May 12, 2023 | Jeannie Economos and Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd
Description:
According to the CDC, over 600 people die due to extreme heat-related factors, and thousands more are severely impacted every year. As climate change increases the frequency and length of extreme heat events, more will be affected, therefore, it is vital to know who will be and is most impacted, and what these impacts are. Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd and Jeannie Economos will discuss which populations are most at risk, including farmworkers or those who live in urban heat islands, what factors contribute to these impacts, such as the intersection of urbanization, heat, and health, and what can be done to mitigate and address these effects.
Speaker Bio: Jeannie Economos
Jeannie Economos has been working on farmworker issues for over 25 years, addressing issues of social and environmental justice for farmworkers and other low-income, BIPOC communities in Florida and around the country. Since 2007, she has been the Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator of FWAF, coordinating pesticide trainings for farmworkers in Florida, identifying workplace violations of Worker Protection Standards, conducting health care provider trainings on pesticide and heat exposure of farmworkers, and advocating for stronger workplace regulations and improved compliance and enforcement. She has, also, been engaged in community-based participatory research projects with Emory University on the reproductive health of Florida farmworkers and on heat stress exposures and is actively engaged in local, state, national and international coalitions and collaborations related to farmworker rights and health and safety, pesticide reduction, environmental health and justice. In more recent years, she has been involved in national policy issues.
Speaker Bio: Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd
Dr. Marshall Shepherd is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia and Director of its Atmospheric Sciences Program. He has received numerous awards including the 2004 White House PECASE Award, the Captain Planet Foundation Protector of the Earth Award, the 2019 AGU Climate Communication Prize, the 2020 Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science, and the 2018 AMS Helmut Landsberg Award. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in meteorology from Florida State University. He has two TEDx talks on climate science and communication that collectively exceed two million viewers. He is routinely asked to brief the media, Congress, and the White House on weather-climate-science-related topics.