Webinar 1: Folding health and health equity into climate action and adaptation plans

April 16th 2025 | 1pm-2pm (EDT)

Learning objectives

Inform municipal staff and local stakeholders about:

  • the health and health equity risks presented by climate change;
  • the health and health equity benefits associated with local climate mitigation and adaptation measures;
  • how the HealthyPlan.City tool can be used by municipalities to identify and prioritize health inequities in their communities when developing climate change mitigation and climate adaptation plans.

Speakers

Dr. Jeffrey Brook, PhD
Scientific Director and
Nominated Principal Investigator

Dr. Brook is the Scientific Director at CANUE and Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. For over 25 years he was a research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada. He has wide ranging expertise related to air quality and environmental health, contributing to the development of Canadian policy through his research, participation on national and international committees, past leadership on federal science assessments and through studies on children’s health via his leadership role on the CHILD (Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development) Cohort Study. Dr. Brook started and serves as the scientific director of the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE.ca), which represents an open data resource for Canadian researchers. He is one of the co-directors of HealthyDesign.City, which aims to make CANUE data visualization and analysis tools widely accessible.

Kim Perrotta, MHSc
CHASE Executive Director

Kim Perrotta has a Master’s degree in Health Science and over 30 years of experience promoting environmental and built environment policies that improve health and health equity for organizations such as Toronto Public Health, Healthy Canada by Design, and the Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA).  She is the editor of CAPE’s 240-page Climate Change Toolkit for Health Professionals and the author of the 2023 CPHA/CHASE/OPHA report Climate Change, Population Health and Health Equity: Public health strategies and five climate solutions that produce health and health benefits (CPHA: Canadian Public Health Association, CHASE: Canadian Health Association for Sustainability and Equity and OPHA: Ontario Public Health Association). Kim is currently the Executive Director of the Canadian Health Association for Sustainability and Equity (CHASE).

Dr. Dany Doiron, PhD
CANUE Managing Director

Dany holds a PhD in Epidemiology and has been working as an environmental epidemiologist for over a decade. He is the Managing Director of the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE), a pan-Canadian platform that generates and collates health-relevant standardized urban environmental data for all locations in Canada and maintains a working data platform that disseminate these datasets free of charge to Canadian researchers. He also serves as the Co-Director of the HealthyPlan.City project. Dany is a Research Associate at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at Université de Montréal. His research focuses on the effects of ambient air pollution on respiratory health.

To view recording, click on the image below:

Webinar 2: Folding health and health equity into extreme heat adaptation

May 14th 2025 | 1pm-2pm (EDT)

Inform municipal staff and local stakeholders about:

Learning objectives

  • the health and health equity risks presented by extreme heat;
  • the various ways that municipalities can reduce those health and health equity risks;
  • how the HealthyPlan.City tool identifies health inequities that can help inform climate change adaptation plans addressing extreme heat.

Speakers

Dr. Micheal Lee, PhD
Senior scientist 
Environmental Health Services, BCCDC

Michael Lee is a senior scientist with environmental health services at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. His work is focused on developing and implementing applied research and surveillance programs to enable us to better understand and address the interconnections between human health, animal health, and environmental health. Michael’s portfolio includes extreme heat, wildfire smoke, cyanobacteria, biotoxins, and other environmental health related issues.  

Dr. Dany Doiron, PhD
CANUE Managing Director

Dany holds a PhD in Epidemiology and has been working as an environmental epidemiologist for over a decade. He is the Managing Director of the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE), a pan-Canadian platform that generates and collates health-relevant standardized urban environmental data for all locations in Canada and maintains a working data platform that disseminate these datasets free of charge to Canadian researchers. He also serves as the Co-Director of the HealthyPlan.City project. Dany is a Research Associate at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at Université de Montréal. His research focuses on the effects of ambient air pollution on respiratory health.

To view recording, click on the image below:

Webinar 4 – Greening Underserved Schools while Preventing Floods in Chicago

 

Are you working to reduce flooding in your community?

Are you trying to green, high-density, low-income neighbourhoods?

Are you trying to promote social cohesion
and children’s health in under-serviced neighbourhoods?

 

Come learn about the Space to Grow project in Chicago where the city’s water and waste-water agencies are collaborating with school boards and a non-profit organizations to build green infrastructure on school yards that reduces flooding while creating yards that meet the needs of students and communities in low-income racialized neighbourhoods. 

Intended Audience:

  • Municipal staff working in public works, water management, sustainability, parks and recreations, or community services
  • Staff working with school boards
  • Staff working in public health

October 29th 2025 | 1pm-2:30pm (EDT)

Speakers

Emily Zhang
Space to Grow Project Manager
at Healthy Schools Campaign

Emily Zhang is the Space to Grow Project Manager at Healthy Schools Campaign where she supports the transformation of Chicago schoolyards into vibrant spaces that foster opportunities for health and wellness, outdoor learning, active play and green stormwater infrastructure. She helps convene the program’s partners, manages community design and facilitates long-term school support. With a background in geography and experience at the Urban Land Institute’s Healthy Places program, Emily is passionate about community-driven, equitable approaches to health and environmental justice.

Moriah Gelder
Engineer with the Metropolitan
Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago

Moriah Gelder is an Associate Civil Engineer at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD). She earned her bachelor’s degree in general engineering from Harvey Mudd College and her master’s degree in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. She worked as an environmental engineering consultant designing GI installations prior to joining the MWRD in 2018 where she was able to build on her background by joining the Stormwater Department’s GI subsection. Moriah serves as a project manager helping communities throughout Cook County design and construct GI projects through the Green Infrastructure Partnership Program and Space to Grow Program. 

To view recording, click on the image below:

This project is carried out with funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund
and the Government of Canada.

Webinar 3: Folding health and health equity into flood management

June 11th 2025 | 1pm-2pm (EDT)

Learning objectives

Inform municipal staff and local stakeholders about:

  • the health and health equity risks presented by floods; 
  • actions being taken by some municipalities to reduce the risk of flooding;
  • how the HPC tool can be used to reduce health inequities in their communities when developing climate change adaptation and flood risk mitigation plans.

Speakers

Rebekka Schnitter, PhD candidate
Climate Change and Health Specialist
BC Ministry of Health,
Climate Resilience Unit 

Rebekka is a climate change and health specialist in the Ministry of Health’s Climate Resilience Unit. Prior to her position with the B.C. Government, Rebekka worked at Health Canada’s Climate Change and Health Office where she was a co-editor and lead author of the national climate change and health assessment that was published in 2022. Rebekka is also a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta where her research explores and assesses the climate change and health literacy of climate change professionals across Canada.

Emily Peterson
Senior Environmental Health Scientist Healthy Environments & Climate Change Vancouver Coastal Health

Emily is the Senior Environmental Health Scientist on the Healthy Environments & Climate Change team at Vancouver Coastal Health. She works in partnership with local and regional governments, academics and community organizations on a wide range of complex and rapidly evolving environmental health topics including air quality, climate change, environmental contamination, and healthy community design.

 

Dr. Dany Doiron, PhD
CANUE Managing Director

Dany holds a PhD in Epidemiology and has been working as an environmental epidemiologist for over a decade. He is the Managing Director of the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE), a pan-Canadian platform that generates and collates health-relevant standardized urban environmental data for all locations in Canada and maintains a working data platform that disseminate these datasets free of charge to Canadian researchers. He also serves as the Co-Director of the HealthyPlan.City project. Dany is a Research Associate at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at Université de Montréal. His research focuses on the effects of ambient air pollution on respiratory health.

To view recording, click on the image below: