“What are you going to do when you go back?”
It’s the question that set Jeannette Ickovics, PhD, a faculty affiliate at the Yale Institute of Global Health (YIGH), on a new trajectory toward global climate and health. After nearly five years at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, first as a visiting professor and later as dean of faculty, Ickovics reflected on what the next phase of her career might look like upon returning to New Haven.
“I really bristled at the question because I just felt, I didn’t want to go back,” says Ickovics. “I wanted to go forward.”
At the time, Ickovics, who serves as Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), had already spent her career conducting substantial work in maternal and child health and HIV prevention that incorporated global perspectives, but she was not yet deeply embedded in global research.
“To go into climate in particular, I often give credit to my younger son, who works in climate and environmental law and justice,” she says. “He really inspired me, and I thought there was something that I could do with my knowledge and expertise to address this existential threat in the context of global health.”
Ickovics is now a member of the Planetary Health Interdisciplinary Network Exchange (PHINEX) faculty network at YIGH. PHINEX is part of YIGH’s faculty network program, which supports interdisciplinary collaboration to address global health challenges.
Before leaving Singapore in 2021, Ickovics connected with her colleague Lauren Sorkin, executive director of the Resilient Cities Network, a global network of cities working to strengthen urban resilience to climate and other challenges. Recognizing an opportunity to integrate health into the network’s work, Ickovics proposed the idea directly.
“The organization had focused on climate resilience – governance, infrastructure, energy, water – but they hadn’t focused on health at all,” she says. “So, I asked Lauren, would you be interested in integrating health into the portfolio? Her response was, ‘It sounds really interesting, but it’s not up to me. It’s up to the cities.’”
To explore this idea, Ickovics applied for the YIGH Hecht Global Health Policy Innovation and Systems Impact Faculty Network Award, which she received in 2022. The award, offered annually, provides up to $50,000 to YIGH affiliates to support interdisciplinary, policy-focused global health initiatives.
“The goal of the initial project was to ask city leaders directly whether they were interested in integrating health into their climate portfolios,” says Ickovics. “Thirty-four of the 100 cities we queried said yes. It was a relatively light-touch assessment, but it allowed us to identify interested cities and understand their climate and health priorities.”
From that initial award, Ickovics and her collaborators quickly expanded the project’s reach. Within a year, they secured a $250,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to conduct a deeper assessment of cities’ climate and health priorities, grounded in indicators from the Lancet Commission on Climate and Health. The findings were presented at New York Climate Week and later published in the Journal of Urban Health, drawing broader attention to the need to integrate health and equity into climate resilience planning.
The work continued to grow through partnerships with private sector collaborators, including the UK-based Sustainable Markets Initiative and economic modeling experts at Mode Economics, culminating in a global modeling study across more than 11,000 cities. The analysis estimated that implementing evidence-based climate and health interventions could save about 725,000 lives each year through 2030 while reducing healthcare costs and emissions.
“That small pilot fund from YIGH literally set me off on a whole new path,” Ickovics says. “It allowed us to test the idea, demonstrate interest from cities, and build partnerships that have continued to grow in both scope and depth.”
She notes that cities are a critical focal point for climate and health efforts, as both climate exposures and health risks often converge in urban environments. “The majority of people live in cities, and many climate-related exposures – like heat island effects and flooding – are more severe there,” she says. “These risks are compounded by population density and vulnerable groups, including children and older adults.”
While the initial work focused on making the links between climate and health more visible, the effort has since expanded to support programmatic and policy-level change. “Now we’re working directly with city leaders and urban practitioners to translate that into action,” says Ickovics.
The collaborators have established a community of practice with 32 cities to develop practical toolkits and resources for integrating health into climate planning. Working closely with pilot cities including Lagos, Nigeria, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the group is testing these materials in real-world settings and refining them based on feedback from local leaders. The goal, Ickovics explains, is to create user-friendly tools that support policy and program development, guide decision-making, and inform funding across cities worldwide.
For Ickovics, YIGH has played an important role not only in launching the work, but also in sustaining its growth through collaboration and visibility. She notes that funding for climate and health research in the United States has been constrained, making the early support especially impactful.
“I feel very fortunate,” she says. “This came at the right time in terms of creating a strong foundation from which I could grow the work.”
Looking ahead, Ickovics plans to continue collaborating with colleagues across YIGH to expand the initiative and develop new partnerships. She also gives back by mentoring students and working with faculty to amplify and scale emerging ideas.
“There’s an opportunity to use venues within YIGH to amplify our work,” she says. “I’ll continue to learn from my YIGH colleagues, and in turn, bring those intellectual resources and research opportunities back to our community.”
Yale faculty engaged in global health can become YIGH Affiliates, gaining access to funding opportunities, grant support, and expanded visibility through YIGH communications. To learn more about affiliation, contact Mike Skonieczny.