April 14, 2026

On March 11th, the UHC hosted Dr. Edward Maibach, Distinguished University Professor (Emeritus) and Founding Director (Emeritus) of the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. He is Principal Investigator of the Yale/George Mason Climate Change in the American Mind project, and also co-founded the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and Climate Matters, a network of 30 state organizations, 60 medical societies, and thousands of individual members.

Dr. Maibach is a leading expert in the field of climate change research, and much of his current work is centered around developing and studying novel ways to effectively communicate the adverse outcomes of climate change and the urgent need to address them.  

His talk, “Building Public and Political Will for Protecting Human Health from Climate Change,” began by sharing examples of successful communications campaigns to address similar pressing, large-scale problems – namely, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and smoking tobacco. In doing so, he presented evidence-based guidance for effective communication campaigns: simple and clear messages, repeated often, by a variety of trusted and caring voices.  

As he put it, “people simplify, our job is to simplify appropriately.” 

To learn more about these methods, and how Dr. Maibach proposes we employ them, to activate decision makers to fight climate change, view some footage from an interview we conducted with Dr. Maibach on our instagram. You can also view the full presentation below. 

Watch a recording of the talk for more insights from Dr. Maibach:

More experts will be coming to present with the UHC as the year progresses through our Invited Speaker Series! View the full schedule below: 

Learn More