Climate Health Action Talks: Mental Health, Resilience, and Justice in a Warming World

Climate change isn’t just reshaping our environment — it’s reshaping our emotional and psychological worlds. The Climate Change and Health Hub, together with the Sustainability Council, is hosting an online Climate Health Action Talk (CHAT) that brings this often-overlooked dimension of the climate crisis into the spotlight. This event will feature powerful new research on how climate change is shaping mental health, and how communities — from Canada to the Pacific Islands — are strengthening resilience, equity, and justice in the face of a warming world. Five researchers from IMPACT (Interdisciplinary Mental Health Perspectives on Adapting to Climate Threats) — a leading international team at the forefront of climate-mental health research — will share insights on the lived experiences of communities and the solutions emerging across regions. Join us for this vital conversation about how we care for mental health in a changing climate.

Poster

Speaker Bios

Stephanie Olsen is a facilitator with Refugia Retreats and a researcher in the Climate Change and Global Health Lab at the University of Alberta whose work focuses on climate change, mental health, and the role of collective grieving practices in supporting wellbeing and climate

Dr. Sherilee Harper is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and Health at the University of Alberta, and an IPCC Vice Chair, whose research focuses on climate change, health equity, and wellbeing. She leads the IMPACT project, which examines the social and equity dimensions of how climate change affects mental wellness and resilience globally.

Haemin Park is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington. Her research examines the intersection of climate change and mental health in Pacific Island countries, with a focus on vulnerable populations and climate equity.

Dr. Breanne Aylward is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta whose research examines how climate change affects the mental health of youth in Canada.

Marsha Hinds Myrie is a Barbadian-Canadian public intellectual and activist who works at the intersections of Caribbean critical thought, education, and justice. She will be speaking alongside Dr. Andria Jones about how climate change is affecting the mental health of Black and 2SLGBTQ farmers in Canada.

Dr. Andria Jones is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Guelph whose research focuses on mental health and resilience in agricultural communities. She will be speaking alongside her co-researcher Marsha Hinds Myrie about how climate change affects the wellbeing of 2SLGBTQ+ and Black farmers.