Located among pristine woodlands in the Ryerson historic home in Riverwoods, Il., Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods promotes the importance of nature for nurturing personal and community wellbeing, cultivating creativity, and inspiring learning.
An Integrative & Naturopathic Medicine Approach with Dr. Jennifer Ron, MD, FACEP, ABOIM
This lecture explores how integrative and naturopathic medicine can support the body’s innate capacity for healing during and after a cancer diagnosis. Dr. Jennifer Ron brings together conventional medical expertise and holistic care to discuss nutrition, mind-body practices, lifestyle medicine, and evidence-based complementary therapies that work alongside standard cancer treatments.
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Stress and Cortisol
Resetting Your HPA Axis for Resilience and Balance with Dr. Lauren Towle, MD, FMCP-M
Chronic stress can quietly disrupt hormones, energy levels, sleep, and overall wellbeing. In this accessible and informative lecture, Dr. Lauren Towle explains how cortisol and the HPA axis function—and what happens when they become dysregulated. Drawing from functional medicine and clinical practice, she offers practical tools for restoring balance through nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress-reduction techniques.
The Brushwood Nature Book Club is a space to talk about and explore nature literature in a friendly environment. Each meeting includes discussion, creative writing, and art activities to engage with the themes of the chosen book, led by Brushwood’s Poet-in-Residence Kathryn Haydon, and writer-artist Megan Donahue.
Diana Beresford-Kroeger–a world-recognized botanist and medical biochemist–has revolutionized our understanding of the natural world with her startling insights into the hidden life of trees. In this riveting memoir, she uncovers the roots of her discoveries in her extraordinary childhood in Ireland. Soon after, her brilliant mind bloomed into an illustrious scientific career that melds the intricacies of the natural world with the truths of traditional Celtic wisdom.
To Speak for the Trees uniquely blends the story of Beresford-Kroeger’s incredible life and her outstanding achievement as a scientist. It elegantly shows us how forests can not only heal us as people but can also help save the planet.
Looking back, it’s hard to narrow down our most significant moments, as there are so many thanks to the Brushwood team, our community, and our supporters. The Brushwood Top 10 is an annual tradition that we are always happy to share, so the whole staff came together to choose the following incredible moments of 2025.
Thanks to our supporters for making these moments at Brushwood possible. We can’t wait to make more moments of impact with you in 2026!
1. Celestial Forest Bathing
Abbey Castro, Communications Coordinator
Brushwood partnered with Reciprocal Forest Bathing to provide free opportunities throughout the year for the community to mindfully connect with nature, in English and Spanish.
Jess Rodriguez, Coalition Building Manager and Forest Therapy Guide, leads a Forest Bathing session.
2. Celebrating the 42nd Annual Smith Nature Symposium Youth EnvironmentalLeadership Awardees
Ashley Cullen-Williams, Senior Program Director
This year, we were thrilled to honor Robin Wall Kimmerer at the Smith Nature Symposium Awards. We celebrated the work of future environmental justice leaders, Ja’Harmony Johnson and Victor Hinojosa, two exemplary young leaders.
Youth Environmental Leadership Awardees Victor and Ja’Harmony with Robin Wall Kimmerer at Chicago Botanic Garden
3. The Community Leadership Roundtable: In the Field
Angela Ramirez, Administrative Coordinator
This year, the Community Leadership Roundtable took a new form: Environmental Justice and Healing bus tours to some of the most relevant sites in Waukegan. Watch the short film by Videographer-in-Residence, Kateryna Sazonova.
The morning bus tour group of Brushwood partners, Board members, and participants at Yeomen Creek Landfill.
4. The At Ease in Nature Exhibition
Jes Klinge, Veteran Programs Specialist
The November art exhibition, At Ease in Nature featured artwork created during our 2025At Ease programs, as well as work inspired by experiences in nature from members of the Military Community. This year’s exhibition highlighted the diversity that can be found in nature and in the armed forces, making each stronger than they would be without it.
Dante Plata, Army Veteran, with his photography pieces at the At Ease in Nature opening.
5. Expansion of the TIERRA Program
Jess Rodriguez, Building Coalition Manager
TIERRA (Transforming Internal Experiences for Resilience and Restoration through Acceptance) is a first-of-its-kind, nature-based mental health intervention. This year, it expanded beyond its pilot phase to new organizations in Lake County, and 17 new Community Health Workers were certified in the program.
The Accelerator team celebrating with the certified promotoras group.
6. Before Dreams Are The Last Place We Find You: Lydia Cheshewalla
Julia Kemerer, Director of Arts and Administration
Brushwood welcomed Osage ephemeral artist Lydia Cheshewalla for a solo exhibition of the work created during her residency at the Center for Humans & Nature.
Lydia Cheshewalla gives an artist talk on her collaborative process with nature during the exhibition opening.
7. The Hunter Family Foundation gift to name The Maxine M. Hunter Performance Plaza
Mirja Spooner Haffner, Director of Development
In April, Brushwood received a transformative gift of $2.5 million from the Hunter Family Foundation to create The Maxine M. Hunter Performance Plaza, in support of Brushwood Center’s comprehensive campaign to expand programs and renovate our building at Ryerson Woods,Activate: A Campaign for Investment in Community.
Rendering of the future Maxine M. Hunter Performance Plaza by Serena Sturm Architects.
8. The Release of Flourish
Parker Nelson, Director of Public Programs and Music
This fall, Ensemble-in-Residence Black Moon Trio released a new album with Brushwood called Flourish, featuring our 2025 Smith Nature Symposium Honoree, Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Parker Nelson with Trisha Steele from Prairie Circle Unitarian Universalist Congregation receiving a copy of the Flourish album.
9. Supporting Youth and Families withNEST Packs
Eddie Flores, Youth Education Coordinator
Created in response to families’ fear of going outside due to ICE activity, Brushwood’s NEST Packs are designed to nurture connection, curiosity, and community by providing families with Nature Exploring Safety Tools backpacks that make outdoor exploration both accessible and affirming.
Staff members Abbey Castro, Jes Klinge, Eddie Flores, and Ashley Cullen – Williams pack NEST packs at Brushwood.
10. Growing the Team
Catherine Game, Executive Director
Brushwood Center welcomed Ashley Cullen-Williams as our new Senior Program Director this summer. Ashley is a passionate and licensed mental health advocate and social-emotional learning expert, and has already had transformative impact in her new role at Brushwood. Learn more about Ashley’s story through her video.
Ashley Cullen-Williams confers with the Community Programs Team
And I have a bonus top moment, as I grew the “team” in an additional way. My family and I welcomed baby Emerald, born on Earth Day of this year!
Emerald has already enjoyed touring Brushwood exhibitions and perusing the Nature-Inspired Holiday Market, and she can’t wait for ¡Hola! Wiggleworms!
Beginning in September of 2015 artist Lincoln Schatz began taking lake pictures. Dedicating a month to photographing the lake each day in morning or evening. These daily trips to photograph the lake continued past that first month.
One month became two, two became three, and the project has continued ever since. Those first lake photos are now the foundations of the Lake Series, a serial exploration of the landscape of Lake Michigan through photography.
Since 2015, Schatz has carefully studied this landscape. With his back to the city of Chicago, he stands on the lake’s shore and photographs Lake Michigan with a medium-format camera, capturing the waters as they stretch toward the horizon.
Beginning in September of 2015 artist Lincoln Schatz began taking lake pictures. Dedicating a month to photographing the lake each day in morning or evening. These daily trips to photograph the lake continued past that first month.
One month became two, two became three, and the project has continued ever since. Those first lake photos are now the foundations of the Lake Series, a serial exploration of the landscape of Lake Michigan through photography.
Since 2015, Schatz has carefully studied this landscape. With his back to the city of Chicago, he stands on the lake’s shore and photographs Lake Michigan with a medium-format camera, capturing the waters as they stretch toward the horizon.
Art and Nature programming for the fastest-growing Veteran Demographic
Finding Her Voice: Brushwood’s Programs for Women Veterans
By Megan Donahue, with Angela Walker
Angela Walker knows Brushwood’s At Ease program like the back of her hand—Brushwood Center is not just a place for her, it’s her passion. But even leaders like Angela can be caught off guard, and that’s exactly what happened during a Nature, Art, and Wellness Day for Women Veterans.
These special events at Brushwood are a chance for women Veterans and their families to relax, recharge, and enjoy the serene beauty of Ryerson Woods. The day is packed with calming activities like yoga, forest bathing, and creative art workshops. But when Angela sat down for a writing exercise that day, she wasn’t thrilled.
“Write about my feelings? Nope,” Angela said. “We can paint, we can do yoga, we can even sing—but write about what happened in the military? Hard pass.”
She planned just to sit there quietly and let the others write. But something shifted.
“I ended up writing so much, I shocked myself!” Angela said. “It was like my voice came pouring out— I didn’t even know I had so much to say that was bottled up inside me. All it took was the right question and the right space. I started writing, and I didn’t want to stop. I’m still writing today!”
The Fastest-Growing Veteran Demographic
Women Veterans are the fastest-growing group of Veterans. Between the 2020 and 2023 fiscal years, the percentage of women Veterans increased from 6.3% to 11.3%. There are 2.1 million women Veterans in the United States.
Jes Klinge, an Army Reservist and Brushwood’s Veteran Programs Specialist, joined the military at the age of 17. With over two decades of service, she brings a depth of knowledge about military culture to her work at Brushwood. Since her arrival to Brushwood in 2020, the At Ease initiative has expanded significantly, especially offerings for women Veterans.
Jes is quick to avoid painting with a broad brush. “I think Veterans are like everybody else. Everybody really needs different ways to cope with mental health,” she says. Still, she notes, women Veterans do often have some things in common.
Feeling overlooked in the Veterans space is common, as is dealing with Military Sexual Trauma (MST). “Military Sexual Trauma is a really big problem in the women Veterans space,” Jes says. “I feel like a lot of these issues aren’t really talked about as much.”
U.S. Army Veteran and artist Ramona Pozek agrees. “I think that whenever people are coming up with programs, or if they want to do something for Veterans, they’re always thinking about the guys,” she says. She recalls people in the past assuming her male partner was the Veteran in the relationship, when she’s the one who served, and receiving care packages that were clearly intended for male service members.
“We love our country, and we are really proud of serving. We’re not looking for a whole lot. [But] if you’ve got something for the guys, then have something for us, too,” she says.
Research demonstrates that women Veterans face unique challenges throughout their service, and especially upon transitioning from the military into civilian life. The Military Times reported in 2019 that women Veterans report difficulties with feeling invisible when leaving the service, and face a lack of peer support, feeling unaccepted by civilian women, and struggling to find supportive peer groups.
The Wounded Warrior Project has found that women warriors experience MST, anxiety, and depression at higher rates than male warriors. 80% of women warriors scored as lonely based on the UCLA Three-Item Loneliness Scale. 61% of women warriors experienced symptoms of anxiety.
These unique challenges have led At Ease to develop specific programs for women Veterans. Each month, women Veterans meet online for a watercolor painting class, and an art social hour, an opportunity to work independently on art projects and build camaraderie with other women Veterans. Nature, Art, and Wellness Days are becoming a highlight for this growing Brushwood community.
Dedicated women’s programming lines up with anecdotal findings from the Wounded Warrior Project, which found that outcomes were more successful and women Veterans felt more supported when they were able to connect with advocates or organizations.
That’s certainly been Angela’s experience.
From Darkness to Creativity
Angela’s journey with Brushwood began at a tough time in her life. She had been discharged from the Navy due to medical reasons, leaving behind her dream of a long military career. Health challenges, along with depression and PTSD, made life feel heavy.
To make matters worse, Angela, a professional singer, lost her voice for a time due to her health issues.“Losing my ability to sing was devastating. Singing had always been my outlet, and I didn’t know if I’d ever get it back.”
When her voice returned, Angela eventually began volunteering, singing to patients at the VA hospital and taking part in an art therapy program. Her involvement led her to Brushwood, where she performed at a 2015 awards dinner honoring Robert and Sibylle Szaggars Redford. From that moment, she was “hooked on Brushwood.”
“What pulled me out of that dark space was my faith in God and Brushwood,” Angela said. “The people at Brushwood cared about me. They cared about Veterans. And they invited me to use my voice to help figure out how to support others like me.”
The Brushwood Nature Book Club is a space to talk about and explore nature literature in a friendly environment. Each meeting includes discussion, creative writing, and art activities to engage with the themes of the chosen book, led by Brushwood’s Poet-in-Residence Kathryn Haydon, and writer-artist Megan Donahue.
Our January book will be Bird Cottage by Eva Meijer.
Bird Cottage is a novel based on the true story of a remarkable woman, her lifelong relationship with birds and the joy she drew from it.
Len Howard was forty years old when she decided to leave her London life and loves behind, retire to the English countryside and devote the rest of her days to her one true passion: birds.
Moving to a small cottage in Sussex, she wrote two bestselling books, astonishing the world with her observations on the tits, robins, sparrows and other birds that lived nearby, flew freely in and out of her windows, and would even perch on her shoulder as she typed.
This moving novel imagines the story of this remarkable woman’s decision to defy society’s expectations, and the joy she drew from her extraordinary relationship with the natural world.
Join Brushwood’s poet-in-residence Kathryn Haydon and fellow haiku poet David Green for a midwinter poetic stroll along woodland paths near the Des Plaines river. As we walk, we will quietly gather observations and inspiration from the nature around us, jotting thoughts and haiku in our notebooks. When it’s time to warm up, we will gather at Brushwood Center to write more haiku, share, converse, and eat.
Please dress for the weather and bring a snack or a dish to share.
While this event will not include instruction on writing haiku, all skill and interest levels are welcome. It will be easy for the novice to join in, as haiku writing begins simply with observations of nature. Experienced haiku poets and learning resources will be on hand for self study, and mentors will be available for those who want to learn more.
The Arts and Nature: Bringing Joy, Supporting Mental Health
By Megan Donahue
Picture a wash of blue watercolor paint spreading across a piece of thick paper. Imagine dipping your brush into a lush green, and layering the transparent color on top of the blue. It’s a sunny day, and the wind blows gently through the trees around you as you sit outside with your easel. You don’t have a goal, or any time pressure, or any assignment to make it “good” or “artistic.” It’s just you, the sun, the air, and the paint, exploring the possibilities.
How would that feel? Relaxing? Calm? Exciting?
Spending time in nature and experiencing the arts can influence your mood, emotions, and mental state, having a big impact on your overall wellbeing. The arts and nature bring joy to our lives, and they’re strong positive influences on our mental health.
1 in 5 adults in the US will experience a mental health condition in any given year, with anxiety disorders being the most common, followed by substance use disorders, depressive disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders.
Whether or not you experience mental illness, taking care of your mental health is important. Mental stress takes a toll on your physical health. Chronic stress is correlated with a myriad of negative physical outcomes, including digestive problems, heart disease, sleep issues, high blood pressure, and muscle tension.
Research continues to show that participating in the arts and spending time in nature can positively impact mental health. The time you spend outside, making, and/or viewing art is more than pleasant pass-time or distraction. It’s an important way to take care of your mental health.
Art is a Mental Health Asset
Making art, or even simply looking at it, can impact the brain. Increased levels of serotonin and more blood flow to the pleasure-associated part of the brain are just some of the mental health benefits of art. Art is one of the ways we find meaning in our lives, express and process emotion, and connect with each other.
Art has been a part of Jerry Loza’s life as long as he can remember. As a child, he had natural drawing talent and he continued to draw throughout his life. “Even in the Marines, I was making drawings for guys,” he says.
Veteran artists Jerry Loza and Michael Lewis on the At Ease in Nature opening reception panel, November 2025.
Drawing has become part of his mental wellness practice. “When I need to get away from reality, I can 100% focus on my drawing,” he says. A digital artist, he draws using an app on his phone, whenever he needs to decompress and manage stress. (You may recognize Jerry’s work from At Ease in Nature at Brushwood, where he’s exhibited his art with other Veterans and members of the Military community.)
Jerry served in the U.S. Marines from 1984-1988. “Joining the military was a hundred percent the right choice for me. It was a great experience,” he says. “But as life progressed, things got heavier and messier, and I wasn’t dealing with anything. I was just filing it all away…I did this for many, many, many years until it was coming apart at the seams.”
Jerry’s mental health was affecting his day-to-day life. “It was starting to trickle out,” he says. “I was getting short- tempered. I was getting irate. I was not my usual self, even when I was my usual self. It was a thin veneer. It was very obvious that it wasn’t the real me. I was just pretending.”
The breaking point came when Jerry’s boss directly asked him if he was okay. “And that was it. I shattered,” he says. “It was just the most embarrassing in a way, but the most enlightening thing that I’ve ever been through because right then and there I knew, okay, that’s it. I’m not okay.”
That conversation led to Jerry beginning a journey to improved mental health, which included talking to a therapist, and sharing about his experiences with friends and family.
Art is also part of the healing journey. “I met the Veteran Art Tribe. They are just a phenomenal group. I had no idea this was even a thing. We were able to communicate and talk about pain, and everything else, and dealing with it through art.”
Addressing his mental health has improved Jerry’s life tremendously, as a person and an artist. “There’s so much more to my drawings in the past year. I leveled up, absolutely leveled up. I went much more in depth. I put more of myself into the paintings, because I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past year. I’ve learned more about meditation and calming myself and about dealing with anxiety and helping others deal with anxiety. I’ve learned a lot about myself and most of it I’m pretty content with. I am back, I’m me again.”
Nature Nurtures
The evidence continues to mount: nature experience is associated with psychological wellbeing. Time spent in nature promotes positive social interactions, happiness and sense of wellbeing, improved memory and attention, and decreases mental distress. Nature experiences are also associated with a reduction of risk factors and burden of some types of mental illness.
Sunlight, fresh air, and other experiences in nature can make a real difference in how you feel. A 2016 study found that, “Natural elements and sunlight exposure related positively to job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and negatively to depressed mood and anxiety…Natural elements buffered the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction, depressed mood, and anxiety.”
These mental health benefits are particularly important for young people, as mental health problems are dramatically on the rise in children and teenagers. Elisa Cisernos, Senior Therapist at Lake County Health Department & Community Health Center, Child and Adolescent Behavioral Services, has seen this in action by partnering with Brushwood Center’s It’s A. W.I.N. program for youth. “In therapy, we try to talk about the importance of nature and art, but there’s only so far talking can get you until we bring kids to actually experience those things and practice what we talk about in therapy,” she says, “That’s where the true magic and power is. Coming to Brushwood is one of few times where I actually see kids allow themselves to slow down with nature.”
Connect with Art and Nature
You don’t have to spend a lot of money or travel very far to get mental health benefits from making art or exploring nature. Sitting quietly on the lakeshore, taking a walk through the snow, playing an instrument, or coloring in a coloring book can get you started. When you think about taking care of your health, include your mind by giving yourself time outside and time with art.
This article originally appeared in Thrive, Brushwood Center’s print newsletter.
Forest bathing is a guided experience for supporting healing and wellness through meditation and immersion of your senses in forest.
Join Sarah Abu Absi, certified Nature and Forest Therapy guide, for a hour and half practice filled with a series of guided invitations that offer opportunities of presence, stress relief, and relaxation. Learn more about forest bathing here.
Sandwiches provided for lunch. If you have dietary restrictions, please provide your own lunch. You may store your lunch in Brushwood Center’s kitchen.
__ Please note, that this event is for Veterans, current service members, and their adult family members only.
Contact Jessica Klinge at jklinge@brushwoodcenter.org if you have questions or concerns.
