Addressing health impacts of climate change in Alaska Native communities

Alliance members at the Alaska Alliance for Community Engagement - Climate and Health 2nd annual meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.
Photo by Maria Stejskal
Alliance members at the Alaska Alliance for Community Engagement - Climate and Health 2nd annual meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.

The National Institutes of Health awarded four sites funding as a first step in establishing the Alliance for Community Engagement on Climate and Health. One of the four sites is at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

AK ACE-CH is a partnership between °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ Center for Alaska Native Health Research and the College of Natural Science and Mathematics. The program is led by Co-MPIs: Dr. Stacy Rasmus and Dr. Karsten Hueffer; seven Co-Is: William (Billy) Charles, Simeon John, Victor Joseph, Evon Taa'ąįį Peter, MA, Dr. Todd Brinkman, Dr. Andrea Bersamin, and Dr. Morag Clinton; and Program Coordinator, Hannah Robinson, MPH.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks site focuses on Indigenous knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about climate change and its effects on health and well-being in rural Alaska Native communities. The AK ACE-CH is currently funded to carry out phase one of the climate change and health project in four communities: Emmonak and Toksook Bay in the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, and Arctic Village and Tanana in Interior Alaska with additional funding to engage communities in Southeast Alaska as part of the Alliance expansion.

This research was, in part, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Agreement OT2HL158287. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the NIH.