Community Advocate Awardee - Rosalyn Gordan
Rosalyn Gordan, Cooling Center Trainee
Rosalyn’s involvement in heat mitigation started with a free course in the Nature Conservancy and Phoenix Revitalization Corporation's Urban Heat Leadership Academy in 2021. A three-person team she was on received an advocacy grant for the development of a Cooling Center in South Phoenix. The Wesley UMC Cooling Center fulfilled Emma Vieira, Ronda Seifert, and herself advocacy vision. For eleven weeks, Rosalyn and the team addressed a small part of the Climate Control issue by providing the Cooling Center with community partnerships. Advocating for housing for those without is very important to Rosalyn as the climate temperature continues to rise globally.
Rosalyn Gordan is also a community member who has been actively engaged with the Arizona Faith Network, which in turn is a member of the Heat Relief Network for Arizona. These networks are an active partnership across the Maricopa Association of Governments, municipalities, non-profits, faith-based organizations and businesses. They partner to provide hydration stations, heat refuges, and water donation sites to prevent heat-related illness and deaths to the most vulnerable in the Phoenix valley area.
Her first involvement in heat mitigation started with a free course in the Nature Conservancy and Phoenix Revitalization Corporation's Urban Heat Leadership Academy in 2021. As part of a three-person team, they received an advocacy grant for the development of a Cooling Center in South Phoenix. Rosalyn has been very dedicated to the heat relief efforts at her church. She has gone above duty to ensure her team members receive training in heat relief measures by connecting them with educational resources the Arizona Faith Network provides. Rosalyn has been very receptive to the nursing students and their instructor. She has been proactive in canvassing the local area ensuring unsheltered community members are heat safe. In her own words, “Advocating for the house less and housing are very important is to me as the climate temperature continues to rise globally.”
She has been active with the Edison-Eastlake Community revitalization project to reduce the urban heat island effect. Her work is not only in identifying the need, but also the solutions and ensuring that those solutions implemented. Importantly, Rosalyn works to ensure that the information about community heat relief response is disseminated out to those in need. Climate Champion Rosalyn treats unsheltered community members and student nurses with patience, compassion and empathy as she works to support her community.
Practicing Clinician Awardee - Dr. Barbara Warren
Barbara Warren, MD Practicing Physician and Community Advocate
Dr. Barbara Warren is a practicing internal medicine physician with a significant impact on public health. She works in six university medical centers, three community health care facilities for low income communities. She also serves on the National Board of Physicians for Social Responsibility and is a member of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Dr. Warren is currently the Executive Director of the Arizona Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) was established in 1961 by a group of concerned physicians to address the greatest threats to our survival on our planet, including nuclear weapons, global climate change and toxic degeneration of our environments.
Within PSR’s Health Leadership on Climate Program, the organization promotes education of health consequences of climate change and advocacy. In 2012, Dr. Warren was part of PSR’s Climate Smart Southwest project which brought together community members to address climate change associated health vulnerability in the region. A key outcome of this work has been the Citizen’s Guide for Resilience to Climate Extremes (available in English and Spanish).
Dr. Warren has focused her work and leadership in PSR on identifying solutions to address extreme heat in our communities. Under her direction, PSR supports climate change mitigating solutions such as increasing the use of solar power and electric vehicles; environmental clean up of contributors to pollution. Under her leadership, PSR Arizona has offered three major community wide workshops on actions that can impact the state of climate change and nuclear weapons. She also traveled to a dozen countries for international events to eradicate the proliferation, extreme risk and adverse health impacts of nuclear weapons. Dr. Warren’s impressive work to improve the health of Arizonans and others around the world typifies what it means to be a Clinician Climate Champion.
Community Educator Awardee - Emma Viera
Emma Viera, Unlimited Potential
Emma Viera serves as the Executive Director of Unlimited Potential (UP), a community organization established in 1985 and engaged more than 200 active community health workers (CHWs). UP grew out of parents seeking to improve literacy and evolved to respond to issues affecting the community, including health education and advocacy for frontline communities.
Emma recently collaborated in a program to provide climate education to lead CHWs who now educate their colleagues and clients about climate change and its impact on personal and family health. Further, Emma works to ensure more access to green spaces and equitable food distribution of fresh produce and healthy foods to communities experiencing heat island effects, food insecurity and food deserts. In partnerships across southern Phoenix, thousands of community members take part in educational opportunities (focusing on health and the environment), gardening, farmers’ markets, educational events, and active living each year.
In another project, Emma works with CHISPA AZ to grow Latinx voices, political power, and civic engagement for a cleaner future in Arizona. CHISPA works to secure just and equitable clean air and water, healthy neighborhoods, and a safe climate for generations to come. UP and CHISPA mutually support the others' advocacy work, continually share opportunities with their constituents, and provide volunteer and engagement opportunities at Spaces of Opportunity and in the community. She is indeed a Climate Champion, with a passionate commitment to the environmental and overall well-being of our communities.
Student/Trainee Awardee - Dr. Alyssa Lane
Alyssa Lane, MD Supporting Medical Student Climate Education
Dr. Alyssa Lane was a 4th year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson when she developed a curriculum that teaches the clinical aspects of Heat Related Illness for medical students, residents, and trainees. This project was inspired by her own didactic and clinical experiences, where she realized the medical education was lacking in this area.
In response to this training gap, Dr. Lane teamed up with the Arizona Climate & Health Education team to write, record, and produce a remarkably inclusive and well-researched module on Heat Related Illness. Her Module explains the clinical findings in different levels of heat injury, and discusses their presentations in terms of in biochemical and pathophysiological bases. In her work, Dr. Lane presents the signs and symptoms of HRI’s, in addition to addressing the mechanisms of heat acquisition and dissipation based on foundational physics. She reviews available interventions for patients in the field and in the clinic or Emergency Department.
Dr. Lane was an inspiration to her team, and built a thorough and well-vetted learning experience for advanced clinical students and clinicians who are working in the front lines and in the Emergency Department. Through her module, she hopes to advance patient care by teaching clinicians how to differentiate HRIs from common mimics, in addition to providing guidance on treatment decisions based on current tata. Her training will provide clinicians with the tools to recognize and treat life-threatening heat stroke, among other serious conditions.
At the time of this posting, Dr. Lane has begun residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of San Diego. There, she plans to continue her roles in climate-based research and medical education.