Centering Health Equity within Climate Action Launch

Date and Time

September 21, 2023
12:00 pm-5:00 pm EDT

Location

New York

Topic

Climate Change

BSR’s newest collaborative initiative, Centering Health Equity within Climate Action, is launching in-person this Climate Week. This event will bring together collaboration members, including representatives from business, academic, government, and community-based organizations, together to address the climate/health nexus and focus on co-creating collective solutions to center health and health equity within climate change.

Scheduled Speakers

• Seema Wadhwa, Executive Director, Environmental Stewardship, Kaiser Permanente
• Amina Azmat, Manager, Climate Change, BSR
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Amina Azmat
Manager, Climate Change, BSR
Washington, D.C.
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Amina works with partners across industries to develop and implement climate change solutions with a focus on aligning to the sustainable development goals (SDGs). 
Before joining BSR, Amina led internal consulting at the United Nations Foundation, where she provided advisory services to SDG teams. She grew and transitioned new business initiatives into their permanent operating models; oversaw the Foundation’s annual planning, risk management, and due diligence processes; and led strategic initiatives to ensure the Foundation’s programmatic, financial, and operational success. Prior to that, Amina worked on the ground in areas of conflict and migration in the Middle East, and she began her career as a market researcher in the consumer products industry.
Amina holds a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and minors in International Affairs and Political Science from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She speaks English and Urdu.
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• Deb Gallagher, Director, Climate Change, BSR
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Deb Gallagher
Director, Climate Change, BSR
New York
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Deb leads BSR’s climate work in the US. She works closely with BSR’s external partnership teams to accelerate decarbonization while engendering climate justice. She works with Transform to Net Zero (TONZ) collaborative initiative members to amplify leadership behaviors that promote a just and resilient future. Deb leads efforts to create a series of TONZ Transformation Guides on issues such as climate transition action plans (CTAPs), climate policy engagement, and climate justice.
Prior to joining BSR, Deb was a professor at Duke University, where she led the Business and Environment program. Her research focused on business leadership behaviors required to advance sustainability, including stakeholder relationship management, ESG data acquisition and use, public policy engagement, and design of strategic partnerships. Over the course of 20 years at Duke, she mentored over 200 sustainability leaders. Prior to Duke, she held environmental leadership positions in manufacturing and government.
Deb holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University
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• Lizzie Russler, Associate, Climate Change, BSR
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Lizzie Russler
Associate, Climate Change, BSR
San Francisco
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Lizzie supports BSR’s climate and sustainability work across industries with a primary focus on climate change, climate justice, and collaboration. She has also supported BSR’s Collaborative Initiatives portfolio, facilitating the development and implementation of impactful multi-stakeholder solutions that tackle systemic challenges to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Prior to joining BSR, Lizzie worked at Sephora on its social impact and sustainability teams. Lizzie has also accrued a range of relevant experience from work with the US Mission to the EU; with Reconsidered, an environmental and social impact consultancy; and with Hope of Children and Women NGO in Uganda, an initiative that equips refugees with marketable skills through job training programs and entrepreneurial initiatives.
Lizzie holds a BA in Contemporary European Studies and Sustainability Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is fluent in English and German and is proficient in French and Swiss German.
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• More, TBA