Climate and Health “Big Idea” Symposium

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Climate & Health “Big Ideas” Symposium

Thursday, January 22, 2026
9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Great Hall, Trent Semans Center for Health Education

Join us as we bring together faculty and trainees across Duke to ignite innovative ideas and foster new connections as we work to address the health impacts of climate change in the Carolinas and beyond.

The Symposium will feature:

Opening Remarks

Dr. Mary E. Klotman, Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, Duke University, Dean, Duke University School of Medicine, and Chief Academic Officer, Duke Health

Keynote Address

Mary B. Rice MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) and the Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Respiratory Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a pulmonary critical care physician and the director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Institute for Lung Health, where she is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of research for the division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine.

Rice's area of investigation focuses on the influence of environmental exposures, especially air pollution and climate change, on the respiratory health of children and adults and the development of interventions to mitigate these health effects. She is the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded clinical trial of home air purification for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and she leads the environmental health research program of the American Lung Association Lung Health Cohort. She also co-leads the Center for Climate: Equitable and Accessible Research-based Testing for Health (C-EARTH), an NIH-funded P20 Center at Harvard Chan School, which aims to bring sustainable climate solutions to heat-stressed, low-income communities around the globe.

Rice chaired the American Thoracic Society's Environmental Health Policy Committee 2018-2021 and in 2024 she was elected as chair of the Environmental, Occupational and Population Health Assembly of the American Thoracic Society. In 2020, she received the Jo Rae Wright Award for Outstanding Science from the American Thoracic Society, a national award recognizing tomorrow's leaders in science. From Oct 2024 until Jan 2025, she served on the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), an independent scientific committee that advises the U.S. EPA on National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

Current Research Showcase

Presentations from existing Duke research teams on the impact of ongoing projects.

“Big Idea" Session

New teams pitch research concepts to recruit collaborators and build new projects.

Interactive Networking

Dedicated time for informal discussions, sharing ideas, and exploring collaboration opportunities across disciplines.

While the event is designed for in-person participation, attendees outside of the Durham area may register and attend by Zoom.

Questions? Contact som_climatehealth@duke.edu

Agenda

Time	Event
9:00 am	Check-in opens Coffee/tea available with light breakfast options
9:15 am	Welcome Mary E. Klotman MD, Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, Duke University, Dean, Duke University School of Medicine, and Chief Academic Officer, Duke Health
9:30 am	Keynote Speaker Mary B. Rice, MD, MPH Director, Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) and the Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Respiratory Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
10:15 am	Break for 10 min
10:25 am	Climate and Health Research Initiative (CHeRI) overview Robert Tighe, MD, Director CHeRI
10:40 am	Panel Presentations: Current Projects ♦ SEEDS Health Atlas – Nrupen Bhavsar, PhD ♦ Duke/NC4Health – Erin Hanlin, MD, MPH/Anna Tupetz, DTP ♦ Duke Climate & Fungi (CLIF) – Asiya Gusa, PhD/Erica Washington, PhD ♦ Duke Immunology and Climate Change Exploration (DICE) – Keith Reeves, PhD ♦ Duke Environmental Exposures and Kidney Health (EEKH) – Nishad Jayasundara, PhD/ Mercedes Bravo, PhD ♦ CUIDAR – Elizabeth Rojo, MA
12:00 pm	Office of Climate and Sustainability Toddi Steelman, PhD Vice President and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability
12:15 pm	Lunch and Posters
1:00 pm	Introducing Big Ideas & Designing Projects for Community Impact Catherine Staton, MD, PhD, Co-Director, CHeRI
1:15 pm	Big Idea Project Pitches Faculty Track ♦ Hospital Digital Twin Disaster Research Laboratory – Jessica Castner, PhD, RN-BC ♦ Climate's Hidden Cost: How early life stress affects later-in-life cardiometabolic disease risk – Christopher Newgard, PhD ♦ Rural Carolinas Observatory for Heat Early Warning and Health Resilience – Joao Vissoci ♦ HEAT PATH: Identifying causal mechanisms of HEAT on mental health: PATHways to intervention – Sudha Raman, PhD ♦ Uncovering the impact of heat on the human microbiome – John Rawls, PhD ♦ Trauma Recovery in a Changing Climate: Impacts of Extreme Heat and Air Pollution on Biological Risk for PTSD – Kate Webb, PhD Trainee Track ♦ Mapping Melanoma Vulnerability in North Carolina: The Link Between UV Exposure, Temperature, and Geographic Risk – Sakshi Chopra ♦ Extreme Heat, Environmental Vulnerability, and Climate-Resilient Dialysis Care for Patients with ESRD – Rebecca Fillipo ♦ Investigating the mechanism and chronic effects of heat stress on renal development and function – Sierra Smith
2:20 pm	Big Idea Project Round Table Breakout Groups
2:50 pm	Updates From Each Breakout Group
3:15 pm	Final Notes and Next Steps
3:30 pm	Symposium Concludes