Join us in celebrating this year’s awardees chosen from a large, exceptionally strong, and talented applicant pool.
The Emerging Physician Leader Award recognizes medical students, residents, and fellows who have demonstrated a passion for sustainable health care or a commitment to climate and health leadership. Awardees receive complimentary registration to CleanMed and a grant to support a project that aligns with the goals of the Physician Network. This year, the award is offered in collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The Blair and Georgia Sadler Fellowship, provides an opportunity for a cohort of early-career clinicians to work together on equitable, climate-smart health care in their hospitals and communities with the support of subject matter experts and Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth partner health systems. Each year, fellows receive a scholarship to attend CleanMed and a $1,000 grant to complete a project that aims to demonstrate scalable solutions.
2024 Emerging Physician Leader Award recipients
Dr. Sarah Schear
About the awardee: Schear is a pediatric resident at Children’s National Hospital and an incoming pediatric palliative care fellow at the University of Utah Health.
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.
"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
About the awardee: Silva is an M.D. and M.B.A. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and The Wharton School.
Project: She will conduct a Scope 1-3 greenhouse gas inventory of a Penn Medicine outpatient dermatology practice and create a template and roadmap to support other departments conducting inventories.
"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.”
Zachariah Tman
About the awardee: Tman 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 in the West Pacific where he is from.
Project: His toolkit for health professionals who care for vulnerable populations facing climate change events such as wildfire smoke and extreme heat will 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.”
2024 Blair and Georgia Sadler Fellows
Douglas Fritz
About the awardee: Fritz is an M.D. and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and is a member of the hospital's sustainability working group.
Project: He will develop an automatic electronic health record integrated patient climate risk and resiliency tool to coordinate care and shared decision-making.
"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
About the awardee: Laney is a global health equity and internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Project: She will 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.
"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
About the awardee: Nwanaji-Enwerem 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.
Project: He will conduct a comprehensive scoping literature review that examines the impact of emergency department paperless and electronic discharge practices and their associated quality metrics to reduce emergency department paper waste.
"While it is undeniable that climate change poses significant challenges, it also presents many opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations and transformative solutions.”
Kali Smolen
About the awardee: Kali Smolen 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.
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.
" I am 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.”