about THE CENTER FOR HUMANS & NATURE

The Center for Humans & Nature is an ideas hub.

The Center for Humans & Nature is home to a press and farm that explore in-depth and diverse perspectives about what it means to be human in an interconnected world. Humans & Nature Press shares ideas that build community and inspire action. Humans & Nature Farm is a place where ideas take root. The Center offers a place to experience human connection with nature and consider our responsibilities to the whole community of life.

Forty miles north of Chicago, the Center’s home encompasses breathtakingly beautiful prairie, savanna, wetland, woodland, ravine, and riparian ecosystems. Strachan Donnelley, the Center’s founder, spent his formative years within this landscape, both experiencing the world around him and trying to understand the human place within it.

The land is the ancestral homelands of the Council of Three Fires—the Potawatomi, Ojibwa, and Ottawa—as well as the Kickapoo, Sioux, Peoria, Miami, Sauk, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Meskwaki, and other Native Peoples. We recognize and celebrate the unbreakable ties to this land for Indigenous Peoples past, present, and future. We are committed to listening deeply to our Indigenous colleagues who carry knowledge about human relationships with this land.

We have a small team of staff, editorial fellows, and board members who are committed to the Center’s mission. 

Our community of contributors to Humans & Nature Press comes to the Center through the digital press open call, the Questions series curated by editorial fellows, and through books published by the press.