Health Students for Climate Action

Hello, everyone! Christina here!

For the past few months, I've been working with a team of medical students and physicians at Stanford, UCSF, and UC Davis to organize the 2nd annual NorCal Symposium for Climate, Health, and Equity which will take place TOMORROW Friday, September 24th, 2021 from 12pm-6pm ONLINE. This virtual event was made in collaboration with many community partners from all across Northern California who have done amazing work for environmental justice and health equity. We hope that this will be a space where health professionals, trainees, and community members will come together to discuss the impact of climate change on the health of frontline communities, build reciprocal and productive partnerships, and co-create concrete actions that will help us reach a healthy, just, and sustainable future.

I am incredibly excited to be opening up the noon-1pm keynote session with Dr. Robert Bullard, the "father of environmental justice"! Later, from 2:30-3:40pm, I will be co-hosting the session on Wildfires/Air Pollution, during which I'll be facilitating a breakout room on the mental health impacts of wildfires with Violet Saena (founder and executive director of Climate Resilient Communities), Dee Uhila (founder of Anamatangi Polynesian Voices), and Dr. Ellen Herbst (climate-aware psychiatrist at SFVA Medical Center and UCSF clinical professor).

Please register here, and spread the word! This event is FREE for all students and community members, as well as anyone who can't afford it, and $20 for healthcare professionals.
https://norcalsymposiumorg.wpcomstaging.com/

Submissions by Mernoff, a second-year MD-MS student at the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program. Thank you for your three submissions!

Descriptions:
#1 sculpture, title: mother earth in lockdown
#2 multimedia - screen print + watercolor, title: morning walk to school
#3 sumi ink + pencil + watercolor; title: polluted reef

Submission by Tera Johnson (https://www.instagram.com/tera2.718/), a first-year student in the Master of City Planning program. Thank you for this piece!

Description: “This piece is a tribute to Wangari Maathai, an extraordinary scientist and activist with many firsts. She was the first woman in either East or Central Africa to earn her doctorate, the first woman to become chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Nairobi, and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to sustainable development, democracy and peace.

Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization to combat deforestation in Kenya as well as empower women. Maathai defied gender roles by being an outspoken critic of government deforestation and development plans. Despite being beaten and jailed on several occasions, she tirelessly persisted. The Movement helped plant over 30 million trees, as well as provided 30,000 women with new jobs and skills. The Movement later established a Pan-African Green Belt Network to share its methodologies and approach with throughout Africa.

Here, she is next to a Sycamore Fig Tree, indigenous to Africa and an important source of nourishment and ecosystem stabilization.”

Another art submission is by Aurora Chavez (https://www.instagram.com/blueasyoursangre/), a 2nd year MPH/MCP student.

“I came across these cabezas in Oaxaca while I was searching for my own.”

Thank you for this submission!

Our first art submission is from Elise Symer (https://www.instagram.com/elisesymer/), who is an MPH student in Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, graduating in 2021. Thank you for this beautiful picture of a painting 🌱

Hello everyone! We’d like to announce our next project, Art Communication with HEALS-CA. We hope to elevate the stories and artwork of the Berkeley community through the intersection of health, climate change, and art! Please click on this link (tinyurl.com/healsartcomm) for more information.

Hello, everyone! There recording and the resources sheet for our voter education are both up - we hope they are useful for you, and remember to make a plan to vote if you haven't already 🙂

Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-SuW9HvXG32MIjQzzH2yQo402ZReUq_C/view?usp=sharing

Voting Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K4jDcvkV-AqSH22rlA6UkbBz71VxrR9JZnbzBlQQ-Iw/edit?usp=sharing

Hi everyone! Here are the resources that were shared at our Vote for Change event, including voter guides for local elections: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K4jDcvkV-AqSH22rlA6UkbBz71VxrR9JZnbzBlQQ-Iw/edit?usp=sharing

Recording coming soon!

Resources from Vote for Change Vote for Change Event Pamphlet https://www.canva.com/design/DAEKn8XUFJ4/fXj6x7SfxXh8YRwgEf6gOw/view?utm_content=DAEKn8XUFJ4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink&fbclid=IwAR2DrvHQNaMcQWsXU_yfdjTNzqSiEUMOAnp0uOpjK3tYy9q5gjWIeG2cqqo #4 Health Students for Cli...

Hello, everyone! We are a newly registered student group for graduate students at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health that aims to take collective action to address the urgent health issue of climate change. Through advocacy, community partnerships, research, and educational reform, we use our voices as future health professionals to build a just and sustainable future together. If you're interested in joining, please email [email protected].