Select Publications

I write to share what the garden, the field, and the research have taught me about how connection with the natural world helps people and places thrive. 

Growing an Edible Landscape: How to Transform Your Outdoor Space into a Food Garden
By Gary Pilarchik and Chiara D’Amore · Cool Springs Press, 2024

Gary and I are two Maryland gardeners with very different spaces and styles, and this book draws on both. It’s a practical, richly illustrated guide to turning lawn and ornamental beds into gardens that feed you, with advice on design, plant choices, and planning your harvest into meals. It ends with a chapter on how gardening can cultivate community, which is the part closest to my heart. Buy the book!

*A memoir on my journey with breast cancer is currently being submitted to publishers.*

My scholarly writing explores how connection with nature supports personal, community, and ecological well-being. 

• “Significant Life Experiences that Connect Children with Nature: A Research Review and Applications to a Family Nature Club” in the International Research Handbook on ChildhoodNature: Assemblages of Childhood and Nature Research, 2018.   
• “Women’s Leadership of Family Nature Clubs: Furthering the Movement to Reconnect People with Nature” in the Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Outdoor Learning, 2018. 
• “The Relationship of Women’s Body Image and Experience in Nature” in Women and Nature? Beyond Dualism in Gender, Body, and Environment, Routledge, 2017. 
• “Nurtured Nature: The connection between care for children and care for the environment” in Pedagogies of Kindness and Respect: On the Lives and Education of Children, 2015. 

• Community Gardens and the Cultivation of Social Capital" in Current Opinion in Psychology, 2026
• "The Gendered Hidden Curriculum of Adventure Education" in the Journal of Experiential Education, 2018. 
• “Many Children in the Woods: Applying Principles of Community Based Social Marketing to a Family Nature Club” in Ecopsychology, 2017. Vol 9, No. 4.  
• “Family Nature Clubs: An Intergenerational Opportunity to Connection with and Care for Nature” in the journal of Families, Relationships and Societies, Vol 5. No. 3, 2016. 
• “Hiking: A Low-Cost, Accessible Intervention to Promote Health Benefits” in the American Journal if Lifestyle Medicine, 2016. 
• “Cultivating Connection and Care – The Case for Family Nature Clubs.” Journal of Sustainability Education, Volume 9, March 2015. 
• “Family nature clubs: Creating the conditions for social and environmental connection and care”. Doctoral dissertation, retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2015. 

*Co-editor, Journal of Sustainability Education, Theme on Sense of Place and Resilience (2016) 

*Co-editor, Journal of Sustainability Education, Theme on Sustainability and Love (2015)  

• "Sense of Place Matters: Community of Practice Resources for Conservation" , 2016.
• “Thriving Through Nature: Fostering Children’s Executive Function Skills”, leadership series paper with the Children & Nature Network, 2015. 
• “Family Adventures in Nature Club Guidebook” for the Izaak Walton League of America, 2015.