Announcing Climate and Health Equity Fellowship Recipients

Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health Announces Climate and Health Equity Fellowship Recipients

On Feb 25 2021 the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health in cooperation with National Medical Association launched the Climate and Health Equity Fellowship (CHEF) program. This new fellowship opportunity will help generate a network of experts on climate, health and equity in four southeastern states as part of a strategy to advance a clean energy future in a region that is vulnerable to climate crises and has experienced systemic racial and climate injustice.

Several Clinicians for Climate Action (CCA) groups are participating in a growing network of Consortium state affiliates, including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.  The Consortium is partnering with the southeastern regional affiliate of the National Medical Association (NMA Region III) on this program to help build the strength and diversity of these Consortium state affiliates.  Every southern state has a state NMA affiliate.

This project will build the strength of an alliance of state clinician groups and state NMA affiliates in the southeast in order to tackle climate change by strategically training and mentoring doctors to be powerful and knowledgeable voices for change. The fellowship will strengthen the knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, and contacts of the fellows so they can effectively promote equitable- and health-focused climate solutions.   Networking will bring fellows together with each other and with climate action groups in their states.

Through outreach efforts with NMA, six doctors have been selected for a fellowship opportunity with the Consortium. These Fellows are:

Dr. Bethany Carlos, a pediatrician in Charleston, South Carolina

Dr. Armen Henderson, an internal medicine physician in Miami, Florida

Dr. Stephen Houser, an anesthesiologist in Charlotte, North Carolina

Dr. Shaneeta Johnson, a surgeon in Atlanta, Georgia

Dr. Nathan Scott, an ophthalmologist in Miami, Florida

Dr. Linda Walden, a family practitioner in Albany, Georgia

You can read more about the 2021 Fellows here.

This fellowship will engage the doctors over 10 months in intensive monthly training and exercises. Fellows will meet virtually or in-person one day each month for 6-8 hours. In between monthly sessions, they will be tasked with specific practicum activities, such as conducting public outreach and education, identifying and assessing how to respond to an environmental or climate policy or regulatory issue in the region, developing their own climate and health equity presentations, developing testimony or writing letters to the editor.

For more information contact Dr. Kimberly Williams kimberlywilliamsphd@gmail.com or Dr. Mark Mitchell mmitch3@gmu.edu.

This program was made possible with generous support from Johnson & Johnson and the Energy Foundation.