Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness: A Workshop

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California and other wildfire-prone western states have experienced a substantial increase in the number and intensity of wildfires in recent years. Wildlands and climate experts expect these trends to continue and quite likely to worsen in coming years. Wildfires and other disasters can be particularly devastating for vulnerable communities. Members of these communities tend to experience worse health outcomes from disasters, have fewer resources for responding and rebuilding, and receive less assistance from state, local, and federal agencies. Because burning wood releases particulate matter and other toxicants, the health effects of wildfires extend well beyond burns. In addition, deposition of toxicants in soil and water can result in chronic as well as acute exposures.

On June 4-5, 2019, four different entities within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop titled Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California, Davis. The workshop explored the population health, environmental health, emergency preparedness, and health equity consequences of increasingly strong and numerous wildfires, particularly in California. This publication is a summary of the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Publication information

160 pages · 6 x 9 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-49987-9
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-49988-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/25622

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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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Kenneth W. Kizer

Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H., (Chair) is the founding Director of the Institute for Population Health Improvement and a Distinguished Professor in the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. He is an internationally respected health care leader whose diverse professional experience includes senior executive positions in the public and private sectors, academia, and philanthropy. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Public Administration. Dr. Kizer’s positions over the years have included: founding President and CEO, National Quality Forum; Chairman, CEO and President, Medsphere Systems Corporation; Under Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and CEO of the nation’s largest healthcare system; Director, California Department of Health Services; and Director, California Emergency Medical Services Authority, where he was the architect of the state’s EMS system in the early 1980s. He has served on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and as Chairman of The California Wellness Foundation, as well as on the governing boards of a number of managed care and health IT companies, foundations, professional associations and non-profit organizations. He has been an advisor to numerous foreign countries on health-related matters. Dr. Kizer is an honors graduate of Stanford University and UCLA, the recipient of two honorary doctorates, and a fellow or distinguished fellow of 12 professional societies. He is board certified in six medical specialties and/or subspecialties, and has authored over 500 original articles, book chapters and other reports. He is a Fellow National of the international Explorer’s Club, a founding member and architect of the international Wilderness Medical Society, a former Navy diving medical officer, and a recognized expert on aquatic sports and wilderness medicine. He also worked as a firefighter for two years early in his career. His accomplishments have been recognized with dozens of awards, and he has been selected as one of the ‘100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare’ by Modern Healthcare magazine on several occasions. His work has been featured in Time, BusinessWeek, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and numerous other magazines, newspapers, and national television shows.

Julie A. Baldwin

Julie Baldwin, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Health Equity Research and a Professor of Health Sciences at Northern Arizona University. From 1994-2004, Dr. Baldwin served as a tenured faculty member at Northern Arizona University, with a joint appointment in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. She joined the faculty at the University of South Florida College of Public Health in the Department of Community and Family Health in 2005. She returned to Northern Arizona University in August 2015 to create the Center for Health Equity Research. Dr. Baldwin’s research over the years has focused on both infectious and chronic disease prevention. Cross-cutting themes which have characterized her work include: utilizing community-based participatory research approaches, working with underserved and/or marginalized populations, and addressing health disparities by developing and implementing culturally competent public health interventions. As an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, she has made a life-long commitment to serving diverse communities and to advocating for health promotion programs for children, adolescents and families. Dr. Baldwin earned her doctorate in Behavioral Sciences and Health Education in 1991 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Michelle L. Bell

Michelle Bell, Ph.D., M.S., M.S.E., is the Mary E. Pinchot Professor of Environmental Health at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, with secondary appointments at the Yale School of Public Health, Environmental Health Sciences Division and the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, Environmental Engineering Program. Her research investigates how human health is affected by atmospheric systems, including air pollution and weather. Other research interests include the health impacts of climate change and environmental justice. Much of this work is based in epidemiology, biostatistics, and environmental engineering. The research is designed to be policy-relevant and contribute to well-informed decision-making to better protect human health and benefit society. She is the recipient of the Prince Albert II de Monaco / Institut Pasteur Award, the Rosenblith New Investigator Award, and the NIH Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) Award. Dr. Bell holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. in Environmental Engineering), Stanford University (M.S. in Environmental Engineering), and Johns Hopkins University (M.S.E. in Environmental Management and Economics and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering).

Wayne E. Cascio

Wayne E. Cascio, M.D., FACC, FAHA, is Director, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Over 24 years in academia at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East Carolina University, he engaged in clinical, research, teaching, and healthcare administrative activities. Prior to joining the EPA in 2011, Dr. Cascio worked to increase access to cardiovascular health care in underserved rural areas, and served on EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee for Particulate Matter. While at the EPA, Dr. Cascio has helped focus research activities of the Office of Research and Development on public health relevant products. He has served as a leader in the Agency’s research and public health guidance on the topic of wildfire smoke and health, and is a co-author of the 2016 Wildfire Smoke: Guide for Public Health Officials. He now serves as the EPA’s liaison to NCER-ATSDR’s Board of Scientific Counselors, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine. Dr. Cascio has authored or co-authored more than 180 journal articles and book chapters. He is a recipient of a 2013 EPA Gold Medal for Exceptional Service, a 2013 Office of Research and Development Impact Award, APHA’s 2018 Homer N. Calver Award, and numerous Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards. Current research includes the study of the health effects of environmental pollutants informing risk assessment, risk-management decisions, and improvement of public health and quality of life through increased environmental health communication and literacy. Dr. Cascio earned a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and an M.D. from the University of Maryland. He completed clinical training in internal medicine, and cardiovascular diseases at the University of North Carolina and post-doctoral training in electrophysiology at the Physiologisches Institut, Universität Bern, Switzerland. Dr. Cascio is a clinician-scientist and is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases.

David Eisenman

David Eisenman, M.D., M.S.H.S., is Professor in Residence at the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he is the Director of the Center for Public Health and Disasters. Dr. Eisenman’s training is in internal medicine, primary care, public health, and health services research. For over 15 years, Dr. Eisenman has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Forest Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Homeland Security, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His research is focused on public health and disasters, climate change, refugee health, violence, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Recent studies investigated community resilience to disasters, the interactions of social factors and the built-environment on heatwave mortality and morbidity, the mortality associated with winter-time extreme heat in Los Angeles, organizational networks in disasters, behavioral responses to wireless emergency alerts, wildfires and mental health, improving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder in public safety-net clinics, and evaluating programs for preventing violent extremism. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, and major reports related to disasters and emergencies. Dr. Eisenman has served on committees and expert panels for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; National Institute of Standards and Technology; National Institutes of Health; and national and international funding organizations. He was the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Preparedness Science Officer for the Emergency Preparedness and Response Program from 2012 to 2016. Dr. Eisenman is also an Associate Natural Scientist at RAND, where he is a member of the Human Subjects Protection Committee. Dr. Eisenman is a credentialed physician for the Los Angeles County Emergency System for the Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals Program. He holds a board certification in internal medicine and cares for patients at the UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Eisenman earned his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his M.S.H.S. from the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA.

Richard J. Jackson

Richard J. Jackson M.D., M.P.H., Hon. AIA, Hon. ASLA, was most recently Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. A pediatrician, he has served in many leadership positions in both environmental health and infectious disease with the California Health Department, including the highest as the State Health Officer. For nine years, Dr. Jackson was Director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta and received the Presidential Distinguished Service award. While in California, he helped establish the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program and state and national laws to reduce risks from pesticides, especially to farm workers and to children. While at CDC he established the national asthma epidemiology and control program, oversaw the childhood lead poisoning prevention program, and instituted the federal effort to “biomonitor” chemical levels in the US population. Dr. Jackson has received the Breast Cancer Fund’s Hero Award, as well as Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Public Health Law Association, and the New Partners for Smart Growth. In October 2012, he received the John Heinz Award for Leadership in the Environment. Dr. Jackson lectures and speaks on many issues, particularly those related to built environment and health. He co-authored two Island Press Books: Urban Sprawl and Public Health in 2004 and Making Healthy Places in 2011. He is host of a 2012 public television series Designing Healthy Communities, which links to the J Wiley & Sons book by the same name published in October 2011. He has served on many environmental and health boards, as well as the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects. He is an elected honorary member of both the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects. Dr. Jackson earned his M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco and his M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Jackson is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Wayne Jonas

Wayne B. Jonas, M.D., is a practicing family physician, an expert in integrative health and health care delivery, and a widely published scientific investigator. Dr. Jonas is the Executive Director of Samueli Integrative Health Programs, an effort supported by Henry and Susan Samueli to increase awareness of and access to integrative health. Additionally, Dr. Jonas is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Medical Corps of the United States Army. From 2001 to 2016, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Samueli Institute, a non-profit medical research organization supporting the scientific investigation of healing processes in the areas of stress, pain and resilience. Dr. Jonas was the Director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1995 to 1999, and prior to that served as the Director of the Medical Research Fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Jonas has led and participated in hundreds of research studies beginning with his time as Director of the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine. While serving as CEO and President of the non-profit research organization Samueli Institute, his work set the bar for evidence-based research in the areas of pain, stress and human performance. Dr. Jonas’ new book, How Healing Works, was published in January 2018 by Ten Speed Press. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature Medicine, the Journal of Family Practice, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and The Lancet. Dr. Jonas received the 2015 Pioneer Award from the Integrative Healthcare Symposium, the 2007 America’s Top Family Doctors Award, the 2003 Pioneer Award from the American Holistic Medical Association, the 2002 Physician Recognition Award of the American Medical Association, and the 2002 Meritorious Activity Prize from the International Society of Life Information Science in Chiba, Japan.

Suzet M. McKinney

Suzet M. McKinney, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., is CEO/Executive Director of the Illinois Medical District, one of the largest urban medical districts in the United States. Dr. McKinney is the former Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response at the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), where she oversaw the emergency preparedness efforts for the Department and coordinated those efforts within the larger spectrum of the City of Chicago’s Public Safety activities, in addition to overseeing the Department’s Division of Women and Children’s Health. Dr. McKinney previously served as the Sr. Advisor for Public Health and Preparedness at the Tauri Group, where she provided strategic and analytical consulting services to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS), BioWatch Program. Her work at DHS included providing creative, responsive and operationally based problem solving for public health, emergency management, and homeland security issues, specifically chemical and biological early detection systems and the implementation of those systems at the state and local levels. Dr. McKinney serves on numerous boards, committees, and advisory boards, including the Board of Directors for Susan G. Komen Chicago, Thresholds, and the Fifth Third Bank Advisory Board. Dr. McKinney is Co-Chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), Health and Medicine Division’s Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies and is a member of the NASEM Board on Health Sciences Policy. She also serves on the Science and Security Board for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Board of Scientific Counselors for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Advisory Council. She has served as an Incident Commander for CDPH and was a member of Chicago’s Incident Management Team. She has been responsible for leading multiple emergency response efforts, including Chicago’s 2014-2015 Ebola response; the operational response to the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, which was successful in vaccinating nearly 100,000 residents over a six week timeframe; as well as CDPH’s participation in the 2012 NATO Summit response and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake response. Dr. McKinney has earned a reputation as an experienced, knowledgeable public health official with exceptional communication skills. She has served as an on-camera media expert on emergency issues including biological and chemical threats, natural disasters, pandemic influenza, and climate-related emergencies. A sought-after expert in her field, she has also provided support to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency, lending subject matter expertise in biological terrorism preparedness to the country of Poland. In academia, Dr. McKinney serves as an Instructor in the Division of Translational Policy and Leadership Development at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Additionally, she serves as a mentor for the Biomedical Sciences Careers Project, also at Harvard University. She is the co-author of the new text: Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Practical Solutions for the Real World (2018), and was named one of Chicago’s Notable Women in Healthcare (2018). Dr. McKinney holds her Doctorate degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, with a focus on preparedness planning, leadership, and workforce development. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Brandeis University, where she was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow. She received her Master of Public Health degree (Health Care Administration) and certificates in Managed Care and Health Care Administration from Benedictine University.

Winston F. Wong

Winston Wong, M.D., M.S., is Medical Director, Community Health & Director, Disparities Improvement and Quality Initiatives, Kaiser Permanente. In this role, he is responsible for developing and cultivating partnerships with communities and agencies in advancing population management and evidence based medicine, with a particular emphasis on safety-net providers and the elimination of health disparities. His background includes leadership roles in community health, government, and health plan delivery. From 1993 to 2003, Dr. Wong was a Commissioned Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service, serving as both the Chief Medical Officer for the Health Resources and Services Administration, Region IX, and its Director of California Operations. He achieved the rank of Captain, and was awarded the Outstanding Service Medal from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A board-certified family practitioner, and bilingual in Cantonese and Toisanese dialects, Dr. Wong continues a small clinical practice at Asian Health Services, a federally qualified health center in Oakland, California, where he served previously as Medical Director. Dr. Wong has served on a number of state and national advisory groups addressing issues in cultural competence, health care access, and improving health care for vulnerable populations. Dr. Wong co-chaired the National Quality Forum's initiative for "Measuring and Reporting Cultural Competency" for health care organizations, and currently serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, and Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity. He is also Chair of the National Council of Asian and Pacific Islander Physicians and Board member of Grantmakers in Health, as well as the California Endowment. Dr. Wong earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco and his master’s and undergraduate degrees at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness: A Workshop

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Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness: A Workshop

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Featured publication

Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness: Proceedings of a Workshop

Description

Collaborators

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Parent projects

Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine

Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies

Major units and sub-units

Contact

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Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

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Transportation Research Board Executive Office

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