Healthy Planet, Healthy Minds and Brains: Science for Resilient Cities and Communities

Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a general and forensic psychiatrist in Washington, DC, is an expert on the physical and mental health effects of climate change. In 2011, she co-authored “The Psychological Effects of Global Warming on the United States: And Why the U.S. Mental Health Care System Is Not Adequately Prepared”, which was one of the first reports on the subject by a psychiatrist. In addition to community organizing on climate issues, Van Susteren serves on several boards, including the Climate Psychology Alliance. She is a frequent contributor on television, radio and in the print media, and has served on the Advisory Board of the Center for Health and Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her book, Emotional Inflammation, was released in April 2020.

Dr. Joshua Wortzel is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Institute of Living in Hartford and an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. He completed his child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Brown University, his general psychiatry residency at the University of Rochester, and earned his medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine. He chairs the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Climate Change and Mental Health and co-chairs the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s Committee on Climate Change. He is also a fellow of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry think tank’s Climate and Mental Health Committee, part of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance steering committee, and a 2024–25 National Institute of Mental Health Climate and Health Scholar. His research focuses on the effects of heat on affective disorders and suicide in young people, and the mental health impact of climate change distress.
 

Vildan Soguktas is passionate about the interconnectedness of planetary health, brain health, and mental health. She is the founder of Youth for Planetary Health (YfPH), a group of young people worldwide focused on strengthening youth leadership in planetary health, with particular emphasis on the connection between mental health and planetary crises; YfPH is also a member of the Planetary Health Alliance and is accredited by both UNESCO and WHO. Vildan has also organized and participated in several international events related to planetary health and the mental and brain health impacts of planetary crises, including co-moderating United Nations Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum events in May 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Vildan serves as Project Coordinator at Climate Junction and at Ecopsychepedia, ventures of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance. She is currently the Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Virginia Next Gen, where she leads a team to advocate for youth mental health statewide. She is a member of the American Public Health Association Children’s Environmental Health Committee and the International Neuro Climate Working Group.

Dr. Gary Belkin, is a psychiatrist who approaches mental health as a community asset and building block of social policy and progress. He founded Billion Minds Institute to apply that approach to help better address challenges of great scale. One focus for that has been working through UNFCCC and allied organizations, UN agencies, global reach NGOs, climate finance institutions, and local governments for mobilization of effort for local climate resilience to routinely include strengthening responses to and reckoning with losses and damages to psychosocial resilience in the world’s most climate impacted areas. Gary is former Executive Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where he designed ThriveNYC, a whole-of-city-government approach to, and grassroots ownership of, mental health.  He also served as Medical Director for Behavioral Health across the Health and Hospitals Corporation of the City of New York (H+H) and as a member of the H+H Board of Directors.  He’s contributed to the formation of the field of “global mental health” including as Founding Editor in Chief of the Cambridge University Press open access journal Global Mental Health.
 

In 2020, Commissioner Ted Terry was elected to serve as the Super District 6 Commissioner. His district includes half of the County with portions of South, Central, and North DeKalb, totaling approximately 350,000 residents. He successfully was reelected and began his second term in January 2025. Commissioner Terry’s policy priorities include environmental justice, such as championing the DeKalb County Environmental Justice and Sustainability Resident Review Group, affordable housing, transit equity, protecting voting rights for DeKalb residents, food insecurities, and criminal justice reform. Commissioner Terry serves as the Chair of Finance and Budget (FAB) and is a member of the Public Works and Infrastructure (PWI) Committee. 

Mr. Remy Sietchiping is the Deputy Director of the UN-Habitat Liaison Office in New York. He is currently supporting the Office’s intergovernmental engagement with Member States, UN system partners, civil society, and other stakeholders to advance sustainable urbanization and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda. With over two decades of experience in urban and regional planning, policy development, and multilateral processes, he has served in various leadership roles across UN-Habitat, including in global policy analysis, strategic partnerships, and intergovernmental support. Mr. Sietchiping is committed to strengthening collaboration and building effective partnerships to accelerate progress on SDG 11 and related goals.

I am a neuroscientist working at the intersection of brain health, climate change, planetary health, and global health policy. I am fascinated by one of the most important questions of our time: how does the world around us shape our brains and how can healthier brains help create healthier people, healthier communities, and ultimately a healthier planet? 

For more than two decades, my work has explored the brain from multiple perspectives, from the molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases to the effects of air pollution, extreme heat, wildfires, urban environments, and other ecological stressors on brain development, cognition, mental health, and healthy aging. My goal is to translate scientific discoveries into practical solutions that strengthen public health, inform policy, and inspire collective action.

While my early career focused on neurological disease, becoming a mother transformed the questions I wanted to ask as a scientist. I began thinking about the world future generations will inherit, and the role neuroscience could play in building healthier, more resilient societies. That question has shaped nearly everything I have done since.

In 2023, I founded EcoNeuro, a research and policy initiative that bridges neuroscience, environmental science, public health, and policy to advance brain health in a changing environment. Through EcoNeuro, I collaborate with researchers, governments, nonprofits, social justice organizations, and international institutions on projects spanning global research, policy translation, environmental justice, strategic advising, and science communication.

The following year, I founded the International Neuro Climate Working Group (NCWG) after realizing that no single person, discipline, institution, or country could address these challenges alone. Having grown up in Türkiye, I understood that environmental challenges and their solutions look different across the world. I wanted NCWG to bring together diverse disciplines, geographies, and lived experiences, with a strong commitment to elevating voices from low- and middle-income countries.

Today, NCWG has grown into a global network of more than 400 researchers, clinicians, policymakers, public health experts, community leaders, and people with lived experience across over 60 countries. Recognized by the World Economic Forum as a leading global initiative addressing the mental health dimensions of climate change, the network advances interdisciplinary research, education, policy, advocacy, capacity building, and collective action. Building this community and watching new collaborations and friendships emerge across disciplines and continents has been one of the most meaningful parts of my work.

I currently teach and conduct research as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where I also serve as a Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health and an Affiliate of the Stanford Center for Human and Planetary Health. My research spans international collaborations examining how environmental exposures influence brain health across the lifespan and how this knowledge can inform prevention, adaptation, and resilience, including work on children’s brain health in India and brain aging in Latin America.

Beyond academia, I enjoy bringing people together across disciplines and sectors to turn science into action. I advise international organizations, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Council on Foreign Relations, contribute to international commissions and global assessments, and serve on scientific and advisory boards advancing climate change, mental health, planetary health, and health equity. My work has also contributed to global initiatives such as the State of Global Air report and WHO efforts on air pollution, brain health, and dementia prevention.

I am equally passionate about science communication and storytelling. My research and perspectives have been featured by The New York Times, The Guardian, Bloomberg, STAT, Psychology Today, and other international media outlets. I have spoken at the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, TEDx, the World Bank, and scientific organizations worldwide. In 2025, I was honored to be named a Grist 50 Climate Leader.

I am also co-editing a book with MIT Press, Ecological and Green Neuroscience: Reimagining the Brain’s Universe, which explores how neuroscience can deepen our understanding of the relationship between human health, ecosystems, and the natural world.
At the heart of my work is a commitment to health equity, collaboration, curiosity, compassion, and hope. I believe science has a responsibility to generate knowledge, build meaningful partnerships, elevate underrepresented voices, and help create solutions grounded in the needs and experiences of communities. Whether I am conducting research, teaching, advising policymakers, or building international collaborations, my goal is the same: to help create a future in which healthier brains contribute to healthier people, stronger communities, and a healthier planet.
 

Outside of work, you will usually find me running, hiking, taking photographs, or exploring nature with my husband, our three children, and our dog, Canela. I completed a six-month artist residency at the Ten Women Gallery in Santa Monica and continue to draw inspiration from both science and art. We now call the San Francisco Bay Area home, where many of my best ideas begin during long walks outdoors with my family.

Maria Martha Barreneche is a Youth Well-Being International Specialist and the of the United Nations Youth Office’s Mental Health & Well-Being Flagship, where she authored the foundational framework with UN University in consultation with +10 universities internationally.

A Distinguished Graduate of the National University of La Plata (9.34/10 average), she holds a PhD in Education from the Università degli Studi di Padova. Her academic contributions include published research in journals focusing on philosophical inquiry with adolescents and navigating uncertainty in educational settings. Together with professor Marina Santi, developed a dis-orientation approach to educational pathways, underscoring the value of improvisation and the design of educational settings to navigate uncertanty through philosophy.

Cheryl Healy is Co-Director of Brain Health at the McKinsey Health Institute, where her work spans mental health, neurological health, and addiction and recovery. She brings a cross-sector perspective to how investment in the brain shapes long-term health and economic opportunity. Before McKinsey, Cheryl was a classroom teacher and education researcher, and most recently a senior advisor on behavioral health at the U.S. Administration for Children and Families. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in economics and philosophy from Wellesley College.