Our New Normal: Centering Health in Climate Action
Climate Week NYC 2025
Tuesday, 9/23 | 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Weill Cornell Medicine – Belfer Center
Registration CLOSED (Livestream)
Hosts: Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Environmental Defense Fund
Cities across the U.S. are grappling with the growing impacts of climate change on health. How can we harness the power of data to design effective safeguards, particularly at the local level, to build climate-resilient communities? Join us for a forward-looking conversation on how local decision-makers, researchers, and NGOs are using data to understand vulnerabilities, shape solutions, and protect the health and well-being of their residents.
This event will explore current innovations and emerging challenges to access data that underpins efforts to achieve climate and health resilience. What happens when critical data becomes harder to access—or disappears altogether? How can communities future-proof their strategies and systems in an uncertain federal landscape?
Together, we’ll examine the opportunities and obstacles ahead for data-driven resilience—and what that means for the future in a world facing climate vulnerabilities.
Speakers:
- Opening Remarks:
- Congresswoman Maxine Dexter M.D., Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District
- Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, Mount Vernon, NY
- Mayor Van Johnson, City of Savannah, Georgia
- Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert, City of New Rochelle, New York
- Speakers:
- Sarah Vogel, Senior Vice President Healthy Communities, Environmental Defense Fund (Moderator)
- Dr. Margot Brown, Senior Vice President Justice & Equity, Environmental Defense Fund
- Dr. Arnab Ghosh, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
- Dr. Ben R. Spoer, Program Director, City Health Dashboard and Congressional District Health Dashboard, NYU Langone Health
- Trisha Stein, Chief Strategy Officer at City of Detroit
- Dr. Lauren Smalls-Mantey, Senior Environmental Systems Scientist, Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene