Dr. Kari Nadeau is the Interim Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies, and Chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She practices Allergy, Asthma, Immunology in children and adults. She has published over 400+ papers, many in the field of climate change and health. Dr. Nadeau, with a team of individuals and patients and families, has been able to help make major progress and impact in the clinical fields of immunology, infection, asthma and allergy. Dr. Nadeau is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the U.S. EPA Children’s Health Protection Committee.
For more than 30 years, she has devoted herself to understanding how environmental and genetic factors affect the risk of developing allergies and asthma, especially wildfire-induced air pollution. Her laboratory has been studying air pollution and wildfire effects on children and adults, including wildland firefighters. Many of the health issues involving individuals and the public are increasing because of global warming, sustainability practices, and extreme weather conditions. She oversees a team working on air pollution and wildfire research along with a multidisciplinary group of community leaders, firefighters, engineers, scientists, lawyers, and policy makers. Dr. Nadeau was appointed as a member of the U.S. Federal Wildfire Commission in 2022.
Dr. Nadeau works with other organizations and institutes across the world. She is working with the WHO on a scoping review and report for health ministers and policy makers on wildland fires: how to mitigate, adapt, and follow UN SDG’s to create resiliency and co-benefits in communities, especially LMICs.
She also launched four biotech companies, and founded the Climate Change and Health Equity Task Force and started the Sustainability Health Seed Grant initiative and Climate Change and Health Fellowship program at Stanford. She also developed climate change and health courses at Stanford.
She also has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. EPA.
Dr. Nadeau earned her BS from Haverford College, and her MD/PhD from Harvard Medical School in 1995, completing her doctoral work in biochemistry and immunology, followed by a pediatric internship and residency at Boston Children’s Hospital (1995-1997). She moved to California for residency and fellowship in the Stanford-UCSF Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Program (2003-2006), joining the Stanford Medical School faculty as an instructor, followed by promotions to assistant professor (2008), associate professor (2011), and professor (2015).
Investing in resilience is a great deal for people and the climate
“If you were to invest $1 in climate change resilience solutions you could get at least $6 out in health benefits,” said our Interim Director, Dr. Kari Nadeau. “That’s a fantastic deal.”
Sneezing, Coughing, Runny Nose: Unexpected Symptoms of Extreme Heat
Kari and our student ambassadors Jinia and Leah write about why heat matters to people with allergies and how to stay healthy.
Carbon capture isn’t the climate change health benefit the world needs
Kari and our former director Gina McCarthy teamed up for an op-ed in The Boston Globe to argue that carbon capture doesn't address the health impacts of climate change.
