Environmental Health, Climate Change and Sustainability

Annual Summary 

2024: Combined SIG with the Climate Change PAS SIG to focus on climate advocacy using a Quality Improvement (QI) Framework.

EH, Climate Change, and Sustainability SIG co-Chairs Sandra Jee, MD MPH and Shalini Shah, DO together with Climate Change chair Ruth Etzel, MD, PhD focused on environmental/climate work using a QI lens. We invited QI experts Kathleen Walsh, MD MSc and Corinnea Rea, MD MPH to give background on QI. Co-Presenters included Shui-Lin Tsai, MD, Patricia Mullen, MD, PhD, Lucie Fan, MD, Marissa Hauptman MD, MPH, Sandra Jee, MD MPH, Shalini Shah, DO, and Lisa Patel MD MESc to share specific QI project highlights. We had over 45 attendees to our workshop, and regrettably, we did not have enough time for informal networking!

As our SIG continues to focus on relevant Pediatric Environmental Health topics such as climate change and sustainability, we look forward to sharing resources among members of this group, and  ways that APA members can remain engaged in the climate advocacy work locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. We hope next year that we can continue to share ways that our organization can promote sustainability, including raising awareness of planetary health principles and teaching trainees and colleagues about the importance of tackling the climate crisis.

2023: Combined SIG with the Advocacy SIG to focus on addressing some of these questions: 1.  How do we teach advocacy skills to peers and trainees? 2. How do we leverage existing resources to make climate advocacy work also contribute to academic productivity?, and 3. How do we connect with media to communicate the work we are doing and messages we want to share? We had over 32 attendees to our workshop, including first time attendees to this group.

EH, Climate Change, and Sustainability SIG co-chairs Elizabeth Friedman, MD MPH and Sandra Jee, MD, MPH together with Advocacy SIG co-chairs Michelle Barnes, MD and Leora Mogilner, MD invited media experts Elizabeth Murray DO and Jennifer Johnson to share some communication tips and tricks with us. We had some colleagues who are leaders in climate advocacy share their experiences with us, including Lisa Patel, MD, Vi Nguyen, MD and Harleen Marwah MD.  We had a robust discussion about climate advocacy and new ways to implement change.