About

Leann Andrews is an assistant professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Penn State, affiliated with the Ecology Plus Design: E+D initiative and the Penn State One Health Group. She is a licensed landscape architect with a background that encompasses global health, ecological restoration, green infrastructure, community design, and dance. Andrews specializes in leading transdisciplinary action research and participatory design projects with vulnerable communities in the United States and Peru, focusing on assessing the impacts of landscape interventions on human and ecological health through the frameworks of One Health and Planetary Health. Her work integrates arts and sciences for social and environmental activism, and her built, planning, and research projects have received numerous national and international awards, with features in prominent media outlets such as the New York Times Daily 360, BBC Health Check, Alaska Airlines Horizon Magazine, Landscape Architecture Magazine, and King 5 News. She is also a founder and board member of the non-profit Traction, dedicated to design activism, and serves on several professional advisory boards, including the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Emeritus Board, the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Advisory Circle, and the Center for Technological, Biomedical, and Environmental Research in Peru.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Ecology
• Environmental resource management
• Sociology
• Biology
• Environmental science
• Medicine
• Business
• Water resource management
• Environmental economics
• Physical therapy
• Engineering
• Law
• Engineering ethics
• Economics
• Psychiatry
• Gerontology
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Interviews with researchers and practitioners who collaborate with Indigenous groups in the United States: Are climate change adaptation frameworks helpful?

  Socio-Ecological Practice Research · 2024-06-25 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Influence of Water Hyacinth ( <i>Eichhornia crassipes</i> ) on Concentration and Distribution of <i>Escherichia coli</i> in Water Surrounding an Informal Floating Community in Iquitos, Peru

  GeoHealth · 2023-04-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Floating communities exist throughout the world. Many live on water with a high pathogen load due to difficulties associated with sewage management. In Claverito, an informal floating community in Iquitos, Peru, we conducted a controlled experiment to test the ability of water hyacinth ( Eichhornia crassipes ) to remove Escherichia coli from water. When river E . coli concentrations were at or below ∼1,500 CFU 100 mL −1 , water hyacinth reduced shallow concentrations (8 cm depth) down to levels deemed safe by U.S. EPA for recreational use. Above this threshold, plants were able to reduce E . coli levels within shallow water, but not down to “safe” levels. At deeper depths (&gt;25 cm), there was evidence that plants increased E . coli concentrations. Water hyacinth removed E . coli from shallow water by providing a surface (i.e., submerged roots) onto which E . coli sorbed and by protecting organisms that can potentially consume E . coli . Unfortunately, because of root association, the total E . coli load within the water column was greater with water hyacinth present. The use of water hyacinth to keep surface water around floating communities low in E . coli could be beneficial as this is the water layer with which people most likely interact. Aquatic vegetation naturally proliferates in and around Claverito. While this study was based on curating aquatic plants in order to achieve a water‐quality outcome, it nonetheless supports concrete actions for Claverito residents under non‐curated conditions, which are outlined at the end of the manuscript.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Constructed floating wetlands: a “s<scp>afe‐to‐fail</scp>” study with m<scp>ulti‐sector</scp>participation

  Restoration Ecology · 2022 · 7 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Business
  • Environmental resource management

  The Duwamish River Floating Wetlands project designed, built, and deployed constructed floating wetlands in the estuary of the urban Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington, during the 2019 and 2020 outmigration seasons for juvenile salmon. Using a “safe‐to‐fail” methodology and adaptive management strategies, these innovative floating wetland prototypes were custom designed to provide the native plants, invertebrates and slow water habitat that juvenile salmon require during their transition from fresh to salt water, and were monitored for these outcomes. This paper will provide insight into the prototype designs, adaptive management strategies and plant performance, and unique public‐private‐academic‐community partnerships that supported 2 years of design and research.

  PublisherDOI

• Advancing equity and justice through community science programming in design, construction, and research of a nature-based solution: the Duwamish Floating Wetlands Project

  Socio-Ecological Practice Research · 2022 · 9 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  dəw refers to the Black-Green Rivers confluences that made the Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington, USA, prior to the 1910s. Significant industrial activity and human-made diversions to these rivers caused heavy pollution and eliminated 97% of historic wetlands, forever altering the historic river systems, salmon runs and human and aquatic health. Today the Green-Duwamish River and Duwamish Estuary are an industrial and commercial corridor, albeit also a site of cultural significance and fishing rights for urban Indigenous and Coast Salish tribes, and home and workplace to diverse urban populations of sustenance fishers, immigrants and refugees, communities of color, and low-income neighborhoods. Using a socio-ecological and environmental justice perspective within a nature-based solution, the Duwamish Floating Wetlands Project designed and piloted four constructed floating wetland structures for two years on the Duwamish River and researched their feasibility to provide habitat for out-migrating juvenile salmon. A multi-pronged community team (community leaders, liaisons, stewards and scientists) worked alongside academics and professionals. This paper showcases the formulation and adaptation of a two-year citizen/community science program integrated into the project. We outline the frameworks, approach, outcomes, and lessons-learned of the community science and outreach program, and compiled these in a list of guidelines to provide practitioner, researcher and community insight into the value and necessity of prioritizing environmental justice, racial equity, and ecosystem needs in nature-based solutions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Living on water

  2022-03-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Water in the Amazon Rainforest is a critical life support system for all of us, regulating local to global climate, providing 20% of the ocean’s freshwater supply and supporting a tenth of the world’s plant and animal species as well as 34 million people living in the jungle. As Amazonian cities swell with rapid urban migration, growing populations inhabit the wet edges of the urban landscape. For hundreds of thousands living in amphibious communities along the Amazon River Basin’s urban centers, living on water in floating or stilted homes is not only tied to cultural opportunities but also to health and disease, discrimination, and other socio-political barriers to upward mobility. This chapter examines how collaboration between Pacific Rim designers and researchers and an amphibious community in the urbanized Peruvian Amazon Rainforest can offer solutions to adversities carved by water and enforced by systemic poverty. This collaboration aims to bolster traditional practices and develop practical water-focused solutions that support a clean environment, vector control, habitat balance and health and well-being with benefits from the individual up to the global community scale.

  PublisherDOI

• Influence of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) on concentration and distribution of Escherichia coli in water surrounding an informal floating community in Iquitos, Peru

  2022-12-16 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Floating communities exist throughout the world. Many live on water with a high pathogen load due to difficulties associated with sewage management. In Claverito, an informal floating community in Iquitos, Peru, we conducted a controlled experiment to test the ability of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) to remove Escherichia coli from water. When river E. coli concentrations were at or below ~1500 CFU 100 mL-1, water hyacinth reduced shallow concentrations (8-cm depth) down to levels deemed safe by U.S. EPA for recreational use. Above this threshold, plants were able to reduce E. coli levels within shallow water, but not down to “safe” levels. At deeper depths (&gt;25 cm), there was evidence that plants increased E. coli concentrations. Water hyacinth removed E. coli from shallow water by providing a surface (i.e., submerged roots) onto which pathogens sorbed and by protecting organisms that consume E. coli. Unfortunately, because of root association, the total E. coli load within the water column was greater with water hyacinth present, and results hinted that the plants’ protective environment also harbored parasites. The use of water hyacinth to keep surface water around floating communities low in E. coli could be beneficial as this is the water layer with which people most likely interact. Aquatic vegetation naturally proliferates in and around Claverito. While this study was based on curating aquatic plants in order to achieve a water-quality outcome, it nonetheless supports concrete actions for Claverito residents under non-curated conditions, which are outlined at the end of the manuscript.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prediction of disability-free survival in healthy older people

  GeroScience · 2022 · 34 citations

  • Medicine
  • Physical therapy
  • Gerontology

  Prolonging survival in good health is a fundamental societal goal. However, the leading determinants of disability-free survival in healthy older people have not been well established. Data from ASPREE, a bi-national placebo-controlled trial of aspirin with 4.7 years median follow-up, was analysed. At enrolment, participants were healthy and without prior cardiovascular events, dementia or persistent physical disability. Disability-free survival outcome was defined as absence of dementia, persistent disability or death. Selection of potential predictors from amongst 25 biomedical, psychosocial and lifestyle variables including recognized geriatric risk factors, utilizing a machine-learning approach. Separate models were developed for men and women. The selected predictors were evaluated in a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model and validated internally by bootstrapping. We included 19,114 Australian and US participants aged ≥65 years (median 74 years, IQR 71.6-77.7). Common predictors of a worse prognosis in both sexes included higher age, lower Modified Mini-Mental State Examination score, lower gait speed, lower grip strength and abnormal (low or elevated) body mass index. Additional risk factors for men included current smoking, and abnormal eGFR. In women, diabetes and depression were additional predictors. The biased-corrected areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for the final prognostic models at 5 years were 0.72 for men and 0.75 for women. Final models showed good calibration between the observed and predicted risks. We developed a prediction model in which age, cognitive function and gait speed were the strongest predictors of disability-free survival in healthy older people.Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01038583).

  DOI

• Mariposas diurnas (Lepidoptera:Papilionoidea) de la comunidad Claverito, Iquitos, Loreto, Perú

  Ciencia Amazónica (Iquitos) · 2022-12-21

  articleOpen access

  Durante los años 2016 al 2019 por un período de muestreo de 15 días en el mes de setiembre en la comunidad Claverito, ubicada en la parte baja de la plaza Clavero en la zona oriental y periurbana de la ciudad de Iquitos (Perú), con la finalidad de monitorear la riqueza y abundancia de mariposas diurnas empleando red entomológica y trampas Van Someren Rydon, se registraron 3738 individuos, pertenecientes a 6 familias, 26 géneros y 32 especies. La familia Nymphalidae obtuvo la mayor riqueza de especies (21) representando el 65,63 % del total, Pieridae 7 especies (21,88 %), Hesperidae, Lycaenidae, Papilionidae y Riodinidae con solo 1 especie (3,13 %). La zona de camu camu reportó 29 especies y 3341 individuos, mientras que la zona urbana obtuvo 19 especies y 397 individuos; de las 32 especies registradas, 9 de ellas representaron el 96,84 % del total, siendo estas: Anarthia amathea, Anarthia jatrophae, Ascia monuste, Eurema agave agave, Eurema elathea, Mazia amazonica, Phoebis sennae marcellina, Pieriballia viardi y Pyrisitia nise. La riqueza y abundancia varió constantemente: 2016 (12 especies y 667 individuos); 2017 (23 especies y 447 individuos); 2018 (15 especies y 1539 individuos); y 2019 (15 especies y 1085 individuos).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dental caries and anthropometrics of children living in an informal floating Amazonian community: a cross-sectional pilot study

  Brazilian Dental Journal · 2022-02-01

  articleOpen access

  AIMS: Increasing evidence supports a relationship between poor oral health and growth in children. Our objective was to assess the association between the presence of dental caries and anthropometric measurements of children residing in Claverito, a floating slum community in the Peruvian Amazon. METHODS: For this cross-sectional study, presence of caries was assessed using dmft/DMFT (decayed, missing, filled teeth) scores and the SiC Index (mean dmft/DMFT of one-third of the study group with the highest caries score). Anthropometric categories for age-sex-specific z-scores for height and weight were calculated based on WHO standardized procedures and definitions. The association between SiC (measured by dmft/DMFT) and anthropometric measures was estimated using unadjusted and adjusted multivariable linear regression models. Critical value was established at 5%. RESULTS: Our study population consisted of 67 children between the ages of 1 and 18 years old. Mean age was 9.5 years old (SD: 4.5), and the majority were female (52.2%). Almost all had dental caries (97.0%) and the mean dmft/DMFT score was 7.2 (SD: 4.7). The SiC Index of this population was 9.0. After adjusting for confounding variables, participants who had permanent dentition with the highest dmft/DMFT levels had statistically significant decreased height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) (p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: We found an inverse linear association between SiC Index and height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) among children living in poverty in a floating Amazonian community in Peru. Children from under-resourced communities, like floating slums, are at high risk for oral disease possibly negatively impacting their growth and development.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Assessment of Pediatric Dental Caries and Family Quality of Life in an Informal Amazonian Community

  Annals of Global Health · 2021-08-20 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: Oral diseases are among the most prevalent non-communicable diseases worldwide, disproportionally affecting vulnerable populations. The Community of Claverito is one of many informal urban floating communities located on the Amazon River in Peru. Objectives: To assess child and caregiver dental health status (DHS) and to measure the associations between child DHS and child and family quality of life in the informal Community of Claverito. Methods: DHS, as measured by decayed and filled teeth (DFT/dft), was recorded for 66 children and 35 caregivers using the WHO Oral Assessment form. Oral health-related quality of life was measured using the Parental-Caregiver Perceptions Questionnaire (P-CPQ). The family impact of child oral disorders was measured using the Family Impact Scale (FIS). Descriptive statistics, correlations, and regression analyses were used to evaluate the associations between DFT/dft, P-CPQ, and FIS scores (p < 0.05). Findings: The majority of children assessed were female (52%) with a mean age of 9.4 years (SD ± 4.4). The prevalence of untreated child dental caries was 97%. The child and caregiver's mean DFT/dft scores were 6.8 (SD ± 4.5) and 8.7 (SD ± 13.3), respectively. Mean total P-CPQ and total FIS scores were 33.4 and 12.5, respectively. A significant positive association was observed between child DFT/dft scores and total FIS scores (p < 0.01). Significant associations were also observed between child DFT/dft scores and caregiver age (p < 0.01) and child DFT/dft scores and caregiver DFT scores (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Children and their caregivers living in the Community of Claverito exhibited high levels of dental caries. Children's untreated dental caries were associated with both family's quality of life and caregivers' untreated dental caries. Further research is needed on how improving availability and access to oral health services have the potential to benefit the health of residents of informal communities like the one of Claverito.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Anne M. Murray

  Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research

  14 shared

• Jorge Antonio Alarcón Piscoya

  Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas

  9 shared

• Nancy Rottle

  University of Washington

  7 shared

• Robyn L. Woods

  7 shared

• Christian Ampudia Gatty

  Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas

  6 shared

• Rita Vanesa Estrella Grández

  Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas

  6 shared

• Jorge Nóvoa

  King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

  6 shared

• Mark Nelson

  University of Tasmania

  6 shared

Labs

• Leann Andrews LabPI

Awards & honors

• 2020–22 Stuckeman Career Development Assistant Professor in…
• 2020 Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Case Study Inve…
• 2016–17 National Institute of Health Fogarty International G…
• 2013 LAF National Olmsted Scholar
• Best Paper of the Year for JoLA by the Green Infrastructure…