Dr. Renee N. Salas is Affiliated Faculty at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a previous Yerby Fellow. She is also Affiliated Faculty and previous Burke Fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute and Affiliated Faculty at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is an emergency medicine physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Salas leads endeavors with the world’s top general medical journals. She spearheads The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Group’s Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice Initiative and serves as a guest editor for the NEJM Group series entitled “Fossil-fuel Pollution and Climate Change.” She was the lead author of the cornerstone Interactive Perspective for The New England Journal of Medicine that launched the journal’s climate crisis and health topic page and continues to contribute content. Dr. Salas is also a member of the global Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, serving as the lead author of the Lancet Countdown Brief for the United States between 2018 to 2021 – moving to senior author in 2022 – and founded and leads its U.S. Working Group of over 80 U.S. organizations.
Dr. Salas was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2021 for her work on climate change and health, an honorific society that is considered one of the highest honors in the field of health and medicine. She served on the original planning committee for the NAM’s Grand Challenge on Health and Climate Change and continues to serve on committees related to this work. She has testified before Congress for the full House Committee on Oversight and Reform on how climate change is harming health.
Dr. Salas lectures and serves on committees at the nexus of climate and health internationally and nationally, advises and publishes in high-impact journals, and her work and expertise are regularly featured in mainstream media outlets like the New York Times, NPR, Time, and the Associated Press. She engages in research on how climate change is impacting the healthcare system and developing evidence-based adaptation. She also strives to engage across a diverse range of sectors, and frequently speaks at high-level engagements. Her work also spans disciplines, such as collaborations on Amicus Briefs for Juliana v. United States and a response letter to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed transparency rule.
She is the founder and past Chair of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Climate Change and Health Interest Group and founded and led their first pre-conference workshop on the topic. She gave the first national emergency medicine conference presentations on climate change and health at the SAEM and American College of Emergency Physicians annual meetings.
Dr. Salas has been the recipient of a range of honors and awards, such as the national SAEM Public Health Leadership Award and the Network for Excellent in Health Innovation Innovator in Health Award. She is also the recipient of the Clinician-Teacher Development Award from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Shore Fellowship from Harvard Medical School.
Her Doctor of Medicine is from the innovative five-year medical school program to train physician-investigators at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine with a Master of Science in Clinical Research from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Both institutions later awarded her with Early Career Leadership Awards for her outstanding career achievements. Her Master of Public Health is from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a concentration in environmental health. Dr. Salas received her undergraduate degree from Saint Mary’s College, which later recognized her as a prestigious Shannon Scholar for exceptional alumna.
Climate Change is Making Us Sick
Our Yerby Fellow Dr. Renee Salas comments on the findings from the 2020 Lancet Countdown report and how climate change is harming our health today.
Doctors Release Their ‘Most Worrying Outlook’ on How Climate Change Is Ruining Our Health
The Lancet Countdown findings show that the Earth is running a fever which is making people sick.
Major report warns that climate change is already harming people
The new Lancet report outlines the consensus among a group of scientists, engineers, geographers and other experts as to how the world needs to recommit to bringing climate change to a halt.
2020 is a ‘preview’ of how bad things can get if we don’t fix climate change, other systemic problems: Lancet report
In the latest Lancet Countdown report, our Yerby Fellow Dr. Renee Salas says the harms of our converging crises — COVID-19, climate disasters, and systemic racism — are a preview of what lies ahead if we fail to urgently make the necessary investments to protect health.
Climate change is already a disaster to health, doctors say
The new Lancet report offers proof that climate change will not only reshape life in the future, but it is actively endangering lives now. Health care providers already see themselves treating a climate crisis.
Hotter Planet Already Poses Fatal Risks, Health Experts Warn
Our Yerby Fellow Dr. Renee Salas says that climate is a prescription for health in the latest Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Health.
'We Don't Have To Live This Way': Doctors Call For Climate Action
A sprawling analysis published by The Lancet focuses on public health data from 2019, and finds that heat waves, air pollution and extreme weather increasingly damage human health.
How Biden Can Ensure Every Federal Agency Is Fighting Climate Change
A set of ideas and actions federal agencies can take to address climate change, based on conversations with dozens of experts, including our Yerby Fellow Dr. Renee Salas, who know how to pull the federal government’s levers of power so that they’re all geared to lower emissions.
2020 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: U.S. Policy Report
COVID-19 shows how no one is immune from converging health crises and that millions of lives can be saved with climate action.
A pathway to net zero emissions for healthcare
Dr. Renee Salas charts a path to net zero emissions for healthcare.
