Understanding and Enhancing Transdisciplinary Climate and Health Collaboration in the Asia-Pacific
Wellcome Trust Report.
Understanding and Enhancing Transdisciplinary Climate and Health Collaboration in the Asia-Pacific. 2023.
Visiting Scholars and Scientists
Elizabeth Willetts
Links
Overview
Planetary Health Policy Director
Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
Liz is an internationally recognized expert in interdisciplinary policy analysis and communications for planetary health. She has more than 20 years experience mobilizing knowledge and engagement on biodiversity, climate change, pollution, food systems, and community health for marginalized populations.
In 2021, she designed and led a landmark global policy guide Health in the Global Environmental Agenda published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). In 2022, she authored and led five interagency science-policy briefs on climate change for the World Health Organization and authored a regional policy guide on Operationalizing the Environment-Health Nexus for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
As a long-standing member of IISD's policy reporting team, she spent 15 years tracking intergovernmental negotiations across a range of multilateral environmental agreements, including on climate change (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), biodiversity (Convention on Biological Diversity, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture), food security (UN Committee on World Food Security), chemicals and waste pollution (Basel and Rotterdam conventions, Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management), water (UN-Water, Budapest Water Summit), disaster risk (Sendai Framework), and sustainable development (Commission on Sustainable Development, High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development). She has published several policy articles on planetary health issues in The Lancet, and is a Newsdesk writer for the Lancet Planetary Health.
Liz is also a clinician and has served long-term roles in community medicine, on a remote island in Micronesia, at a bilingual Spanish clinic in Harvard-Brigham & Women's Hospital system, and in an Indigenous hospital in Central America. In 2001, she was the inaugural Nutrition Coordinator for the Netter Center for Community Partnerships where she designed nutrition and food education programs in Philadelphia public schools.
BA, 2002, Biology: Ecology & Human Physiology
University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
MEM, 2008, Environmental Economics & Policy
Duke University, NC, USA
MMSc, 2014, Medicine
Emory University, GA, USA
Bibliography
Advancing integrated governance for health through national biodiversity strategies and action plans.
Willetts L, Siege C, Stewart-Ibarra AM, Horn O, Chotthong B, Tanawat T, Omido P, Sharma M, Alqodmani L, Bennett NJ, Golden CD, Wangari Githaiga C, Vora NM.
Lancet. 2023 09 02. 402(10404):753-756. PMID: 37499672
Rights and Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and Planetary Health
Willetts, E.
Planetary Health Alliance Policy Note. 2023.
Integrating Public and Ecosystem Health Systems to Foster Resilience: A Workshop to Identify Research to Bridge the Knowledge-to Action Gap—Proceedings of a Workshop
U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
2023.
What do the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference Outcomes Mean for the Ocean and Ocean Research? A Focus on Marine Biodiversity and Human Health
Morgera, E, Willetts, E, Switzer, S, Lavelle, J, Hamley, G, Lajeunie, C, Upton, M, and Carvalho, M.
One Ocean Hub. Blog. 2023.
Integrating Policy: Water, Endocrine Disruptors, and Pharmaceuticals
Willetts, L.
IISD Policy Series. 2023.
Managing the Health Risks of Climate Change
Willetts, E and Haines, A. .
Council on Foreign Relations, Project on the Future of Global Health Security. 2023.
Health in global biodiversity governance: what is next?
Willetts L, Comeau L, Vora N, Horn O, Studer M, Martin K, Lem M, Pétrin-Desrosiers C, Grant L, Webb K.
Lancet. 2023 02 18. 401(10376):533-536. PMID: 36709768
Environmental defenders: public health champions.
Willetts L.
Lancet Planet Health. 2022 Dec. 6(12):e938-e940. PMID: 36495887
Operationalizing the Environment-Health Nexus in the Asia and the Pacific: A policy guide
Willetts, E, Chen, Yi-Ann, Rankine, H, and Bettelli, P, Weinberger, K, Nam, S.
UN Economic and Social Commission for the Asia and the Pacific Report. 2022.
News
Shining a light on the human toll of climate change
Experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health are bringing an important message to the United Nations’ annual climate conference this year: that the continued burning of fossil fuels poses a massive health threat.
Preserving biodiversity for planetary, human health
Liz Willetts, visiting scholar and planetary health policy director in Harvard Chan School's Department of Environmental Health, explains the importance of nations aligning their biodiversity policies to optimize outcomes for both biodiversity and health.
