USC center gets $4.1 million NIH grant to study human health impacts of wildfires, extreme heat
Original story by Bokie Muigai
The USC-led Climate-related Exposures, Adaptation and Health Equity Center (CLIMA) has received $4.1 million from the National Institutes of Health for research focused on how wildfires and extreme heat affect vulnerable communities.
“California, with its diverse communities, provides an ideal opportunity to identify gaps in climate resilience and adaptation strategies to inform policies that protect the most vulnerable and strengthen climate resiliency,” said center director Rima Habre, an associate professor of environmental health and spatial sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the Spatial Sciences Institute at USC Dornsife.
CLIMA researchers have been collaborating with USC Dornsife Public Exchange and the City of Los Angeles Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO) to build a visual mapping tool that will inform the public about the risks associated with extreme heat.
The center includes researchers from multiple schools across USC, including Wrigley Institute faculty affiliates Sandrah Eckel and Erika Garcia of the Keck School of Medicine, Kelly Sanders of the Viterbi School of Engineering, and Sam Silva and John Wilson of the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences.