2025 Symposium on Climate & Health in the Gulf South
Join Dean Thomas LaVeist and the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University on Thursday, September 18 for the 2025 Symposium on Climate and Health in the Gulf South.
This year, participants will have a chance to join a boat tour led by our partners at the Pontchartrain Conservancy in the morning of September 18th . This tour will take us out from New Orleans East via boat, down the MRGO Canal, to see natural and built barriers to storms, including the Lake Borgne Surge Barrier, affectionately coined the “Great Wall of Louisiana”. This tour is a 4-hour outing, leaving from the Tidewater Building at 8:45am. For more information and to reserve your spot, please follow the link to the registration.
In the evening of Thursday, September 18, we will begin the symposium with a networking reception, followed by evening programming.
The evening programming will include a keynote address by Dr. Naveen Rao, Senior Vice President for Health at the Rockefeller Foundation, and then a dynamic panel discussion with other leading researchers in this field around place-based public health issues, providing critical analysis in the context of local factors for education, policy, and action as it relates to work at the intersection of climate and health. Please get to know our speakers on the event website here.
This symposium is made possible with generous support from Adee Heebee.
Please register for the Symposium and/or the boat tour by following the link here.
Agenda Overview
Morning
8:45am - 12noon Boat Tour with Pontchartrain Conservancy (optional, registration required)
Evening
4:30 – 5:00pm Networking & light refreshments, Diboll Gallery
5:00 – 5:15pm Welcome & Overview, Diboll Auditorium
5:15 – 5:45pm Keynote Address from Dr. Naveen Rao, Vice President for Health, The Rockefeller Foundation
5:45 – 6:45pm Panel Discussion with Dr. Naveen Rao, Dr. Kathryn Grace, Dr. Valerie Paz-Soldan and Dr. Mostafijur Rahman
Moderated by Kelly E. Murray, MPH PhD Candidate, International Health and Sustainable Development
