Panel 3: Health impacts of action/ inaction towards a clean energy economy

Impacts of climate change on the work of Children’s Environmental Health Network

Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, Children’s Environmental Health Network

Impact of inaction for children who have asthma

Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Health impacts of climate change, and why clean energy is good for your health

Walter Tsou, MD, MPH, Physicians for Social Responsibility - Pennsylvania

Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH

Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, serves as the Executive Director for the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN). For the past 20 years, she has served as a key spokesperson for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their protection, conducting presentations and lectures across the country. She is a leader in the field of children’s environmental health, serving as a past member of the NIH Council of Councils and the Science Advisory Board for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ms. Witherspoon serves on the External Science Board for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) NIH Research work and is a Co-Leader for the Science/Health initiative of the Cancer Free Economy Network. Ms. Witherspoon is also a Board member for the Pesticide Action Network of North America, the Environmental Integrity Project, and serves on the Maryland Children’s Environmental Health Advisory Council.

Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD

Tyra Bryant-Stephens is a board-certified pediatrician in clinical practice for over 30 years in Philadelphia. In 1997 she founded the Community Asthma Prevention Program (CAPP) of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), a community-based asthma program that seeks to reduce asthma disparities through community-engaged interventions. She has sustained CAPP for 23 years and led numerous studies/projects to help improve asthma outcomes for low-income minority children using community participatory research methodology. She leads the CAPP Collaborative, consisting of partners throughout the city, which is in its twelfth year of hosting the annual conference Fighting Asthma Disparities attended by local, state and national stakeholders. Dr Bryant-Stephens has served on numerous local, state and national committees. She is a founding member of the Pennsylvania Asthma Partnership where she served as chair of the Executive Committee. She also served on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, a federal advisory committee for the US Environmental Protection Agency for 6 years. Currently she serves on the Philadelphia Board of Health. Her research has been funded for over 20 years and currently she leads a U01 National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute study which is intended to connect home, school, community and health care through a patient-centered randomized control trial. She and her husband, Dr. Paul Stephens Jr, are blessed with two daughters and three exciting grandchildren.

Walter Tsou, MD, MPH

Walter Tsou, MD, MPH is the Executive Director of PSR PA. He is a former Health Commissioner of Philadelphia and Past President of the American Public Health Association.