Mary Rice announced as the new director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE and faculty at Department of Environmental Health
September 18, 2024 —The Department of Environmental Health is excited to welcome Mary B. Rice as the Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Respiratory Health and director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE), effective October 1, 2024. Dr. Rice is a pulmonary and critical care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and focuses her research on the impacts of exposure to air pollution and climate change on the respiratory health of children and adults.
As a physician and environmental health researcher, Rice has been at the forefront of national policy discussions on air pollution, climate change, and health. She has testified before Congress as an expert witness on the health effects of air pollution and the benefits of air quality and carbon regulations. She currently serves on the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology Policy Committee and previously chaired the American Thoracic Society (ATS)’s Environmental Health Policy Committee. She is the chair-elect of the Environmental, Occupational and Population Health Assembly of the ATS. In 2020, ATS awarded her the Jo Rae Wright Award for Outstanding Science.
“I am thrilled to pass the baton to Dr. Rice as the new leader of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE,” said Dr. Kari Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School and interim director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE. “Her experience as a clinician, researcher, and expert in environmental exposures—especially the impact she’s made in public health by presenting her research in ways that are actionable to policymakers and the public alike—makes her the ideal person to lead this work.”
“I look forward to supporting Dr. Rice and the team so they can build from the Center’s auspicious past and continue its critical mission to build a healthy, just, and sustainable world,” Nadeau added.
Read the announcement letter from Dean Andrea Bacarelli here.
Read the full announcement on the Harvard Chan C-CHANGE website.
