About Us.
Climate change is an existential threat to human existence. It is also a multiplier of all social and health inequities. Climate change adversely affects health in a number of ways. Yet, the integration of health impacts of climate change into clinical education and practice has been lagging across the globe. Most climate-vulnerable countries are in the Global South, highlighting the urgency of climate adaptation, including the global health system.
​
Climate & Health Equity Practice Fellowship is a climate medicine leadership development program for working physicians in the Global South. We select physicians representing historically marginalized communities and provide them with training on the health impacts of climate change to advance their clinical practice.
Through cohort-based learning and discussion, we further train physicians committed to making the world a better place, to become the leaders and systems change agents in their institutions, societies, and the world.
Our Vision.
World without health inequities.
Our Mission.
Our mission is to train the next generation of climate medicine leaders in the Global South. We aim to train physician leaders ready to be systems change agents and lead efforts for climate action.
Fellowship Director
Our Leadership.
Dr. Ans Irfan is a multidisciplinary global public health expert with over a decade of experience in advancing global health equity, both domestically and globally. He currently serves as a faculty member and director of the Climate & Health Equity Practice Fellowship at George Washington University. He is also a fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars program. He also serves in various roles with major national and international organizations, including the American Public Health Association, Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science, and the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth. Some of his recent roles include serving on the advisory board with the American Public Health Association’s Center for Climate, Health, & Equity and a policy director with the DrPH Coalition, Inc.
​
As a critical public health scholar, he combines multiple disciplines — including global health; environmental and occupational health; health policy; migrant health; climate change; sociology; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); organizational change management; program development, management, and evaluation; and implementation sciences — through a mixed-methods approach to provide innovative interdisciplinary public policy and programmatic solutions geared towards ameliorating social and health inequities. Select recent projects include: COVID-19 & Black transit workers health; farmworkers health equity; global health implications of US foreign policy; the intersection of religion and public health; traffic wardens and climate adaptation in Pakistan; evaluation of physicians’ training on climate change and health; global and occupational health equity. He can be contacted at ansirfan@gwu.edu. Twitter: @PHScientist
Our Sponsors.
Climate & Health Equity Practice Fellowship is made possible through the generous support of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). Climate and Health Equity Practice Fellowship is hosted at the Office of Applied Public Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, under the leadership of Associate Dean for Applied Public Health, Gene Migliaccio, DrPH.
