Kim Knowlton, DrPH
- Assistant Clinical Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Overview
Dr. Knowlton teaches at the Mailman School of Public Health, and was senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in New York City. Her work focuses on issues related to the health impacts of climate change, including advocating for public health strategies to prepare for and prevent these impacts, and partnering with city and state governments to make health preparedness a more central feature of climate adaptation plans. She has researched heat- and ozone-related mortality and illnesses, connections between climate, pollen, allergies and asthma, and links between climate change and infectious diseases such as dengue fever. She helped Mailman develop and initially launch the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education (GCCHE). She was among the researchers who participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 Fourth and 2013 Fifth Assessment Reports. She served as co-convening lead author for the human health chapter of the U.S. Third National Climate Assessment; and as a member of the 2nd and 4th New York City Panels on Climate Change.
Dr. Knowlton's project group at NRDC launched an innovative website (www.nrdc.org/climatemaps) that allows people to zoom in on health effects of climate change in their own community. The web pages show people local risks of flooding, drought, heat, pollen, ozone smog, and mosquito-borne dengue fever. The site also informs people about what's needed to protect their families and reduce climate change. Her work at NRDC with community partners in India helped to develop and launch South Asia’s first heat early warning system and action plan.
Academic Appointments
- Assistant Clinical Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Credentials & Experience
Education & Training
- BA, 1978 Cornell University
- MS, 1993 City University of New York, Hunter College
- DrPH, 2005 Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
Committees, Societies, Councils
Honors & Awards
Mellon Teaching Fellow, Barnard College, 2006-2007
APERG Scholar, Mid-Atlantic States Section of the Air and Waste Management Association (MASS-A&WMA) Air Pollution Educational Research Grant Program (APERG), 2006-2007
Dissertations Initiative for Advancement of Climate-Change Research (DISCCRS) Scholar, 2006
Research
Research Interests
- Environmental Health
Global Health Activities
NRDC's India Initiative: Preparing for Public Health Impacts of Climate Change: Heat waves, floods, and infectious disease outbreaks are just some of the public health threats in India that could by exacerbated by climate change. Communities need the ability to assess their own climate-related public health risks and put effective adaptation measures into place.
NRDC's India Initiative, including Dr. Knowlton, worked with a premier Indian health organization to develop a climate-health preparedness plan in a major Indian city, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, focused on preventing heat-related deaths and illnesses. The India Initiative also worked to assess the vulnerabilities of local communities to extreme heat events and to develop municipal strategies for preparing and responding to climate emergencies.
Urban Health Activities
Extreme Heat Coalition (EHC): Organized by WEACT for Environmental Justice, this group (on which Dr. Knowlton is a member) promotes NYC-relevant, community-protective, science-based extreme heat outreach and policy development.
Global Heat-Health Information Network (GHHIN): An independent, voluntary, and member-driven international forum of scientists, practitioners, and policy makers focused on improving capacity to protect populations from the avoidable health risks of extreme heat in our changing climate (Dr. Knowlton is a member).
NYC Climate-Health Adaptation Workgroup: The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH), along with the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, convened public health experts from city agencies, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations to form the Public Health Adaptation Workgroup. The mission of the Workgroup is to play an integral role in the development of a citywide Public Health Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Dr Knowlton represented NRDC among the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on the workgroup.
The New York Climate and Health Project: An integrated modeling system was developed and used to assess potential future health impacts of climate change in the NYC metropolitan region (described in Dr. Knowlton's doctoral dissertation).