About a year ago, the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) created a necessary new job: Chief Heat Officer, naming Dr. Eugene Livar to the role. This first-of-its-kind position was created to tackle the state’s notoriously bad and worsening heat crisis, as it continuously faces some of the highest temperatures in the country. The state’s heat-related death rate has increased tenfold in 20 years, by some estimates, and already this year, Phoenix has seen temperatures above 100 degrees, first hitting that mark on April 10, about 3 weeks earlier than usual. Arizona is not the only state experiencing extreme high temperatures or the only state that would benefit from a Chief Heat Officer; a record-breaking heat wave in Texas made national news just last week.
Tell Congress: Protect Our Ability to Prepare for and Recover From Severe Weather Threats
In his new role, Dr. Livar joined EcoMadres, the Latino community engagement program of Moms Clean Air Force, for our inaugural Summit on Extreme Weather Impacts on Latina Maternal and Children’s Health in Phoenix last fall. On a panel focused on addressing the unequal climate challenges faced by Latino children, Dr. Livar emphasized the importance of collaborating with stakeholders to drive meaningful and actionable solutions. “It takes a village,” he said. “It takes a team to deal with heat across the board.”
We spoke to Dr. Livar to learn more about his groundbreaking new role, his team, and his journey that landed him there.
You’re the first person ever to hold this position in the U.S. How do you describe your job?
The core of my position is to oversee the implementation of Governors Hobbs’ Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan. This requires collaborating and coordinating in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Resiliency, and engaging state agencies, local health departments, Tribal communities, municipalities, academic institutions, and other partners from across the State.
This position ensures that Arizona implements and continues a collaborative statewide approach for preparation and response to heat-related needs and concerns in both urban and rural communities. And I think that’s really important to us, that we continue that urban, rural and Tribal focus as we go forward because we have a holistic state approach that we need to consider for this state position.
The position also acts as a bridge between federal and local entities to ensure Arizona’s voice and needs are heard, and we do our best to ensure Arizona has a seat at the table for policy and decisions around extreme heat.
What does your job look like on a daily basis?
My day to day can vary greatly. In general, it consists of coordinating communications and efforts across a wide variety of partners. These can be in state, between states, or at the federal level. Also, review and awareness of daily weather alerts during heat season to see what may be impactful to communities and people across the state, coordination with our internal heat team, and others within ADHS.
Coordination with various stakeholders for meetings and engagements, such as the one that we participated in with EcoMadres, sharing updates with the Governor’s supportive staff, and the Governor’s Office of Resiliency happens on a regular basis, assessing heat, threshold status, and the needs from across the state, responding to media and speaking invites.
I also oversee the ADHS Bureau of Resiliency and the Environment and Federal Liaison.
How did you end up in this job? Is there a degree for it?
To my knowledge, there is not a single specific degree. But in my scenario and situation, experience in public health, preparedness, media, and a high level of planning and coordination is very helpful for this type of position.
I have lived in Arizona for over 14 years, so having experienced life here comes into play. I’m proud to say that I have over 10 years of varying public health background and experience.
Prior to this role, I have a clinical background and have held various public health management positions from program manager to bureau chief to assistant director. I’ve participated and led various health emergency Operations Center responses, and I was the Assistant Director of Public Health Preparedness at ADHS.
Much of my experience focused on the process of planning and implementing programs to respond to public health issues and concerns. I think that came in handy when thinking about this position and what the vision was for chief heat officer in Arizona moving forward.
How does your job fight the climate crisis?
My hope is that the chief heat officer can build bridges and encourage collaboration and transparency and extreme heat efforts moving forward. The position is well positioned to ensure a close connection between federal and local extreme heat and resiliency efforts. The officer can help our state prepare, deal with, and evaluate extreme heat efforts each year, and hopefully be in a better position for our partners and residents each heat season. As we tackle extreme heat, there are definitely timings with tie-ins, with climate, crisis and resiliency, and making sure that those are all connected and moving forward.
What keeps you motivated when your work is challenging?
In the state of Arizona, there are many individuals and entities that have been working on extreme heat for a long time, and it is great to have those passionate stakeholders and be able to learn from some of the best practices that they’ve discovered and implemented over the years.
Also there’s national interest in finding and creating a way forward concerning extreme heat, which is extremely helpful. We often say that we’re building the plane as we’re flying it with extreme heat, because there’s no single template out there for us to follow at this time. We’re developing it as we go, which is a very interesting and engaging way to move forward with an effort.
And we know every heat season is coming, and that’s different from other environmental hazards and crises like flooding and hurricanes. But still each heat season is its own by duration and magnitude and the impacted areas and population. That makes it different and engaging every year.
When did this even become a job? And do you think it will expand as a typical one?
A state-level chief heat officer is new, and I hope to see more of these types of positions as time passes, since heat impacts us from the West to the East Coast and everywhere in between. We’ve seen heat officers at local levels, but it’s really important to have the position at a state level, and I hope this will become common.
Tell Congress: Protect Our Ability to Prepare for and Recover From Severe Weather Threats