Faculty

Huda Alkaff, Founder and Director, Wisconsin Green Muslims

Huda serves as co-chair of US Climate Action Network 100% Renewable Energy action team and co-chair of the Midwest Faith Communities for Equitable Solar. She is a celebrated environmentalist who has been honored by several groups including the Obama White House, the Sierra Club, and the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education. She has higher education degrees in conservation ecology, sustainable development, and environmental education from the University of Georgia. Huda also serves on the national Greening Ramadan Task Force, and the Milwaukee Environmental Consortium Board of Directors.

Heather Allen, MS, Program Director, RENEW Wisconsin

Ms. Allen studied international environmental policy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and worked in Washington D.C. at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Natural Resources Defense Council. She has also managed policy and programs for the Clean Lakes Alliance and serves as legislative analyst for the City of Madison. She joined RENEW, a group that promotes renewable energy in Wisconsin, in 2018. 

Mandela Barnes Lt. Governor, Wisconsin

Mandela Barnes is the 45th lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin and the first African American to hold the position. He attended Milwaukee Marshall High School and Alabama A&M University and has worked for various political campaigns and organizations in Milwaukee, including with Mayor Tom Barrett. He has served on a number of community organizations in Milwaukee. Since then he has served on the State Assembly where he authored numerous pieces of legislation focused on education, criminal justice reform, voting rights, among other areas.  He will speak about what the state of Wisconsin is doing to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.

Andrew Lewandowski, DO, FAAP, Pediatrician, Group Health Cooperative, Madison

Andrew Lewandowski, DO is a steering committee member of the Wisconsin Environmental Health Network where he serves as the liaison to the Wisconsin Climate Table - a multi-disciplinary network of organizations seeking equitable solutions to decarbonization. His professional interests include health equity and the effects of the environment on human health, and he regularly provides medical education about climate change to professionals in pediatrics, family practice, and wilderness medicine. His talk focuses on how health professionals and individuals with privilege can advocate for and create equitable solutions to climate change.

Mark Mitchell, MD, MPH, FACPM, George Mason University Program on Climate and Health, Communicating About Climate Change and Health

Mark A. Mitchell, MD, MPH, FACPM is an Associate Professor of Climate Change, Energy, and Environmental Health Equity at George Mason University, where he is director of State Affairs for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health. In this capacity he is a senior advisor to Wisconsin Health Professionals for Climate Action.  He is also co-chair of the National Medical Association’s Commission on Environmental Health, helping this organization advocate for climate action. He will present on the disproportionate burden of climate health effects that African American physicians are seeing in their patients and the potential benefits to communities of color of addressing climate change in an equitable fashion.  He can also provide information on what other state health professional organizations are doing to address this issue.  He will also lead a workshop on climate and health communication. 

H. Steven Moffic MD, psychiatrist, Medical College of Wisconsin, Solastalgia: Climate and Mental Health

Dr. H Steven Moffic has worked on the link between climate change and mental health for a dozen years and is the recipient of the Administrative Psychiatry Award from the American Psychiatric Association. Among other topics, his presentation will focus on the under-reported health condition solastalgia, defined as “mental or existential distress caused by environmental change.” He has written and presented articles on climate psychiatry and formed groups of interested psychiatrists across the country.

Supreme Moore Omonkunde, 10th District Supervisor, Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors

Supervisor Omonkunde has served the 10th District since 2015 and is chair of the Health and Human Needs Committee and member of the Finance and Audit Committee. He also serves on the Milwaukee Public Museum Board of Directors and on the Milwaukee County Human Rights Commission. His resolution to create a Milwaukee City-County Joint Taskforce on Climate and Economic Equity was adopted in July. The taskforce brings together elected officials and community leaders to make recommendations for achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner, while mitigating racial and income inequality.

Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, director of Global Health at UW-Madison, Health Impacts of Climate Change: 2019

Dr Patz is a Professor and the John P Holton Chair in Health and Environment as well as director of the Global Health Institute at UW-Madison. He also has faculty appointments at the Nelson Institute and the Department of Population Health Sciences. He has worked on the health effects of climate change since 1993, co-chairing the health report of the first Congressionally mandated US National Assessment on Climate Change, and served as Lead Author of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for 15 years. The IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. 

Katie Wickman, MS, RN, CIC, Sustainability Manager, Advocate Aurora Health, Sustainability in Hospitals and Clinics

Katie Wickman is a registered nurse and the Sustainability Manager for Advocate Aurora Health. She has influence in all areas of Advocate Aurora’s sustainability program and plays key roles in the development of healthy and sustainable standards and practices among the system’s 70,000 team members. She represents Advocate Aurora in several national market transformation groups, the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council Healthcare Facilities Advisory Board, and the Health Care Climate Council, working to advance health and sustainability throughout the health care sector. She will be speaking on the environmental impacts of health care delivery and strategies available to reduce those impacts.

Karin Zuegge, MD, anesthesiologist and Medical Director of Sustainability at UW Health, Greenhouse Gas Potential of Anesthesia Gases

Dr Zuegge is the Medical Director for Sustainability and Education Vice Chair for the Department of Anesthesiology at UW Madison. She will be speaking about the greenhouse gas impact of anesthesia gases, focusing on how she worked with her hospital system to both reduce the use of these gases and find safer options.  Dr. Zuegge also researches ways to divert operating room waste for recycling.

It is the policy of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Interprofessional Continuing Education Partnership (ICEP) that the faculty, authors, planners, and other persons who may influence content of this continuing education (CE) activity disclose all relevant financial relationships with commercial interests* in order to allow CE staff to identify and resolve any potential conflicts of interest.  Faculty must also disclose any planned discussion of unlabeled/unapproved uses of drugs or devices during their presentation(s).  For this educational activity all conflicts of interest have been resolved and detailed disclosures are listed below.

*The ACCME defines a commercial interest as any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients. The ACCME does not consider providers of clinical service directly to patients to be commercial interests.