Climate Disruption, Air Pollution, and Young People’s Health
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
8:00 AM
Welcome
Isabel Gonzalez Whitaker, Associate Vice President for Public Engagement, Moms Clean Air Force
Leena Lazo, Fifth Grader and Kids Clean Air Force Member
Putting Clean Air Policy into Action for Children’s Health
Dominique Browning, Co-Founder & Director, Moms Clean Air Force
Paul Billings, National Senior Vice President, Public Policy for the American Lung Association
Challenges Panel: Climate Disruption, Air Pollution, and Young People: Physical Health, Mental Health, and the Road Ahead
Osasenaga Idahor (Moderator), Harvard Class of 2025 and host of the podcasts The Climate Doctor (no MD) and A Plastic People
Dr. Lisa Patel, Executive Director, Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health
Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, Executive Director, Children’s Environmental Health Network
Judith Enck, President, Beyond Plastics; Former EPA Regional Administrator; and Professor at Bennington College
9:00 AM
Prioritizing Climate Advocacy for Young Children’s Health: A Conversation with Too Small To Fail’s Chelsea Clinton
Grace Bastidas, Editor-in-Chief, Parents
Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair, Clinton Foundation
The White House’s Historic Climate and Environmental Justice Agenda
Brenda Mallory, Chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality
9:30 AM
Solutions Panel: Climate Disruption, Air Pollution, and Young People: Opportunities for Building a Better Future
Patrice Tomcik (Moderator), National Field Director, Moms Clean Air Force
Dr. Susan Anenberg, Professor and Chair, Environmental & Occupational Health Department, George Washington University
Aishah-Nyeta Brown, Climate Advocate, Researcher, and Storyteller
Dr. Lise van Susteren, Author and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University
Closing Conversation: Championing Children’s Health Drives Environmental Wins: A Conversation with EPA Administrator Michael Regan
Michael Regan, Chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality
Grace Bastidas, Editor-in-Chief, Parents
SPEAKERS
Susan Anenberg
Professor and Chair, Environmental & Occupational Health Department, George Washington University
Judith Enck
President, Beyond Plastics ; Former EPA Regional Administrator; and Professor at Bennington College
Osasenaga Idahor
Harvard Class of 2025 and host of the podcasts The Climate Doctor (no MD) and A Plastic People
Lise van Susteren
Author and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University
KEY RESOURCES AND REPORTS
Climate Disruption, Air Pollution, and Young People’s Health
https://www.momscleanairforce.org/resources/climate-disruption-air-pollution-and-young-peoples-health/
The U.S. Early Years Climate Action Plan
https://www.earlyyearsclimateplan.us/
EPA Climate Change and Children’s Health Report
https://www.epa.gov/cira/climate-change-and-childrens-health-report
EcoAmerica Mental Health and Our Changing Climate Children and Youth Report 2023
https://ecoamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Children-and-Youth-Report-2023.pdf
Climate Change, Fossil Fuel Pollution, and Children’s Health
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra2117706
American Lung Association State of the Air Report
https://www.lung.org/research/sota
SPEAKERS
Susan Anenberg
Susan Anenberg is a Professor and Chair of the Environmental and Occupational Health Department at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She is also the Director of the GW Climate and Health Institute. Dr. Anenberg’s research focuses on the health implications of air pollution and climate change, from local to global scales. She currently serves on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, the World Health Organization’s Global Air Pollution and Health Technical Advisory Group, and the National Academy of Science’s Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program. She also serves as President of the GeoHealth section of the American Geophysical Union. Previously, Dr. Anenberg was a Co-Founder and Partner at Environmental Health Analytics, LLC, the Deputy Managing Director for Recommendations at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an environmental scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and a senior advisor for clean cookstove initiatives at the U.S. State Department.
Grace Bastidas
Grace Bastidas is an editor, writer, on-air personality, and parenting expert. In 2022, she was named Editor-in-Chief of Parents, a nearly 100-year-old brand reaching millions of caregivers each month. A bilingual New Yorker raising two daughters, she also hosts the podcast That New Mom Life. Prior to her current role, she launched and led a multicultural brand for Latina caregivers.
Grace regularly shares her parenting expertise in the media as a guest on CBS Mornings, Good Morning America, Kelly & Mark, TODAY, and other popular outlets. She is a skilled public speaker and has presented at events such as Colorcomm, the Start to Flourish Summit from Mother Honestly, Big City Moms, and We All Grow. She moderated a webinar with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and guest-hosted a podcast for NPR’s Life Kit.
In addition, Grace has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and New York, and has always been passionate about giving voice to underrepresented communities. Grace also serves as an ambassador for the Good+ Foundation, a nonprofit working to break the cycle of family poverty. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University with a dual major in journalism and Latin American studies.
Paul Billings
Paul Billings is the National Senior Vice President of Public Policy for the American Lung Association. In this capacity, he oversees the Lung Association’s lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, climate, healthy air, and tobacco control advocacy program. During his tenure at the Lung Association, he has led federal advocacy campaigns that resulted in stricter regulations on tobacco products, growth in research funding, improved patient access to preventive services, and cleanup of air pollution from motor vehicles and power plants. Paul Billings has worked for the American Lung Association for more than 30 years.
Previously, he directed grassroots activities for the National Clean Air Coalition, and he was an associate with the FMR Group in Washington, DC. A graduate of Bates College, he also attended Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Paul and his wife, Teresa, a retired public school teacher, reside in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Aishah-Nyeta Brown
Aishah-Nyeta is an impassioned climate change advocate, researcher, and storyteller. Her remarkable journey into the world of environmental awareness was ultimately fueled by a deep-rooted love for storytelling. Aishah-Nyeta recognized the power of narrative as a means to connect with people, ignite their passion, and convey the urgency of climate change. At 17, her thirst for knowledge led her to explore geospatial technologies during a brief academic stint at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
Aishah-Nyeta is resolute in her commitment to elevate environmental consciousness on a global scale. She harnesses her diverse talents, encompassing music, performing arts, and fine arts, to catalyze innovation within the climate change field while recognizing the storytelling aspect that binds her work together. Her approach is characterized by a transdisciplinary understanding of the intricate nexus that connects our world, essential in addressing the multifaceted challenges of climate change.
Aishah-Nyeta is unwaveringly dedicated to making a lasting impact on communities worldwide, revolutionizing how we comprehend and respond to our changing climate. Her commitment to this cause is further exemplified through her positions with Good Energy, Climate Mental Health Network, and the Climate Psychological Alliance of North America.
A tireless advocate, Aishah-Nyeta champions a myriad of causes, including climate justice, racial equity, youth climate education, and disability rights. Her resolute dedication to these issues, coupled with her passion for storytelling, underscores her belief in a more beautiful story for all people living on this planet.
With unwavering determination and an innate ability to unite various disciplines in her pursuit of change, Aishah-Nyeta stands as a formidable force in the fight against environmental injustice, using the art of storytelling to create connections and inspire action.
Dominique Browning
Over ten years ago, Dominique Browning convened a series of conversations with women who had expertise in climate policy, regulatory and legal clean air issues, marketing, and business to discuss how to engage and mobilize people—and specifically mothers—to fight climate pollution. Moms Clean Air Force was formed of those conversations, with the mission of changing the focus of our national conversation about global warming from polar bears to people. Over the next decade, Moms Clean Air Force has grown to become a national organization of over a million mothers, with over a dozen state chapters, uniting to protect our children’s health and well-being by making sure our clean air, toxic chemicals, and climate rules and laws are as strong as they can be.
Previous to joining Environmental Defense Fund, Browning spent decades in the magazine world, where she worked as an editor at Esquire, Texas Monthly, and House & Garden. At the Washington Post’s Newsweek in the 1980s, she broke the glass ceiling in becoming the first woman assistant managing editor of any of the U.S. newsmagazines. She is the author of several books and has contributed regularly to Time.com and The New York Times.
Browning is a recipient of the Audubon Women in Conservation’s prestigious Rachel Carson Award and was recently honored with an Advocates Award from Environmental Advocates of New York.
Thoughts of the disruption and devastation ahead for humanity on our rapidly warming planet keep Browning up at night. Running Moms Clean Air Force is a way to be able to look her two sons, and her grandchild, in the eye, and tell them she is doing everything she can to protect the future for all children.
Chelsea Clinton
As Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea Clinton works alongside the foundation’s leadership and partners to improve lives and inspire emerging leaders across the United States and around the world. This includes the foundation’s early childhood initiative Too Small to Fail, which supports families with the resources they need to promote early brain and language development, and the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), a global program that empowers student leaders to turn their ideas into action. A longtime public health advocate, Chelsea also serves as Vice Chair of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and uses her platform to increase awareness around issues such as vaccine hesitancy, childhood obesity, and health equity.
In addition to her foundation work, Chelsea teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and has written several books for young readers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World as well as She Persisted Around the World, She Persisted in Sports, She Persisted in Science, Start Now! You Can Make a Difference, Don’t Let Them Disappear, It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going, and Welcome to the Big Kids Club. She is also the co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women and Grandma’s Gardens with Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and of Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? with Devi Sridhar. Chelsea’s podcast, In Fact with Chelsea Clinton, premiered in 2021, and she is the Co-Founder of HiddenLight Productions.
Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford, a Master of Public Health from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, and both a Master of Philosophy and a Doctorate in International Relations from Oxford University. She lives with her husband, Marc, and their children Charlotte, Aidan, and Jasper, in New York City.
Judith Enck
Judith Enck founded Beyond Plastics in 2019 to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy, and institutional change.
Passionate about protecting public health and the environment, she teaches classes on plastic pollution as a Senior Fellow and Visiting Faculty Member at Bennington College, and she was recently a Visiting Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.
Judith has held top influential positions in state and federal government. Appointed by President Barack Obama, she served as the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, overseeing environmental protections in New York, New Jersey, eight Indian Nations, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—in addition to managing a staff of 800 and a $700 million budget.
Previously, Judith served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor’s Office and as Policy Advisor to the New York State Attorney General. She was Senior Environmental Associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group, served as Executive Director for Environmental Advocates of New York and the Non-Profit Resource Center, and is a past President of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.
Judith appears on a weekly public affairs radio show on a local NPR affiliate, The Roundtable on WAMC in Albany, New York.
Judith lives in upstate New York with her husband, where they built their passive solar home with their own hands and with lots of support from friends and family. She designed her town’s rural recycling program. She is a proud parent and enjoys reading and following the news in her spare time.
Osasenaga Idahor
Osasenaga Idahor is the producer and host of the podcast The Climate Doctor, no MD. He started the podcast in 2022 to learn more about the ways urban health is affected by environmental health and hopefully spread awareness. As an intern with Moms Clean Air Force, he hosted a standalone podcast on the health and climate change impacts of using plastics and the petrochemical industry. He is also a member of the EPA’s inaugural National Environmental Youth Advisory Council.
Osasenaga is specifically interested in urban environmental health disparities and environmental justice. Osasenaga comes from Hyde Park, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, that has several environmental health challenges. His experience growing up in Hyde Park taught him how the community’s environmental health was being neglected as an important health concern. He is interested in becoming a climate doctor, which he describes as a doctor who is acutely aware of the ways climate change affects his patient’s health. He is a junior at Harvard studying environmental science and public policy while also being a premed student.
Brenda Mallory
Brenda Mallory is the 12th Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the first African American to serve in this position. In this role, she advises the President on environmental and natural resources policies that improve, preserve, and protect public health and the environment for communities across the U.S. She is focused particularly on addressing the environmental justice and climate change challenges the nation faces while advancing opportunities for job growth and economic development. Chair Mallory has decades of experience in both the private and public sector, including spending nearly 20 years at the Environmental Protection Agency and CEQ, serving in a number of senior roles. In Chair Mallory’s first stint at CEQ as the General Counsel, she helped shape many of President Barack Obama’s signature environmental and natural resource policy successes. Now, as Chair, she is advancing President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate and environmental justice agenda.
Chair Mallory was the first in her family to attend college, graduating from Yale with a double major in history and sociology and then from Columbia Law School as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
Dr. Lisa Patel
Lisa Patel is the Executive Director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford School of Medicine. She is also a member of the Executive Committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change and is a Board Member for Our Children’s Trust. Lisa received her Master’s in Environmental Sciences from the Yale School of the Environment, her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and completed her training in pediatrics at the University of California–San Francisco. She is a former Presidential Management Fellow for the Environmental Protection Agency. She has been published in the New York Times and the LA Times and is interviewed regularly across national media venues for her expertise on climate change, equity, and children’s health.
Michael Regan
Michael S. Regan was sworn in as the 16th Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on March 11, 2021, becoming the first Black man and second person of color to lead the U.S. EPA.
Administrator Regan is a native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he developed a passion for the environment while hunting and fishing with his father and grandfather, and exploring the vast lands, waters, and inner Coastal Plain of North Carolina. As the son of two public servants—his mother, a nurse for nearly 30 years, and his father, a retired Colonel with the North Carolina National Guard, Vietnam veteran, and former agricultural extension agent—Regan went on to follow in his parents’ footsteps and pursue a life of public service.
Prior to his nomination as EPA Administrator, Regan served as the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). As Secretary, he spearheaded the development and implementation of North Carolina’s seminal plan to address climate change and transition the state to a clean energy economy. Under his leadership, he secured the largest coal ash cleanup in United States history. He led complex negotiations regarding the cleanup of the Cape Fear River, which had been contaminated for years by the toxic chemicals per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS). In addition, he established North Carolina’s first-of-its-kind Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board to better align social inequities, environmental protection, and community empowerment.
Previously, Administrator Regan served as Associate Vice President of U.S. Climate and Energy and as Southeast Regional Director of the Environmental Defense Fund, where he convened energy companies, business leaders, environmental and industry groups, and elected officials across the country to achieve pragmatic solutions to the climate crisis.
He began his career with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, eventually becoming a national program manager responsible for designing strategic solutions with industry and corporate stakeholders to reduce air pollution, improve energy efficiency, and address climate change.
Throughout his career, he has been guided by a belief in forming consensus, fostering an open dialogue rooted in respect for science and the law, and recognizing that environmental protection and economic prosperity go hand in hand.
Administrator Regan is a graduate of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, making him the first EPA Administrator to have graduated from a historically Black college and university. He earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from The George Washington University. He and his wife Melvina are proud parents to their son, Matthew.
Patrice Tomcik
Patrice Tomcik is the National Field Director for Moms Clean Air Force, where she manages the field program, campaigns, and operations.
She is passionate about public health, and her work focuses on equitable solutions to protect children’s health from air pollution and climate change through advocacy actions and policy work at all levels of government.
Patrice first became involved in fighting for children’s environmental health protections when gas wells were permitted to be fracked a half mile from her children’s schools in southwestern Pennsylvania. Patrice joined with other parents to fight for clean air protections for the children in her community, which launched her volunteer work with Moms Clean Air Force. Ever since, she has been advocating for children’s health protections from air pollution and climate change working for Moms Clean Air Force.
Patrice lives in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, with her family and enjoys reading, gardening, biking, and watching her sons play sports.
Patrice has been recognized numerous times by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania’s Public News Service, Keystone State News Connection, Pennsylvania Environmental Daily Digest, Philadelphia Inquirer, PBS EcoSense, Scientific American, United Press International, Bloomberg, and Ms. magazine.
Lise Van Susteren
Dr. Lise Van Susteren is a general and forensic psychiatrist in Washington, DC, and an expert on the physical and psychological impacts of climate change. In 2011, she co-authored the report The Psychological Effects of Global Warming on the U.S.—Why the US Mental Health System Is Not Prepared. Van Susteren is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The George Washington University and has been a consultant to the executive branch of the US government profiling world leaders.
After receiving her medical degree from the University of Paris, she practiced medicine in West Africa and at community health centers and homeless shelters in metropolitan Washington, DC. In addition to community organizing on climate issues, Van Susteren serves on numerous boards, including Earth Day Network, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and ecoAmerica. She is a co-founder of Climate Psychiatry Alliance and of Climate Psychology Alliance–North America, professional groups dedicated to promoting awareness and action on climate from a mental health perspective. Van Susteren is the expert witness on the psychological damages to young people from inaction on climate in Juliana v. US Government, Held v. State of Montana, and Navahaine v. Hawaii Department of Transportation.
She is a frequent contributor on television, on radio, and in the print media. In 2006, Dr. Van Susteren sought the Democratic nomination to the US Senate from Maryland. Her book, Emotional Inflammation: Discover Your Triggers and Reclaim Your Equilibrium During Anxious Times, was published in April 2020.
Current projects include work on the Ecopsychepedia and the forthcoming book “Climate and Your Mind.” Both are online and accessible without charge.
Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH
Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, serves as the Executive Director for the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), extending partnerships, organizing, leading, and managing policy, education/training, and science-related programs. For the past 23 years, she has served as a key spokesperson for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their protection, conducting presentations and lectures across the country.
She is a leader in the field of children’s environmental health, serving on the External Science Board for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) NIH Research work. She is a co-leader for the Health/Science initiative of the Cancer Free Economy Network, Co-Chair of the America the Beautiful for All Coalition, Lead Chair for Clean Water for All, and leader in the Climate Equity Collaborative. Witherspoon is also the past Board Chair and current Board Member for the Pesticide Action Network of North America, the Environmental Integrity Project, and Healthy Building Network, and she serves on the Maryland Children’s Environmental Health Advisory Council.
Witherspoon has held past appointments on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for the Environmental Protection Agency, the NIH Council of Councils, the Science Advisory Board for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Board for the American Public Health Association. She is the past Co-Chair of the National Environmental Health Partnership Council and past member of the National Association of Environmental Health Sciences Council and the Institute of Medicine’s Environmental Health Sciences Roundtable.
Witherspoon has a variety of publications and has the distinct honor of having one of CEHN’s leadership awards, the Nsedu Obot Witherspoon (NOW) Youth Leadership Award, named in her honor. She is also the recent recipient of the William R. Reilly Award in Environmental Leadership from the Center for Environmental Policy at American University, the Snowy Egret Award from the Eastern Queens Alliance, and the 950 Alumni Award by The George Washington School of Public Health and Health Services.
She has a BS in Biology Pre Med from Siena College and an MPH in Maternal and Child Health from The George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services. She is a proud mom to four children.