This is the third session of a 3-part Climate Change and Health Speaker Series hosted by the UCSF Office of Population Health and Health Equity and the UCSF Center for Climate, Health, and Equity. See here for information on the full series.
There has never been a more critical time for advancing health, equity and social justice while addressing climate change. This session focuses on the synergies between climate and racial justice movements and their promise for improving health, as well as community-based advocacy and policy initiatives to promote climate and racial justice in California and beyond.
Agenda
- 2:30-2:35pm PDT Session Open by Sheri Weiser, MD, MPH, MA, UCSF
- 2:35-2:40pm PDT Welcome Remarks by Daniel Lowenstein, MD, UCSF
- 2:40-2:50pm PDT Introductory Presentation by Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS, UCSF
- 2:50-3:55pm PDT Panel Discussion Moderated by Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS, UCSF
- Veronica Garibay, MPA, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
- Rupa Marya, MD, UCSF
- Amee Raval, MS, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)
- Linda Rudolph, MD, MPH, Public Health Institute & Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health
- Alvaro Sanchez, MUP, The Greenlining Institute
- 3:55-4:00pm PDT Closing Remarks by Sheri Weiser, MD, MPH, MA, UCSF
Speakers
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS is Professor and Chair of the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She is also inaugural Vice Dean for Population Health and Health Equity in the UCSF School of Medicine. She is co-founder and core faculty at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. @KBibbinsDomingo
Veronica Garibay, MPA is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. Based in the agriculturally rich San Joaquin and East Coachella Valleys, Leadership Counsel works alongside the most impacted communities to advocate for sound policy and eradicate injustice to secure equal access to opportunity regardless of wealth, race, income, and place. Areas of focus include land use, natural resources, environmental justice, municipal services, civil rights, and government transparency. Prior to launching Leadership Counsel, she was the Community Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Community Equity Initiative (CEI), a program of California Rural Legal Assistance. She was raised in the farmworker city of Parlier in Fresno County and cares deeply about land use decision-making and its impact on the sustainability and health of low-income rural communities. @VGaribay19
Daniel Lowenstein, MD is the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at UCSF and the Robert B. and Ellinor Aird Professor and Vice Chair in the UCSF Department of Neurology. He is a clinician-scientist and expert in the basic science and clinical aspects of epilepsy. He is an avid and highly-regarded teacher and has played an active role at UCSF as an advocate of cultural diversity and civil rights. @LowensteinMD
Rupa Marya, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF and faculty director of the Do No Harm Coalition, an organization of health workers committed to ending racism and state violence. She conducts research on the health effects of police violence on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities as well as the connection between soil health, human health, and inflammation. She works extensively with leaders of Lakota and Dakota tribes to create spaces for the practice of decolonized medicine, and has written a book on the health impacts of colonialism on our bodies, our societies, and the planet. @DrRupaMarya
Amee Raval, MS is Research Director at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) where she works to advance climate adaptation and environmental justice through state energy policy to ensure working class communities of color are at the center of building solutions to the climate crisis. She is also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leaders Fellow. Her personal experiences within the South Asian diaspora support her awareness of how environmental and workplace inequalities influence community health. She previously worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council on research and advocacy addressing the environmental and occupational health impacts of extreme heat due to climate change. @meemsical_ [email protected]
Linda Rudolph, MD, MPH is a UCSF-trained physician and currently advises the Public Health Institute (PHI) and the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health on climate, health and equity. She previously served as director of the PHI Center for Climate Change and Health, deputy director for Chronic Disease Prevention and Public Health in the California Department of Public Health, and the health officer and public health director for the City of Berkeley, California.
Alvaro S. Sanchez, MUP is Vice President of Policy at The Greenlining Institute, where he works to build a just economy that is inclusive, cooperative, sustainable, participatory, fair, and healthy. He leads Greenlining's work on a state bill to direct at least one quarter of California's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to disadvantaged communities as well as Greenlining's neighborhood-scale sustainability initiative leveraging private and public investment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while improving underserved communities across the state. Previously he led Green for All's work connecting stormwater infrastructure investments to economic opportunities for underserved communities. He is also on the Board of Directors at the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. @alvaros_views [email protected]
Sheri Weiser, MD, MPH, MA is a Professor and Internist in the UCSF Division of HIV, Infectious Disease, and Global Medicine and is founding Co-Director of UCSF's new Center for Climate, Health, and Equity. She is a leading international researcher on food insecurity, social and structural drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and, more recently, on links between climate change, food insecurity, and infectious diseases. She has worked closely with Dr. Arianne Teherani to spearhead educational initiatives across UCSF and the UC system to incorporate climate change and sustainability into health professional education.