Registration required: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAuduurqzosE9JiduCJK5wxQtOQAjXJrtRe%20

CREW will be hosting a virtual panel discussion dialogue with several organizations regarding how extreme weather impacts humans’ physical and mental health, New England’s dependence on fossil fuels, its connection to climate change, what a clean energy future could look like, and political action that several groups are taking on behalf of their communities to mitigate climate change. The organizations involved are Climate Code Blue, Conservation Law Foundation, Green Roots Chelsea, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation and Mattapan Food and Fitness. 

SPEAKER BIOS

Dr. Caren Solomon is a Deputy Editor at the New England Journal of Medicine, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  Dr. Solomon leads efforts at the Journal to expand attention to the health effects of climate change. She co-chairs the Harvard Medical School Faculty Council’s subcommittee on climate change, is a member of the Brigham Climate Action Council, and is  actively involved in the Harvard divestment campaign. She is a founding member of Climate Code Blue, an organization of Boston area physicians committed to climate action and to amplifying the voices of frontline communities most affected by climate change.

 Shavel’le Olivier is a Boston, MA resident and is deeply committed to serving the communities she lives, works, and travels in. Her passions include community, youth development, and transportation.

 Since the age of 18, she founded and still organizes a major biking event called Mattapan on Wheels created to address issues of safer infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians, provide an opportunity for young people to develop their leadership skills, and bring attention to cycling in the Mattapan community. She co-founded a talk in 2020 called Transportation Talks to bring residents that live in Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, and those that identity as BIPOC together to explore how transportation affects their quality of life.

She is a 2014 graduate from Boston College where she earned her Bachelor’s of Science, double majoring in Marketing and Management and Leadership. In 2019 she received her masters in Nonprofit Management with a concentration in Organizational Communications at Northeastern University and is now the Executive Director of Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition (MFFC). She is currently going for a graduate certificate at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Dr. Jim Recht is a community psychiatrist and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His work as a climate justice activist began in 2012 at the start of the international campaign for fossil fuel divestment. He co-founded Harvard Faculty for Divestment and has served as a campus divestment consultant and advisor. As his understanding of white supremacy and white privilege has grown, so has his desire to learn from frontline communities, and to advocate for climate justice as a form of reparation. 

Sara Arman is a proud Chelsea resident and community organizer who is passionate about gender and racial justice, affordable housing, and local politics. Sara is the Health Equity Corps Coordinator at GreenRoots, a community-based organization dedicated to improving and enhancing the urban environment and public health in Chelsea, MA and surrounding communities, where she works to address disparities in health, health access, and identify connections between the environment and health outcomes. Sara is currently pursuing her Master’s in Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.