May 12 Event – Restoring Ecosystems, Restoring Ourselves

Dr. Perkins is a resident physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She is the founder of Pediatricians for Climate Action, a coalition of Washington state pediatricians working on climate change mitigation through legislative advocacy, medical education and research, and ecosystem restoration.  Dr. Perkins is also a AAP Climate Advocate representing Washington state, a leader on the trainee subcommittee for the AAP Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change (COEHCC), and a forest steward for the city of Seattle.  Prior to her medical training, Dr. Perkins worked as a program coordinator for the Region 10 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, as well as for two solar energy companies.  She completed medical school and an MPH in Environmental Health at the University of Washington.

Abby Fleisch, MD, MPH, is a pediatric endocrinologist at Maine Medical Center, environmental health researcher at Maine Medical Center Research Institute, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Fleisch received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern University. She completed residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital/Boston Medical Center and fellowship in endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital. She participated in the Harvard-wide pediatric health services research fellowship and received a Masters of Public Health from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. After serving on faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital for 3 years, she joined Maine Medical Center in October, 2016.

Dr. Fleisch’s research is focused on the role of early life environmental exposures such as air pollution and consumer product chemicals on cardiometabolic health in childhood. Dr. Fleisch was the principal investigator of a K23 Career Development Award that ended in 2020, and she now holds an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist R01 Award. Both grants were awarded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Fleisch was selected as a member of the Society for Pediatric Research in 2015 and received an Endocrine Society Early Career Investigator Award in 2016.

Carl Cooley, MD, Chair, Children’s Health Working Group, NH HWCA, and Member, Board of Directors, NH HWCA will introduce Dr. Perkins and Dr. Fleisch and moderate the Q & A.

This event is co-sponsored by the NH Public Health Association and NH AAP.