APHA's Center for Climate, Health and Equity announces members of its inaugural advisory board

APHA's Center for Climate, Health and Equity announces the 35 members of its inaugural advisory board.

Selected by the center's steering committee to serve a two-year term, members include representatives from APHA partner organizations, including academic partners, grassroots organizers, community representatives and environmental justice leaders.

The Center for Climate, Health and Equity Advisory Board will explore the critical issues and activities that are important to the communities and populations the center serves. It will ground the center’s programs in activities that allow for community investment and engagement.

“Our climate team is absolutely thrilled by the steering committee’s selection of such incredible individuals,” said Surili Sutaria Patel, director of the Center for Climate, Health and Equity. “APHA’s work on climate change and health invariably will be strengthened and deepened by this thought partnership.”

APHA invited members of the association and the public to submit applications of interest over a two-month period from late 2019 to early 2020. The Center for Climate, Health and Equity Steering Committee reviewed the applications to create an advisory board of individuals with diverse perspectives, expertise and lived experience.

The 35 advisory board members are listed below. Those with an asterisk (*) also serve on the center’s steering committee.

• Elena Bettis, Faith in Place
• Angela M. Chalk, Healthy Community Services*
• Jesseca Chatman, Indiana State Department of Health
• David E. Corbin, University of Nebraska Omaha
• Natasha DeJarnett, National Environmental Health Association
• Emily Hennessee, The Good Food Institute
• Jonathan Herz, Environmental and Energy Study Institute
• Timothy Hinterberger, University of Alaska Anchorage
• Tisha Holmes, Florida State University
• Ans Irfan, George Washington University*
• Jaylan Jacobs, Emory University
• Kaumudi Joshipura, University of Puerto Rico; Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
• Kevin Lanza, UTHealth School of Public Health in Austin
• Georgiana Logan, Marshall University
• Sarita Mahtani, New York-Presbyterian/Weill-Cornell Medical Center
• Olufunmilayo Makinde, Association of American Medical Colleges
• Leyla Erk McCurdy, Children's Environmental Health Network
• Chantelle Mendosa, National Resources Defense Council
• Zo Mpofu, Buncombe County Health & Human Services
• Andrea Nance, AstraZeneca
• Iyabo Obasanjo, College of William and Mary
• Surili Sutaria Patel, American Public Health Association*
• Richard Rabin, Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health 
• Nicole Redvers, Indians into Medicine at the University of North Dakota
• Kelly Rodgers, Streetsmart
• Rose Schneider, Health Systems Management*
• Paul Schramm, Climate and Health Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention* 
• Perry Sheffield, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai*
• Jake Sneed, Georgia Department of Public Health
• Momodou A. I. Tekanyi , CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy
• Melissa Toledo-Ontiveros, Community Action Agency of Southern New Mexico
• Crystal Romeo Upperman, Aclima
• Lise Van Susteren, Climate Psychiatry Alliance*
• Jalonne L. White-Newsome and Katie Byerly, The Kresge Foundation*
• Brenda K. Wilson, University of Texas Medical Branch

Photo collage of advisory board members courtesy Jason Ferrante