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Mother/Earth Under the Microscope: Climate Change and Women's Health

September 14th, 2023
3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Central (Chicago) Time
Rosalind Franklin University
Centennial Room RWCLC 2.068
In-Person/Live Zoom Webinar

Complimentary admission.

Re-thinking Women's Health in a Changing Climate

Climate change is a significant threat to global health due to heat exposure, poor air and water quality, food security, vector-borne diseases, and extreme weather events. Women, pregnant women, children, and the elderly are particularly vulnerable due to socioeconomic, cultural, and physiologic factors, threatening to widen gender-based health disparities. The research and medical communities need to recognize climate change as a threat to patient health and address it as a public health, social justice, human rights, political, and gender issue. This presentation will focus on the effects of climate change on women's health and reframe the role of healthcare providers and researchers in addressing both climate change and its disparities.

AGENDA

3:00 p.m. - Welcome
3:05 p.m. - Opening Remarks
3:10 p.m. - Keynote by Cecilia Sorensen, M.D.
3:50 p.m. - Audience Q&A
3:55 p.m. - Break
4:00 p.m. - Panel Discussion
4:45 p.m. - Audience Q&A
4:55 p.m. - Wrap-up and Thank-you's

KEYNOTE SPEAKER & PANELIST

"Re-thinking Women's Health in a Changing Climate"

Cecilia Sorensen, MD

Director, Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, Columbia University Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Cecilia Sorensen, MD is the Director of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Columbia Irving Medical Center and Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. As a physician-investigator at the nexus of climate change and human health, translating research into policy, clinical action, and education to build resilience in vulnerable communities is the focus of her research. Her recent work has spanned domestic as well as international emergent health issues related to climate change, including, extreme heat, degraded air quality, extreme weather events, emerging infectious diseases, women’s health, and worker health. Dr. Sorensen is a member of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change and serves on the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative for Decarbonization of the U.S. Health Sector. She is the co-editor of the textbook Climate Change and Human Health: From Science to Practice.