Contact
Professor, School of Public Health
- sherilee@ualberta.ca
Overview
About
Sherilee Harper is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. Her research investigates associations between weather, environment, and health equity in the context of climate change, and she collaborates with partners across sectors to prioritise climate-related health actions, planning, interventions, and research. She was a Lead Author on two United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports; served on the Gender Task Group for the IPCC; Lead Author on Health Canada's 2022 Climate Change and Health Assessment; and Co-chaired the Government of Canada's Health and Wellbeing Advisory Table for the National Adaptation Strategy. She is currently an IPCC Vice Chair (WGI).
Degrees
PhD, University of Guelph
MSc, University of Guelph
Keywords
- climate change and health risks
- climate change and health adaptation
- community-led research; community-based, participatory research
- social and environmental epidemiology
- mixed (qualitative and quantitative) research methods
Research Service
- Vice Chair (WGI), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC)
- Lead Author on the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (AR6-WG2)
- Gender Task Group for the IPCC
Courses
SPH 356 - The Climate Crisis as a Health Crisis
Climate change has already negatively affected the physical and mental health of millions of people around the world. How will these risks evolve as climate change intensifies? Who will bear the largest climate-health burdens and why? And, what can we do about it? This course answers these questions by examining the ways in which climate change is affecting human health and exploring strategies for reducing those impacts. Students will engage in a range of climate-health topics that emphasize the role of health equity, climate justice, and sustainable development in climate-health solutions. Through discussions with experts, engaging with diverse knowledge systems, and learning through real-world examples, students will gain an understanding of the inequitable health impacts of climate change, explore potential solutions, and discover new opportunities for meaningful climate action by viewing the crisis through a health lens. This course is open to students in all disciplines and sectors, underscoring the value of cross-sectoral collaboration and the importance of climate action both within and outside the health sector. Taken together, the course demonstrates that although climate change poses a critical threat to global health, addressing it also offers opportunities to strengthen public health by acting on the core determinants that shape human health and wellbeing.
SPH 456 - Climate Change and Human Health
Climate change has severe and wide-sweeping consequences for humanity with important threats to human health and wellness. With health impacts ranging from heat-related deaths to infectious diseases (e.g., waterborne, foodborne, vector borne, and zoonotic diseases) to malnutrition to mental health to health service disruption and beyond, climate change is considered one of the biggest health challenges of the 21st century. This course focuses on how climate change is already impacting our health, and how we can diminish those impacts. Students will examine how past and future climate change hazards, exposures, and vulnerabilities shape health risks. Case studies will demonstrate how health equity, intersectionality, and social determinants of health can mediate or amplify risks. Students will apply vulnerability assessment tools to identify and prioritize effective and feasible adaptation and mitigation actions. Through discussion, teamwork, and real-world examples, students will apply principles of transdisciplinary systems thinking, equity and justice, sustainability, complexity, Indigenous Peoples' Rights, and community engagement to not only understand climate change impacts on health but to also move into the solution space. Credit may not be obtained for both SPH 456 and SPH 556.
SPH 556 - Climate Change and Human Health
Climate change has severe and wide-sweeping consequences for humanity with important threats to human health and wellness. With health impacts ranging from heat-related deaths to infectious diseases (e.g., waterborne, foodborne, vector borne, and zoonotic diseases) to malnutrition to mental health to health service disruption and beyond, climate change is considered one of the biggest health challenges of the 21st century. This course focuses on how climate change is already impacting our health, and how we can diminish those impacts. Students will examine how past and future climate change hazards, exposures, and vulnerabilities shape health risks. Case studies will demonstrate how health equity, intersectionality, and social determinants of health can mediate or amplify risks. Students will apply vulnerability assessment tools to identify and prioritize effective and feasible adaptation and mitigation actions. Through discussion, teamwork, and real-world examples, students will apply principles of transdisciplinary, systems thinking, equity and justice, sustainability, complexity, Indigenous Peoples' Rights, and community engagement to not only understand climate change impacts on health but to also move into the solution space.
SPH 557 - Hot Topics in Climate Change and Health
Climate change and health is a rapidly emerging field with exponentially increasing research outputs and expanding areas of practice. Climate change topics increasingly demand the public's attention, including news headlines, local to international policies, images of increasing extreme weather events, climate strikes, government election platforms, and increasing international reports on climate change impacts. Climate change is a hot topic! Alongside this rapid pace of climate change developments is the urgency for health action and immediate attention. Therefore, this course explores the health dimensions of hot topics, emerging themes, and current events in climate change as they occur in real time around the world. Through the discussion of current global to local issues at the climate-health nexus, students will deepen their understanding of climate change and health research, policy, and practice. Discussion, teamwork, and projects will enable the application of climate change and health theory to real time climate change and health theory to real time climate change events. Prerequisite: SPH 556.
SPH 558 - Climate Change & Health Integrative Project
Public health needs a climate change action plan now. Human health is intertwined with the stability of our climate, making climate change a threat to any vision of a healthy future. Serving as the culminating and integrative experience of the Climate Change and Health Graduate Embedded Certificate, students will apply and expand knowledge gained throughout their coursework to engage in high-level inquiry focusing on climate change and health. Students will apply a climate change lens to health programs, policy, research, and decision-making, and explore how to integrate climate change dimensions into all health actions. Prerequisites: SPH 556 and SPH 557.
Scholarly Activities
Research - Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change (IHACC)
Ended: 2021
Funded by CIHR Team Grant
IHACCFeatured Publications
Conevska, A., Ford, J., Lesnikowski, A., Harper, S.L.
Climate Policy. 2018 January;
Wright, C.J., Sargeant, J.M., Edge, V.L., Ford, J.D., Farahbakhsh, K., Shiwak, I., Flowers, C., Gordon, A.C., RICG, IHACC Research Team (Berrang-Ford, L., Carcamo, C., Llanos, A., Lwasa, S., Namanya, D.B.), Harper, S.L.
Science of The Total Environment. 2018 January; 618 (15):369-378
Zavaleta, C., Berrang-Ford, L., Ford, J., Llanos-Cuentas, A., Carcamo, C., Ross, N., Lancha, G., Sherman, M., Harper, S.L., IHACC Research Team
PLoS ONE. 2018 January; 13 (10)
Flynn, M., Ford, J., Pearce, T., Harper, S.L., IHACC Research Team
Environmental Science & Policy. 2018 January; 79
Ford, J.D., Sherman, M., Berrang-Ford, L., Llanos, A., Carcamo, C., Harper, S.L., Lwasa, S., Namanya, D.B., Marcello, T., Maillet, M., Edge, V.
Global Environmental Change. 2018 January; 49