This session showcases emerging research from trainees investigating the diverse ways climate change and environmental exposures shape health and health risks across populations and settings.
Together, these studies demonstrate the range of approaches being used by emerging climate and health researchers and highlight opportunities to better understand, communicate, and address emerging climate-related health risks.
Presentations will include:
- Extreme Heat Warning Policies and Mortality Risk in Vulnerable Communities: Evidence from Arizona and Nevada – Robert Amoah
- Climate-Driven Salinization Shapes Mosquito Behaviour Without Reducing Survival: Implications for West Nile Virus Risk in Cities – Sherry Du
- Mechanisms Through Which Climate Change Negatively Impacts Youth Mental Health: A Qualitative Analysis of Canadian Youth and Service Provider Perspectives – Zachary Daly
- Mortality and Morbidity Effects of Air Pollution Control in Mexico City – Valeria Gracia Olvera
- When Wildfires Spread, So Do Messages: Evaluating Wildfire Communication on Facebook – Danika Paquette Rochette
- Diverging Trends in Burned Area and Aerosol Exposure Across Urban Gradients in East Africa (2000-2024) – Jack Cheng
- The ‘Sensing Heat’ Project: Older Adults’ Lived Experiences of Climate Change and Extreme Heat in Vancouver, British Columbia – Rachel Stern
Moderator
Daniel Rainham, MSc, PhD
Daniel Rainham is a Professor in Health Promotion in the School of Health and Human Performance, is cross-appointed with the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University and is an Affiliate Scientist with Nova Scotia Health. His research focusses on 1) issues in environmental epidemiology with specific focus on air pollution, noise and effects of the built environment on health, and 2) environmentally sustainable healthcare systems. He is also the Academic Director and Co-founder of the Centre for Planetary Health and Sustainable Care (sustainablecare.ca).
Panelists
Robert Amoah, MA
Robert Amoah is a PhD student in Public Administration and Public Affairs at Virginia Tech, where he studies climate health equity through quantitative policy analysis. He uses county-level panel data and regression methods to examine how poverty, age, housing constraints, and heat warning systems relate to heat-caused deaths. His work identifies which communities face the greatest risk and informs equity-centered climate adaptation and public sector decision-making.
Jack Cheng, MSc
Jack Cheng is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, His research explores exposures and behavioural responses to wildfire smoke in urban environments. He is investigating how much wildfire smoke contributes to air pollution exposure, the extent to which people change their daily behaviours during smoke events, how the ability to adapt varies across communities, and how health risk estimates change from changes in behaviour. By combining atmospheric data, and human activity pattern data, his work aims to better understand climate-related air pollution risks and support more equitable public health responses.
Zachary Daly, RN
Zachary Daly is a registered nurse with a background in adolescent mental health and is working to complete his PhD in Nursing at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. His multi-method research draws on participatory methods and examines the impacts of climate change on youth mental health, focusing not only on how these impacts manifest in clinical spaces, but also on the forms of support youth find helpful.
Sherry Du, HBSc
Sherry Du is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Her research interests include urban environmental change, mosquito ecology, and public health implications of climate-driven habitat alteration. She conducts large-scale field-based studies to understand how climate-related changes in freshwater systems affect mosquito behaviour and West Nile Virus risk. Ultimately, Sherry is committed to translating ecological research into evidence that informs climate adaptation, urban planning, and public health protection.
Valeria Gracia Olvera, MSc
Valeria Gracia Olvera is a Health Policy PhD Candidate in the Decision Sciences track and a Fulbright García-Robles scholar at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research agenda focuses on evaluating viable air pollution mitigation strategies to support health policy decision-making through simulation and modeling.
Danika Paquette, MSc
Danika Paquette is a Ph.D. candidate in Population Health at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Dr. Karen Phillips. She completed her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa. She then completed one year of a master’s program before fast-tracking into the Ph.D. program in Population Health at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on climate change, disaster exposures, and maternal and perinatal health, with particular attention to wildfire smoke and risk communication. Danika is also a Clinical Research Assistant at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute within the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Newborn Care.
Rachel Stern, MA
Rachel Stern is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia. She is a geographer and researcher, focused on extreme heat, housing justice, and aging. Her research focuses on seniors’ experience of extreme heat in rental and co-operative housing in Vancouver, specifically using interviews, focus groups, and written methodologies to better understand the politics of indoor heat. More broadly, Rachel is interested in the role of memory politics, storytelling, oral histories, and arts-based methodologies in understanding experiences of extreme heat and climate change.