Kinesiology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She is a Certified Exercise Physiologist and Certified Playground Safety Inspector. She has over a decade of experience collaborating with public health departments, school districts, hospitals, and nonprofits to evaluate employee-, community-, and school-based health promotion interventions. Marci's research on students' social and physical behavior is shaping the best design practices for healthy and inclusive schoolyards. She is a founding member of the Los Angeles Living Schoolyard Coalition and collaborates with Green Schoolyards America, the California Department of Education, and local and regional schools and districts.

Assistant Director

Debbie Scheider
dascheider@cpp.edu 

Debbie Scheider joins CHILE with more than 20 years of administrative, operational and outreach experience at the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, the California State University system’s first carbon-neutral facility. She coordinates community tours of the 16-acre facility, as well as facilitate school visits for K-8 students from area school districts, most notably the Pomona Unified School District. Scheider also oversees the Lyle Center Randall Lewis Fellowship Program, which utilizes the interdisciplinary talents of each cohort to enhance the Center’s food production activities and to support Cal Poly Pomona’s Poly Pantry Program, which is part of a comprehensive campus initiative to combat food insecurity.

Her university contributions involve her participation in the CPP Climate Task Force, compilation of the CPP GHG inventory and writing the CPP Climate Action Plan (2007-2014); and coordinating the Lyle Center Regenerative Communities Initiative and Fellowship Program (2011-2017).