Los Angeles exemplifies the complex factors that influence health and resilience to extreme weather conditions, including heat, wildfires, and drought. Our multidisciplinary research addresses these threats with innovative studies and strong community partnerships co-developing strategies to enhance resilience across urban and rural populations.

Key Highlights

• NIH-wide Funding Success: Secured an NIH-wide P20 award (PI: Habre, P20HL176204) with contributions from Erika Garcia (causal inference), Sam Silva (urban heat and wildfire modeling), Kelly Sanders (power grid), Farzan (health impacts), and Johnston (community partnerships). Habre and Farzan are co-leading a new R01 on the impact of heat stress and wildfire smoke on cardiovascular health in childhood (R01ES036185).

• Community Partnerships: CEC developed an L.A. extreme weather health plan and a heat resilience StoryMap in community and government partnerships; Center investigators linked industrial proximity to cardiorespiratory risks in research co-developed with communities to address community health concerns.89,92,94,100,111,168

• Innovative Research: Models for state-of-the-art air pollution and wildfire exposure were developed and EGAC assigned these to MADRES cohort participant addresses. Drs. Farzan and Habre’s pilot project identified heat- and wildfire-related risks to pregnancy outcomes and children’s health in mothers with high prenatal stress.