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Ryan Lumber

Ryan Lumber

Senior Lecturer

School of Social Sciences

Role

Senior Lecturer in Psychology  (Mental Health)

Career overview

Ryan is a senior lecturer in psychology, having worked in Higher Education since 2013. His research has focussed on the psychological construct of nature connectedness and its associated wellbeing, mental health, and pro-nature behavioural outcomes, specifically how people can reconnect with nature through the five pathways of senses, emotion, meaning, compassion, and beauty, a framework he created in his PhD in 2016. This Pathways Framework has been applied by organisations across the world including the National Trust, the Wildlife Trusts, Durrell Conservation Trust, and the New Zealand Department for Conservation, with Ryan working as an advisor on their application and research partner. After working at other Higher Education institutions, Ryan joined NTU in May 2022.

Research areas

Alongside continued work researching and applying the Pathways, Ryan is currently conducting research with collaborators in conservation and ecological disciplines on citizen science and working with the VIA Institute on Character on research and applied projects. Ryan is particularly interested in applying the Pathways Framework within wider society including how it can benefit higher education institutions, and its potential for benefitting mental health within greencare/social prescribing.

External activity

Ryan has worked on evaluation projects for Derby Museum, the National Trust and Wildlife Trusts and was also a member of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trusts’ Conservation Advisory panel. Presently, Ryan is a member of external groups, notably the QUENCH Network and the Nature Connectedness Network, and acts as an advisor for the International Alliance for Nature Connected Practitioners.

Sponsors and collaborators

Dr Holli-Anne Passmore Concordia University of Edmonton

Dr Ryan Niemiec, VIA Institute on Character

Dr Rodney King, Natural Wisdom

Dr Michael Pocock, Centre for Hydrology and Ecology

Dr Helen Coulthard, De Montfort University

Dr Victoria Ruby-Granger, De Montfort University

Dr Joelene Hughes, RSPB

Dr Victoria Carr, RSPB

Prof Rhett Diessner, Lewis-Clark State College

Dr Dave Cudworth, Forest School Practitioner

Press expertise

Ryan has received training as part of a DEFRA funded Citizen Engagement with the Environment scheme to help communicate scientific research to the general public and engage them with it. Ryan has also appeared as a guest on BBC Three’s Hayley Goes Back to Nature in 2020. Ryan has the following expertise applicable media enquiries:

-Nature connectedness/human-nature relationships and interactions

-Wellbeing and mental health in relation to nature

-Pro-nature behaviours

Course(s) I teach on