Ximena Solorzano, Staff Photographer

On Feb. 28, over 50 faculty members across various disciplines convened for the Yale Forum on Climate Change and Health, hosted by the Yale Planetary Solutions and Yale Center on Climate Change and Health, or YCCCH. 

The forum, hosted at Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall and featuring speakers from YCCCH, discussed the history of Yale’s climate and health involvement and touched on recent accomplishments. YCCCH Executive Director Jen Wang organized the forum with YCCCH co-faculty directors Dr. Robert Dubrow and Dr. Kai Chen. The forum celebrated ten years of the center.

“We had two primary goals: To bring together Yale faculty from across the university to learn about each other’s work in climate change and health, build relationships, and foster collaboration for future external funding proposals, [and] to celebrate 10 years of YCCCH and re-introduce the center to the Yale community as a leader, convenor, and thought partner on climate change and health research at Yale and beyond,” Jennifer Wang wrote to the News.

Wang joined the University in 2023 and took over as the YCCCH’s executive director. She is a co-instructor in a School of Public Health and School of the Environment’s cross-listed course, “Clinic in Climate Justice and Public Health,” which provides practical experiences for student teams to work on community or stakeholder-engaged projects.

According to Wang, this was the first time faculty have convened for a forum. Its exigence came about to celebrate “the great track record in research, education, and policy” and “re-invite the Yale faculty community to explore collaborations with us.”

“We were very pleased with the turnout from many parts of the University,” Dubrow, the founding director and co-faculty director of YCCCH, said. 

He estimates that, throughout the day, over 50 faculty members attended — including from the Schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, Environment, and Architecture, Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Provost’s Office.

The collaboration between Yale’s medical and climate change research communities has been increasing in recent years, according to Dubrow.

Climate Change and Health Concentration for Masters of Public Health has had 27 graduates since it was established in 2020, according to Dubrow, and over 800 working professionals from 66 countries completed the online Climate Change and Health Certificate Program. Students in the Clinic in Climate Justice and Public Health have carried out 41 projects since the course started in 2017. 

YCCCH also has a CDC-funded partnership with the Connecticut Department for Public Health to engage in local heat and air quality preparedness and response plans.

“The Yale Center on Climate Change and Health is promoting collaborative efforts across multiple disciplines to tackle the health impacts of climate change,” YCCCH Fellow Cristina Arnés Sanz MPH ’25 told the News, “It was very inspiring to witness faculty from various schools at Yale gathering at the Forum with a shared commitment to breaking down silos and co-developing innovative research on climate and health.” 

In 2020, the YCCCH was adapted from the Yale Climate Change and Health Initiative, which was created in 2015.