alumni

Certificate Spotlight: Climate Change and Health with Lily Rosa (SPH’25)

An inside look at SPH’s MPH certificate in climate change and health, from the perspective of an alum who was among the first to complete the program.

Uncertain of her exact career aspirations after studying environmental health in undergrad, Lily Rosa (SPH‘25) signed up for a year of community service with FEMA Corps, a now-defunct joint program of AmeriCorps and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that trained young adults in emergency preparedness, response, and recovery to support communities impacted by disasters.

From March 2022 to March 2023, Rosa and her team members traversed the country in a 15-passenger van, providing boots-on-the-ground support to Floridians in the wake of Hurricane Ian, aiding wildfire long-term recovery efforts in northern California following the 2018 Camp Fire, and contributing to a variety of projects aimed at mitigating potential natural hazards across the Southeast. The experience solidified for Rosa her passion for disaster risk reduction, particularly by way of climate adaptation policies, and she decided to pursue further education in environmental health at the School of Public Health.

When SPH’s new context certificate in climate change and health was announced during Rosa’s Accepted Students’ Day, she knew immediately she was on the right track, she says. “[SPH] got me.”

As an MPH student, Rosa completed both the environmental health (now the environmental health and justice) and climate change and health certificates. The recent graduate shared insight into her experience specializing her degree.

Is there a specific course that you took as part of the certificate that has proven particularly memorable for you?

I took Climate Change and Health Equity and I loved it. I think it helped me connect a lot of the dots and think of certain populations that I hadn’t thought about in that context [before]. Then, I was able to TA it with Madeleine Scammell. It was fun because I got to collaborate with her a lot and offer my feedback of what I thought worked well or what we might be able to change, or how to incorporate Madeleine’s work into it or things that I could share with the class.

Could you talk about other opportunities you have had to apply what you have learned in this certificate, whether it be a practicum or a job or even a student organization that you were involved in?

For my practicum last summer, I was at Boston Children’s Hospital with their neuroepidemiology unit, which focuses on pediatric research in Bangladesh. They primarily focus on spina bifida because that’s the PI’s focus area as a neurologist. [However,] they [got] feedback from their partners in the country that climate change was a big concern and the PI had never really worked in that space, so me and another intern from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health came in to try to help them expand their existing research to look at climate change impacts on children in Bangladesh. I was able to pull in a lot of what I was learning in class about different climate exposures and [do] some literature reviews and then [create] a QGIS toolkit. I think, at that point, I hadn’t taken the intro to GIS course at BU, but I took that later. It definitely helped me strengthen [those skills].

During my last semester, I began working as a research assistant at CAFE with Greg Wellenius’s team. Obviously, a lot of what I learned in the climate health certificate, I was able to bring to that role, and now, I’m excited to be starting a new role as a research fellow with SPH’s Center for Climate and Health.

What is it that you have been doing at CAFE and what will you do in this new role?

I have the opportunity to support a variety of projects, including CAFE programs. I am continuing to support the CAFE Pilot Program, which provides small seed funding for climate and health researchers, and the GeoCAFE Scholar Program, which funds geosciences and health sciences researchers to attend conferences to help bridge the two fields. I maintain tracking systems, conduct preliminary reviews of applications, and coordinate communications with awardees throughout the funding cycles. This past spring, I also led the evaluation for our Public Narrative Workshop (PNW) and developed an internal report that helped us shape our next PNW workshop series, which we’ll run this fall. Beyond CAFE, I’ve begun working on GIS research with Kevin Lane, applying spatial analysis skills I developed during my MPH coursework. I’m looking forward to seeing how else I can support the important work being done across the Center in this new role. 

What would you like to do next professionally?

I would love to return to the public sector. I did a resiliency planning internship while at BU over in Worcester with the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission, and I really love that—going to town halls and talking with community members about what can we do to increase resilience. So, either going back to the public sector or nonprofit [sector] to help communities or organizations build up the resilience to different climate hazards. I think I thrive when I’m the only public health person. I don’t want to sit at a table where everyone’s versed in the social determinants of health. I like when there’s an engineer and someone from public works, etc. That’s the type of environment I really like working in.

Do you have any advice for someone who might be considering the climate change and health certificate?

I would say take as many classes as you can fit in your schedule. I think I took all but one that are in the climate [change] and health certificate. Luckily, it overlapped a lot with EH, but I think each class was so useful in its own way. I think they do a great job of connecting those dots, so just take as many as possible, and just talk to those professors. I know Jonathan Buonocore is also great at setting people up who are looking for different practicums, especially in the energy field.

One of my favorite things about the certificate is that you have professors at BU who are looking at adaptation but also some who are looking at mitigation. That isn’t happening everywhere, and it makes BU unique—that you have people looking at different climate solutions in the energy field but also looking at the impacts of extreme heat. Even the students in the class have diverse backgrounds and interests—there might four MPH students, but then there’s people from BU URBAN, from the earth and environment department, and medical anthropology. Students from all over BU are coming to the [medical] campus to take these classes and that was great for me looking back at it because I think it brought a lot of different perspectives and insights that you wouldn’t have if it was just students from the School of Public Health.