The call for climate action has reached a tipping point as the adverse effects of our warming planet like persistent droughts, extreme weather patterns, poor air quality, and wildfires continue to increase. It has also become more evident that marginalized communities will bear the brunt of climate change, and its impacts can further exacerbate unequal social conditions.

As we address this threat worldwide, leaders in this fight must consider that not all effects are felt equitably and develop solutions accordingly.

Talk title: “The Syndemic - Race-based Issues at the Intersection of Climate and Health”

 

 

 

Adrienne L. Hollis, PhD, JD, is both an environmental toxicologist and an environmental attorney. She has more than 20 years of experience in the environmental justice and public health arena. First, by working in the federal system as a section chief at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, where she worked on developing public health assessments for Superfund sites. Later, she served as an associate professor in the Institute of Public Health at Florida A&M University, where she developed the Environmental and Occupational Health track. After law school she worked as a law clerk in New Jersey District Court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Dr. Hollis has also worked as a project attorney at Earthjustice and as the Director of Federal Policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Currently, she is the Senior Climate Justice and Health Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). In that position, she works at the intersection of public health, environmental justice and climate change and leads the work on methods for accessing and documenting the health impacts of climate change on communities of color and other traditionally disenfranchised groups. She works with environmental justice communities to identify priority health concerns related to climate change and other environmental assaults and evaluate climate and energy policy approaches for their ability to effectively address climate change and benefit underserved communities.

Hollis has expertise in environmental justice, toxicology, public health, environmental law, and risk assessment. Her work focuses on the intersection of public health, environmental justice and climate science, diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ), community science and environmental health. She has presented at more than 20 meetings, authored more than 20 blogposts, written a number of articles and been featured in numerous articles for her work. Dr. Hollis is an Associate Editor and reviewer for Environmental Justice journal, a member of the EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Council (CAAAC), a past member of the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee: Chemical Data Reporting Requirements for Inorganic Byproducts, a member of the Lancet Countdown U.S. Brief Working group, an Expert Reviewer for the Government and Expert Review of the First Order Draft (FOD) of the WGII contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC.  She is a professorial lecturer at the Milken School of Public Health in the Environmental and Occupational Health Program and an adjunct professor of Law at New York University Law School where she co-teaches an Environmental Justice seminar. She is an invited speaker this summer for the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s (USGCRP) Sustained Assessment Working Group (SAWG). SAWG is a federal effort to lead the USGCRP sustained assessment process, with particular focus on the National Climate Assessment (NCA).

Hollis is on the Steering Committee of the National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN), is a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and its Environment  Section and Environmental Justice Subcommittee, Special Advisor to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Environmental Health Partnership Council (NEHPC), NEHPC Steering committee member, co-chair of NEHPC’s Environmental Justice/Health Equity Workgroup and its Communication Workgroup. She is also a member of numerous other committees, including the US EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, the Endangered Species Coalition Board, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM)’s Deep Decarbonization Committee, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Advisory Board , and the Title VI Alliance.

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