YSPH Climate Change and Health Seminar with Dr. Lara Cushing, "Inequality & the Environment: Moving from Science to Action that Advances Climate Justice and Health Equity"

Lara J. Cushing’s research focuses on the racial justice implications of disparities in exposure to environmental health hazards in the U.S. She has assessed the health consequences of environmental and climate-related exposures for pregnant women and infants, and used epidemiological and geospatial methods to investigate questions of environmental justice in the context of urban greenspace, man-made chemicals, oil and gas development, drinking water quality, extreme heat and sea level rise. She is interested in analytical methods and regulatory frameworks to characterize the joint effects of environmental and social stressors to health that can inform efforts to reduce environmental health disparities and often partners with community-based organizations in her work. She was a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a former Environmental Fellow of the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation, and JPB Environmental Health Fellow through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Prior to coming to UCLA, she served on the faculty at San Francisco State University from 2016-2020.