Advancing climate-smart health care from the front lines
As trusted leaders, health professionals have a unique opportunity to advance health care sustainability and influence policies to protect the health of their patients and the broader community
With the help of generous donors, Health Care Without Harm supports emerging and established clinical health professional leaders, leveraging their influence and expertise to advance the growing health care sustainability movement and create climate-smart health care through mitigation, resilience, and leadership
The Emerging Physician Leader Award and Scholarship
Medical students, residents, or fellows
Recognizes demonstrated passion for sustainable health care or a commitment to climate and health leadership.
The Blair and Georgia Sadler Fellowship
Early-career clinicians
An opportunity for emerging clinical health leaders who want to work on equitable, climate-smart health care in their institutions and communities.
The Climate and Health Science Policy Fellowship
Physicians
Empowers and trains physicians to be credible, influential, and knowledgeable climate and health thought leaders.
"I am given hope by the many ways health professionals – especially the next generation – are taking action to address the climate crisis and create climate-smart health care." – Dr. Amy Collins
Please support the next generation of health care sustainability leaders
Make a donation to the Climate action fund for health professionals.
The Emerging Physician Leader Award and Scholarship
The Emerging Physician Leader Award and Scholarship was established in 2018 by the Health Care Without Harm Physician Network, recognizing the importance of mentoring and supporting the next generation of physician sustainability champions.
The award recognizes a medical student, resident, or fellow who has demonstrated a passion for sustainable health care or a commitment to climate and health leadership. Thanks to our generous donors, we have awarded many scholarships since 2019.
Opportunities for medical students, residents, or fellows
Award recipients will receive:
- Free registration to CleanMed Salt Lake City from May 21-23
- Up to three nights in the CleanMed Salt Lake City conference hotel
- A travel stipend for transportation to and from the conference
- A $1,000 grant to support a project that aligns with the goals of the Health Care Without Harm Physician Network to support physician and medical student action to reduce the environmental impact of health delivery and promote climate-smart health care through mitigation, resilience, and leadership
This year the award is offered by Health Care Without Harm in collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Celebrating our award recipients
Dr. Sarah Schear
Sarah Schear, M.D., M.S., is a pediatric resident at Children’s National Hospital and an incoming pediatric palliative care fellow at the University of Utah Health. She was selected for her proven track record in climate leadership. Schear has supported medical trainee involvement, co-founded Medical Students for a Sustainable Future and Climate Health Now, and adapted the Planetary Health Report Card and created a report card for trainees to help residents and fellows to advance climate mitigation and resilience at their hospitals and health systems. For her project, she is going to pilot the new Planetary Health Report Card in graduate medical training programs with trainees in the United States and multiple countries.
“I am honored to receive this award from an organization I admire deeply. I can't wait to attend CleanMed and build relationships with colleagues committed to environmental stewardship and equitable transformation of our health care system. Health professional trainees around the world are sparking advocacy for sustainable health systems, and I'm grateful for Health Care Without Harm's support of trainee leadership.”
Genevieve Silva
Genevieve Silva, B.S., is an M.D. and M.B.A. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and The Wharton School, a former Environmental Defense Fund Fellow, and an inaugural ClimateCAP MBA Fellow. She was selected for the numerous ways she has taken action to address the climate crisis and advance climate-smart health care, including serving on the founding board of Medical Students for a Sustainable Future and hosting the podcast Code Green: The Climate Smart Health Professional, along with her commitment to prepare for a career that combines clinical practice with a sustainable health care leadership role. For her project, she will be conducting a Scope 1-3 greenhouse gas inventory of a Penn Medicine outpatient dermatology practice and creating a template and roadmap to support other departments in the health system conduct comprehensive GHG inventories.
"It is a complete honor to receive the Emerging Physician Leader Award. With the generous support of Health Care Without Harm, I aim to develop a department-level carbon footprint analysis and report that can be leveraged to positively impact decarbonization within my home health system. I look forward to continuing this project and to learning from leaders in the world of health care sustainability at this year’s CleanMed conference."
Zachariah Tman
Zachariah Tman, M.P.H., a native of Yap in the West Pacific, is a medical student at UC San Diego School of Medicine, who recently took a gap year to study sustainability practices and the high incidence of squamous cell oral cancer in the Yap islands. He was selected for efforts to improve health and health care education in the West Pacific, along with his career goal to advance sustainable health care practices in both the Western world and the Pacific Islands, an area exceptionally vulnerable to climate change, For his project, he will be creating a toolkit for UC San Diego Health and community health professionals that care for vulnerable populations facing climate change events such as wildfire smoke and extreme heat to help build community climate resilience.
“As a Pacific Islander, it is deeply humbling and a profound honor to receive this award to support my future endeavors to promote sustainable health care; endeavors that also benefit the Pacific and my home islands. I am immensely excited to attend CleanMed to meet and learn from inspiring leaders in this area, and renew my commitment to the shared responsibility of working towards climate-friendly, sustainable medicine. An earnest thank you to Health Care Without Harm for the mentorship and aiding in my project of creating clinician toolkits for climate change related weather events."
Tina Bharani
Tina Bharani, M.D., a general surgery resident at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, was selected for her varied academic interests including surgical nutrition, climate-friendly diets in health care, value-based health care, and sustainable health care, especially minimizing surgical waste. For her project, she will identify unused instruments in surgical trays and evaluate inter-surgeon variability related to surgical instruments for three commonly performed laparoscopic abdominal procedures: cholecystectomy, hernia repair, and sleeve gastrectomy.
“I am deeply honored to receive the award because this opportunity will help me build lasting connections with leaders in the field whose wisdom and guidance will be instrumental in my future efforts. I am most excited to attend CleanMed because I will get to learn about the challenges that leaders in the field have faced in promoting environmental sustainability in medicine first-hand. This will provide me with invaluable lessons to tackle the challenges that I will face in my journey.”
Taylor Diedrich
Taylor Diedrich, a medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine, was selected for her leadership role as the co-director of the Planetary Health Report Card, efforts to integrate planetary health education into the medical school curriculum, and interests in climate-smart health care and low-emissions inhalers. For her project, she will implement climate-smart inhaler practices at a pediatric clinic.
“It is such an honor to receive this award. As a future physician, I believe it is essential for the health care sector to create a healthier world for patients by adopting climate-smart practices. I am grateful to Health Care Without Harm for supporting my project, and I look forward to connecting with professionals in sustainable health care at CleanMed.”
Gwyneth Sullivan
Gwyneth Sullivan, M.D., M.S., is a resident physician at the Rush University Medical Center Department of Surgery. She was selected for her passion for reducing the environmental impact of pediatric surgery, track record of leading successful sustainability initiatives in the OR, climate-smart surgery research experience, and the sustainability-related work she has done with surgical professional societies and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
For her project, she will conduct a life-cycle assessment of laparoscopic methods for appendectomy with Blair and Georgia Sadler Fellowship recipient Hayley Petit.
“Receiving this award is an absolute honor, and I am looking forward to connecting with other leaders in sustainable health care at CleanMed this year. The operating room is a major source of both waste and greenhouse gas emissions with many opportunities for improvement. I plan to focus my career on reducing the environmental impact of surgery, and the support from Health Care Without Harm is instrumental as I work toward this goal.”
Emily Yamron
Emily Yamron is a medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She was selected for her interest in the link between extreme heat and cardiac disease and leadership as a medical student, including her roles on the executive board of the Einstein Sustainability Club and as curriculum co-chair of Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, and for her recognition that creating resilience to extreme heat is a climate justice issue.
For her project, she will create educational resources about the intersection between heat, health, and health care with a goal of mitigating health disparities and creating climate resilience among vulnerable groups in the Bronx community who face a disproportionate burden of disease due to extreme heat events.
“I’m honored and humbled to be receiving this award in order to undertake a project that will help practitioners, community organizations, and individuals protect themselves and their communities from the harms of extreme heat. I’m thrilled to be able to meet sustainable health care leaders at CleanMed and am excited to see how our collective efforts can improve the impact the health care sector has on climate change mitigation, resilience, and leadership.”
Dr. Laura Donahue
Laura Donahue, M.D., an internal medicine resident at McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, was selected for her passion for sustainable health care and waste reduction, along with her strong research background. She has performed life-cycle assessment comparing reusable and disposable vaginal specula, an analysis of the carbon footprint of residency interview travel, and a retrospective waste audit of an inpatient pharmacy.
For her project, she will conduct a research study to identify opportunities to reduce inpatient pharmaceutical waste to decrease the climate impact of pharmaceutical use.
“I am humbled and honored to have been selected. Pharmacologic therapy is the backbone of internal medicine, yet little is known about the carbon footprint or solid waste production associated with medication administration, particularly in the inpatient setting. Health Care Without Harm has played an integral role in my development as a clinician and climate-smart health care advocate thus far. I am proud to have their support for my research. I am incredibly excited to meet and collaborate with like-minded clinicians and other interdisciplinary members of the health care team at CleanMed and to learn new ways to advocate for sustainability in my clinical practice moving forward.”
Karly Hampshire
Karly Hampshire, a medical student at UC San Francisco School of Medicine, was selected for the many ways she has demonstrated climate-health leadership. This includes founding and co-directing the Planetary Health Report Card – a successful, student-led, metric-based initiative to inspire planetary health in medical schools, with adaptations underway for pharmacy and nursing programs.
For her project, she will lead Interview Without Harm, a research project and advocacy campaign calling for the permanent adoption of virtual medical school, residency, and fellowship interviews, to be more sustainable and equitable for people and the planet.
“I am honored and humbled to receive this award and to have the opportunity to connect with like-minded leaders at the CleanMed 2022 conference. As health professionals deeply invested in the wellbeing of our communities, we must lead the way in decarbonizing health care and reimagining unsustainable, business-as-usual practices. With the support of Health Care without Harm, my project seeks to advocate for the rethinking of inequitable and emissions-intensive, in-person interviews for medical school, residency, and fellowship.”
Stella Protopapas and Margaret Tharp
Stella Protopapas, M.P.H. and Margaret Tharp, medical students at Indiana University School of Medicine, applied as a team and were selected for their commitment to advance sustainable health care at their institution along with their medical school leadership, including helping to start the school’s chapter of Medical Students for a Sustainable Future and participating in the Planetary Health Report Card.
For their project, they will be conducting a 24-hour waste audit at a multi-specialty, outpatient surgical facility to develop new purchasing protocols and educational interventions that minimize environmental impact and financial loss.
“It is such an honor to receive this award and to be able to attend CleanMed this year. I look forward to making connections and learning skills that will allow me to continue to develop climate-informed health care projects at my home institution. This will be directly evident in our waste audit project, which Health Care Without Harm has generously helped fund. With this type of professional and financial support, our health care systems can truly become institutions of healing.”
"I am deeply honored to have been selected and thrilled about the impact this will have on our project and future projects in the state of Indiana and beyond. Climate change is the largest public health crisis facing our world today and central to inequity and strife across the globe. To be able to have a role in generating more climate-smart health care is a dream-come-true and a duty I feel grateful to take part in daily."
Dr. Katherine Velicki
Katherine Velicki, M.D., an orthopedic resident at Oregon Health & Science University, was selected for her commitment to establishing herself as a leader in the sustainable surgery movement and dedicating a portion of her career to research that provides surgical professionals with the evidence-based data and tools they need to make operating rooms climate-smart.
For her project, she will conduct a multi-hospital cost analysis of disposable and reusable surgical gowns to address the belief that reusable gowns are more expensive.
“After scrubbing into my first cases as a medical student, I noticed a dissonance between my love of surgery and my love of the environment. I am humbled and grateful to have an avenue to reconcile these loves with support from this year's Emerging Physician Leader Award. I can't wait to attend CleanMed and apply the research skills I've developed in orthopedic surgery training toward projects that help surgeons make climate-smart decisions and drive innovation in operating room sustainability.”
Raj Fadadu
Raj Fadadu, MS, is an M.D. candidate at UCSF School of Medicine who was chosen for his commitment to climate justice and the many ways he has demonstrated climate leadership as a student through education, research, and advocacy. For his project, he will create a variety of evidence-based patient educational materials about the health impacts of wildfires for use online and in clinical settings throughout the country.
“I am committed to ensuring that all stakeholders in the health care sector, from practitioners to patients to administrators, understand the dynamic intersection between the climate crisis and human health. In collaboration, we can develop solutions that improve systems and processes to promote public health and climate justice, which are topics I am excited to learn more about at the interdisciplinary CleanMed conference. For my project, I will integrate my leadership experiences with environmental health research, community activism, and education to create patient-oriented educational materials on the health effects of wildfires.”
Dr. Ryan Hall
Ryan Hall, M.D., is a surgical resident at Tufts Medical Center who was selected for his potential to become a climate-smart surgeon leader and researcher, along with his commitment to reducing OR-associated emissions at his facility. For his project, he will be performing a comprehensive OR climate footprint assessment intending to ultimately implement strategies to reduce the impact of the operating rooms at Tufts.
"I am honored and humbled to receive the support of the Health Care Without Harm and to have the opportunity to participate in this year's CleanMed conference. As a surgical resident, I play an important role in the delivery of quality health care. However, we cannot accept that this be to the detriment of our planetary well-being. Cultural shifts do not come easily, and I look forward to working with this thoughtful and dedicated community to improve the environmental stewardship of our surgical activities.”
Casey Patnode
Casey Patnode is a M.D./MPH candidate at the University of Michigan Medical School and School of Public Health, chosen for his interests in environmental justice, protecting the health of underserved patients, and sustainable health care. For his project, he plans to improve the care of emergency department patients at high risk of heat-related illness through patient and staff education and the development of an electronic medical record screening tool to identify patients at high risk of heat-related illness.
“I am incredibly honored to be selected for the Emerging Physician Leader Award. Climate change is the greatest public health threat of the 21st century, disproportionately affecting vulnerable and underserved populations, and it requires deep engagement from the healthcare field. It is truly an honor to be granted the opportunity to learn from my colleagues and mentors through CleanMed, and to combat an aspect of this crisis through my project."
Miranda Ricart
Miranda Ricart is an M.D. candidate at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine who was selected for her commitment to protecting the health of vulnerable Florida residents and the ways she is helping to integrate education about the health impacts of climate change both inside and outside of the classroom. For her project, she will provide screen door patches and repair kits for low-income communities in Florida at risk of vector-borne illness, along with patient education materials about the health impacts of climate change on Floridians.
"I am so appreciative of Health Care Without Harm for their financial and professional support of student doctors like myself. My project to educate and protect South Florida residents from vector-borne diseases through the use of screen door patches would not have been possible without their funding. I am so excited to complete this project and learn about more ways to protect my community by attending CleanMed.”
Harleen Marwah
Harleen Marwah is a medical student at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science. She was selected for her visionary climate and health leadership and for founding and leading the successful grassroots group, Medical Students for a Sustainable Future.
“Climate change has been called the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. In the face of this, I have been inspired and energized through leading Medical Students for a Sustainable Future to see the rising generation of physicians turn this threat into an opportunity to improve health and drive meaningful change. I am honored to receive this award and I am committed to using this platform to advance this important work.”
Dr. Julia Schoen
Dr. Julia Schoen is a radiology resident at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. She was chosen for her interest in combining her environmental engineering background with her radiology career to advance sustainable health care, along with her commitment to bringing sustainability to the radiology department.
“My role models at Health Care Without Harm prove that collective progress toward a more sustainable health care system starts with individual actions. In this pandemic, the fragile dependence of our physical, mental, and economic well-being on the public and environmental health sectors is acutely obvious. This award is both a great honor and reminder of my obligation to help build a more resilient and environmentally conscious health care system.”
Dr. Hari Shankar
Dr. Hari Shankar is a pulmonary and critical care fellow at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). He was selected for his determination to create an environmental movement at Penn, including an institutional commitment to climate-smart health care and climate leadership.
“I could not be more honored to receive this award. To me, it reinforces the importance of physician engagement and leadership in sustainability work, and gives me a way to meet other people who have done amazing health care sustainability work and learn from their experience.”
Natasha Sood
Natasha Sood is a medical student at Penn State College of Medicine. She was selected for the many ways she is taking action to address the climate crisis and advance sustainable health care at her institution, and for her leadership as the co-chair of the Medical Students for a Sustainable Future curriculum committee.
“I am deeply honored to be a recipient of the Emerging Physician Leader award and am inspired by my colleagues that have united to work together for a just and sustainable future. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities globally has solidified the importance of prevention and preparation for large-scale crises. We must continue to build a system centered on sustainability for future generations. Through collaboration within our communities, we can work toward creating a healthy planet and equitable future for all.”
Dr. Hilary Ong
Dr. Hilary Ong, a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at Children’s National Medical Center, was selected for her commitment to protect children from environmental health threats, including air pollution and climate change.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive this award. I am grateful for the recognition I have received for my work in pediatric environmental health, and I will continue to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change on children’s health. I’m excited for the opportunity to attend CleanMed to expand my knowledge of environmental sustainability and network with leaders in the field.”
Dr. Emily Sbiroli
Dr. Emily Sbiroli, a resident physician at UC San Diego Health Department of Emergency Medicine, was selected for her enthusiasm for climate-smart health care and vision for a sustainable future.
“After many years of balancing my passion for environmental sustainability with my commitment to medicine, I am so incredibly honored and grateful to have finally found a community of leaders and innovators who share the same goal of making sustainable health care a reality. This award is a daily, humbling reminder of the inspiring people I have met at CleanMed and the journey we have in front of us.”
The Blair and Georgia Sadler Fellowship
Thanks to a generous gift from Blair and Georgia Sadler, Health Care Without Harm established the annual Blair and Georgia Sadler Fellowship in 2022, providing an opportunity for emerging clinical health leaders who want to work on equitable, climate-smart health care in their institutions and communities.
Each year, Health Care Without Harm will select an annual cohort of early-career clinicians for this fellowship and connect them with each other, internal and external subject matter experts, and our partner health systems to support their ideas and growth. The Blair and Georgia Sadler Fellowship participants will be equipped with tools for climate and sustainability-related education, organizing, communications, research, and leadership that they can put to use throughout their careers.
Fellows receive a full scholarship to attend CleanMed and a $1,000 grant to complete a project that aims to demonstrate scalable solutions that can be shared with our health care network, broader academic circles, and the general public.
Fellows will have an advisory group at Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth for mentorship during the fellowship year, and will be supported in writing an article or op-ed for local press or a media site about the need for health care to focus on climate, health, and equity. In addition, fellows will be encouraged to submit articles for publication in select journals and present work at conferences. Upon completion, these leaders will join a cohort of past fellows.
Celebrating our award recipients
Douglas Fritz
Douglas Fritz is an M.D. and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he was awarded the University of Colorado President's Sustainability Challenge Award and is a member of the hospital's sustainability working group. He was selected for his passion for climate justice, interest in the intersection between climate change and viral illness, leadership as the vice–chair of Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, and commitment to empowering physicians to be climate advocates.
For his project, he will be developing an automatic electronic health record integrated patient climate risk and resiliency tool to coordinate care and shared decision-making
“This award is an incredible opportunity for me to expand the impact of my work on climate change and health – I am honored to be recognized. By attending CleanMed, I will have the exciting opportunity to learn from leaders in the field and exchange ideas on how to advance climate-smart initiatives and center this information in clinical care. Climate change, social justice, and health are increasingly connected. Health care professionals like us need to be on the forefront of addressing it. With this award, I am thrilled to embark on my project, knowing that it will contribute to creating a healthier and more environmentally conscious future for patients and communities.”
Dr. Emaline Laney
Emaline Laney, M.D., achieved two master's degrees in science and is a global health equity and internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She serves as the resident representative of the Department of Medicine Climate Advisory Board and leads the resident Climate Change Action Committee. She was selected for her extraordinary climate-related work as a medical student for which she was awarded the Emory University's Climate Innovator Award, along with her ongoing leadership as a resident, and determination to lead efforts to create health systems that are equitable, sustainable, and resilient.
For her project, she is going to create and pilot a climate vulnerability tool incorporated within the Electronic Health Record system at her primary care clinic with the goal of protecting the most climate-vulnerable patients and communities.
“Differential health outcomes are not random nor the result of one, but rather, many forces at play; so, too, are the drivers of climate change and the downstream effects on our patients. For this reason, I am grateful and honored to join Health Care Without Harm’s incredible community and attend CleanMed with the support of the Sadler Fellowship. In doing so, I am thrilled to learn from and with health professionals to co-create climate-health solutions, with a particular interest in harnessing primary care clinics’ untapped potential in identifying and addressing those most vulnerable to climate-sensitive health outcomes.”
Dr. Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem
Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem, M.D., Ph.D., and M.P.P., is an emergency medicine chief resident physician at Emory University School of Medicine and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. He was selected for his remarkable academic background, accomplishments, and the many honors he has received in this field. He has committed to continue his leadership efforts in education, research, clinical care, community service, and–one day–government with the goal to cultivate health care systems and a world where individuals need not endure personal illness to recognize the profound connection between their environment and their well-being.
For his project, he is going to conduct a comprehensive scoping literature review that examines the impact of emergency department paperless and electronic discharge practices and their associated quality metrics with a goal to reduce emergency department paper waste.
"I am grateful for this award, which gives me the opportunity to attend CleanMed and connect with the Health Care Without Harm community. While it is undeniable that climate change poses significant challenges, it also presents many opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations and transformative solutions. I look forward to continuing my contributions (including my fellowship project) alongside the efforts of others with the aims of improving patient care, fostering sustainable healthcare systems, and building a more environmentally just world."
Kali Smolen
Kali Smolen, Ph.D, is in the M.D. and Ph.D. program at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth where she has led many impactful sustainability initiatives and is creating a novel planetary health curriculum. She was selected for her passion for reducing health care waste and advancing climate-smart health care, along with her career goal to be a pediatrician-scientist with her own research lab focused on answering questions related to health care decarbonization.
For her project, she will conduct a life-cycle assessment to identify ways to reduce the climate impact of colonoscopies which rely heavily on single-use devices.
“In college, nothing went to waste when I worked on our campus' Sustainable Agriculture Project, but upon beginning an M.D.-Ph.D program, I was disappointed that the same principles of waste reduction and creative utilization were not widely accepted in our health care system. When I learned about Health Care Without Harm and CleanMed, I was immediately inspired by efforts to reduce waste and identify innovative solutions in the realm of climate-smart health care. I'm incredibly honored and excited to complete a waste reduction project as a Sadler Fellow and to meet others working in health care sustainability at CleanMed 2024.”
Dr. Divyansh Agarwal
Divyansh Agarwal, M.D., Ph.D., is a general surgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital and a postdoctoral affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was selected for his academic interests in reducing the environmental impact of surgical care, and in addressing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and its intersection with climate and health care.
For his project, he will lead an initiative to replace single-use disposable scrub caps with reusable cloth caps embroidered with surgical staff members’ names, credentials, and roles, with a goal to reduce waste and emissions, and to reduce misidentification of health professionals, usually women and people of color due to systemic biases.
“I am thrilled to connect with like-minded peers as well as mentors, who can advise me as I seek to merge sustainability efforts in my future career as a surgeon-scientist. Integration of climate and planetary health in the decisions we make in the operating room remains poorly studied and often neglected. I look forward most to bringing first-hand knowledge back with me that can help me address this gap during my residency training and beyond.”
Channing Hou
Channing Hou, a medical student at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, was selected for his passion for creating a more equitable and sustainable health care sector and commitment to advocating for systemic changes to create health resilience in disadvantaged communities, including the community surrounding his medical school, which is disproportionately impacted by I climate and toxic exposures.
For his project, he will calculate cost, waste, and emissions reductions from optimizing cataract surgical trays by reducing unused instruments from the trays.
“I am incredibly honored to receive this award and to join a community of dedicated changemakers at CleanMed. My passion for the intersection between the climate crisis and health began as an undergraduate studying environmental science and health, and has continued as a medical student. I am eager to contribute and learn from this collaboration of sustainability and medical professionals to advance climate efforts in our health systems.”
Dalia Larios
Dalia Larios, M.D., a radiation oncology resident at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program and DACA recipient, was selected for her commitment to addressing educational and health inequities, along with her interests in policy, advocacy, and climate-smart research, all grounded in her passion to protect the health of patients, communities, and our planet for future generations.
For her project, she will conduct a life-cycle assessment comparing environmental footprints of conventional versus hypofractionated radiation therapy regimens having clinical equivalency in early-stage breast and prostate cancers.
“I am incredibly humbled and honored to receive this award and fellowship opportunity. It is very exciting to have the support of Health Care Without Harm in advancing climate health, sustainability, and equity efforts in oncology. Although challenging, this is incredibly important work that stands to benefit our patients and systems across the cancer care continuum. I look forward to attending CleanMed, forging new collaborations, and learning from colleagues and mentors in this space.”
Hayley Petit
Hayley Petit, a medical student at Rush Medical College, was selected for her research interest in reducing the environmental impact of surgery through quality improvement initiatives and commitment to advocate for sustainable surgery to protect health and vulnerable local and global communities.
For her project, she will conduct a life-cycle assessment of laparoscopic methods for appendectomy with Emerging Physician Leader recipient Dr. Gwyneth Sullivan.
“I am incredibly honored to receive this award. As a medical trainee, I was shocked to see how much waste was generated by surgical cases, and I am fortunate that Health Care Without Harm has given me the tools to create change. Our surgical centers hold a responsibility to protect not only their patients, but disadvantaged communities who are impacted the most by climate change. I look forward to learning about how I can successfully implement my current and future projects to reduce operating room waste through the connections I make at CleanMed.”
Priya Dave
Priya Dave, a medical student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Masters of Bioethics student at Harvard Medical School was selected for her commitment to environmental and energy justice and ensuring the transition to decarbonization is realized in a just manner and does not disproportionately burden the health and wellbeing of vulnerable communities.
For her project, she will be creating a climate justice speaker series and health professional curriculum including content about energy justice, green space ethics, and the link between redlining and climate change.
“I am thrilled for the opportunity to attend CleanMed and work on climate justice awareness through the Emerging Physician Leader Award and Sadler Fellowship. Taking a justice lens is vital to ensuring our climate change initiatives consider and include the health and wellbeing of vulnerable communities. I am particularly excited to collaborate with voices not traditionally included to develop a climate and health justice curriculum and educational resources.”
Dr. Jacquelyn Piraquive
Jacquelyn Piraquive, M.D., M.S., an otolaryngology-head and neck surgery resident at Boston Medical Center, was selected for her combined interests in advocacy, public health, research, and sustainable health care, along with her commitment to advancing a culture of climate-smart surgery at her institution and in the otolaryngology community.
For her research project, she will quantify the amount of open but unused disposable items in two common head and neck surgeries – thyroidectomy and endoscopic sinus surgery – to raise awareness about the financial, environmental, and public health implications of excess waste in the operating room.
“I am incredibly honored and look forward to the mentorship and potential networking opportunities offered through CleanMed to learn from like-minded individuals committed to delivering climate-smart health care. Surgeons are in a unique position to lead sustainability efforts through judicious use of resources, equipment, and supplies. Through my research, I hope to raise awareness and empower other surgeons to incorporate environmentally responsible practices in the operating room to elevate the quality and delivery of our care.”
Dr. Peter Trinh
Peter Trinh, M.D, M.B.A., an internal medicine and primary care resident at Brigham & Women's Hospital, was selected for his commitment to building a culture of cost-effective, patient-centered, climate-smart health care by reducing low value, wasteful clinical practices.
For his project, he will use a team-based approach to reduce low-value, unnecessary lab tests on two general internal medicine teaching units and perform an analysis of the cost and carbon footprint of inpatient lab tests.
“This is an incredible honor. I truly believe that sustainable change in health care must address team behaviors and organizational culture, and I'm excited to engage in this hard work with the support of the Health Care Without Harm Physician Network. I am very much looking forward to CleanMed 2022 and learning vital lessons from this community that I can share and apply at my institution.”
Carter White
Carter White, M.S., a medical student at UC Davis School of Medicine, was selected for his commitment to reducing medical waste and promoting sustainable surgery, along with his co-leadership of Second-Breath, a student-led program that collects unused medical supplies and redistributes them free of charge to individuals, communities, and international organizations in need.
For his project, he will be expanding Second-Breath with the goals of being able to accept and redistribute larger quantities of unused medical supplies and generating data to allow the organization to better serve its communities and partners.
“I am incredibly honored. The financial and professional support these distinctions provide will allow the Second-Breath team to dramatically expand our environmentally- and fiscally-conscious, community-oriented approach to reducing medical waste. I am excited to connect with and learn from my colleagues and mentors at the CleanMed conference.”
The Climate and Health Science Policy Fellowship
The University of Colorado School of Medicine established the nation’s first graduate medical education physician fellowship in climate medicine, the Climate and Health Science Policy Fellowship, to empower and train physicians to be credible, influential and knowledgeable climate and health thought leaders. This fellowship recognizes the critical role of physicians as powerful climate and health educators, communicators, researchers and policy advocates as concern about the climate crisis, its health impacts, and the climate footprint of the health care sector are increasing.
During the fellowship year, each fellow works with both a federal agency and one of several nonprofit organizations, including Health Care Without Harm. Each year, one to two fellows will be placed with Health Care Without Harm and work with the staff from the organization’s various programs, depending on their interests and fellowship goals.
Celebrating our fellows
Dr. Julia Schoen
Dr. Julia Schoen is a radiologist and nationally recognized leader of the sustainable radiology movement. She is the founder and co-chair of Health Care Without Harm’s Physician Network cohort, Radiologists for a Sustainable Future, a group of radiologists interested in reducing the environmental and climate impact of radiology through education, policy efforts, and research. Schoen serves on the sustainability task force for several radiology societies and speaks nationally about sustainable radiology. She is widely published and served as a guest editor for the Journal of the American College of Radiology's special issue on planetary health. She is a 2020 recipient of the Emerging Physician Leader Award.
During her fellowship year, Schoen is excited to strengthen her knowledge about climate-smart healthcare and contribute to Health Care Without Harm’s objective to achieve a zero-emissions, climate-resilient, and equitable health sector. She hopes to learn strategies to create climate-prepared health care facilities and imaging services aligned with these goals, and how to be an effective advocate for health sector climate action.
"I am thrilled to work with Health Care Without Harm because of their longstanding commitment to transform health care into an industry that protects people and the planet. I look forward to engaging with a diverse network of professionals dedicated to climate-smart healthcare. I am excited to learn about the organization's innovative approaches, and together, help reduce the environmental impact of healthcare while promoting equitable and resilient healthcare access.”
Dr. Anne Getzin
Dr. Anne Getzin is a family physician at Advocate Health who has dedicated her career to health equity and advocacy through leadership, education and clinical roles in community and academic medicine. She recently led an accredited, interdisciplinary educational series for clinicians at Advocate Health-Midwest, focused on the inequitable health impacts of climate change. Along with colleagues from Healthy Climate Wisconsin, she partnered with Groundwork Milwaukee and The New School’s Urban Systems Lab to develop an assessment tool leveraging data to explore the interface between flood risk, social vulnerability and health vulnerability in Milwaukee.
Her interests include the intersection between environmental justice and health equity, empowering health professionals to take climate action, the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation strategies, such as plant-forward diets and active transport, and the health sector’s role in leading climate solutions.
During her fellowship, Dr. Getzin hopes to learn about Health Care Without Harm's food waste solutions and Plant-Forward Future resources, and develop skills measuring health organization greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, she is looking forward to participating in CleanMed, building networking skills and learning from climate-smart clinicians and other leaders.
“Clinicians have a powerful voice to address the inequitable impacts of climate change on health in our communities. With the proper knowledge and tools, they can accelerate their health care systems’ efforts toward environmental justice and sustainability. Health Care Without Harm has led in this arena for more than 25 years, and I look forward to the opportunities this placement provides for mentorship and to deepen my own knowledge and efforts in clinician networking and advocating for a more just, equitable and sustainable health care system.”
Dr. Sheetal Khedkar Rao
Dr. Sheetal Khedkar Rao is a board-certified internist and the co-founder and Chief Health Officer of the Illinois nonprofit Nordson Green Earth Foundation. She works to improve tree equity in Chicagoland using the Miyawaki method of tiny forest planting. She recently completed the Climate Health Organizing Fellowship through the Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy.
Her interests include community engagement and organization to build tree equity in historically marginalized urban communities, use of nature-based interventions to fight climate change and build community, climate justice, environmental advocacy as an antidote to moral injury in health care, and building health care and community resilience to extreme heat.
During her placement with Health Care Without Harm, she will serve as an adviser to one of the Sadler Fellows and hopes to strengthen her writing and communication skills and engage in projects related to climate justice and resilience.
“I look forward to collaborating with like-minded individuals to make communities healthier and reduce the climate impact of health care. Environmental advocacy allows me to affect upstream action on the often-ignored social determinants of health. This year, I hope to learn effective communication skills around the health impacts of climate change by writing, giving talks and facilitating journal clubs. I also look forward to mentoring others and receiving mentorship from leaders at the intersection of climate and health.”
Dr. Ali Saad
Dr. Ali Saad is a stroke neurologist with experience in leadership roles within academic medicine, medical education, and advocacy since 2014. He previously served as clinical faculty and vice chair of clinical operations at Brown University and has attended Neurology on the Hill since 2019, where neurologists meet with congress to discuss the care of patients with neurological issues.
His interests include plant-based diets to prevent and reverse atherosclerosis and to improve individual, public and planetary health. During his fellowship year he will be working with the Health Care Without Harm’s healthy food in health care team. He hopes to create a position statement on the connection between brain health and the environment with the American Academy of Neurology, work with the American Heart Association on integrating plant-based eating into stroke-prevention guidelines, and work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid on linking reimbursement for services focusing on climate-friendly, disease-prevention performance measures.
“We have so many health-climate experts, enthusiasts, and resources at Health Care Without Harm and its sister institutions. We must empower our champions to connect with legislators and medical societies. We are at a crossroads in history and have a duty to to bring the health-climate connection to the forefront of the international stage. We owe it to our patients, our children, and ourselves.”
Dr. Emily Sbiroli
Health Care Without Harm was thrilled to welcome our first climate and health fellow in July 2021. Dr. Emily Sbiroli, an emergency physician was the inaugural recipient of the 2019 Emerging Physician Leader Award. During her fellowship year, she wanted to deepen her knowledge about health care decarbonization and develop skills to be an effective climate-health educator.
Over the course of her year working with Health Care Without Harm, Sbiroli supported many Physician Network activities including planning grand rounds and journal club sessions along with CleanMed physician networking events, and gave numerous presentations to medical students and health professionals about the intersection between climate, health and health care. In addition, she led a successful, 4-part discussion series for residents and fellows, co-led a journal club session, and facilitated and moderated a main stage CleanMed session. Finally, for her fellowship project she utilized Practice Greenhealth Sustainability Benchmark Report Data and analyzed greenhouse gas emissions reductions from telemedicine and presented her findings at CleanMed Kansas City.
After her fellowship, Sbiroli plans to continue working as an emerging physician with a goal to one day be a hospital sustainability manager or medical director of sustainability and to serve her community in a sustainability leadership role.
“Working with Health Care Without Harm this year as a climate and health fellow has been an absolute honor and privilege. I had the opportunity to work with so many pioneers and visionaries in this space, and I am deeply grateful for the mentorship I received. I am more energized and confident in tackling these issues as a physician thanks to my experience working with Health Care Without Harm. Now at the end of my fellowship, I see there are so many more open doors and so many new chapters we can write. My immediate goal is to continue working on bringing the lessons I have learned to the bedside in my personal practice with my patients, and to my colleagues at my places of work. It's only upwards from here.”