Closing Session and Remarks: Older Adult Mental Health and Climate Change

Dr. Robin Cooper is a psychiatrist who has had a private practice in San Francisco for 40 years. She is Associate Clinical Professor in Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California San Francisco Medical School  where she is actively involved in efforts to address climate change impacts on mental health and health, both within psychiatry and teaching to mental health trainees 

She is co-founder of Climate Psychiatry Alliance, (www.climatepsychiatry.org) a national group with current membership of over 1,000 psychiatrists and mental health professionals dedicated to understanding, educating, and advocating about the specific impact of climate change on mental health.  As she moves into semi-retirement in her clinical work, her work around climate change impacts on health and mental health have become a second career.

Dr. Cooper has spoken to many professional and public sector groups on mental health impacts of climate change, including addressing impacts on aging populations for the National Council on Mental Health and Aging and the Marin Council on Aging.  She is often called upon by journalists and media sources to discuss climate change impacts on mental health. 

Dr. Dawn Baldwin Gibson serves as the Pastor of Peletah Ministries, Executive Director of the Peletah Institute for Building Resilient Communities, and the Superintendent at Peletah Academic Center for Excellence (P.A.C.E.) in New Bern, North Carolina, a culturally competent trauma informed, grief-sensitive PK-12 private school. Dr. Dawn and her husband, Pastor Anthony Gibson founded Peletah in 2011, P.A.C.E. in 2017, the Peletah Institute for Building Resilient Communities and the Peletah Trauma Recovery Resource Center in 2020. 

She has been teaching professionally for more than 25 years and the majority of those have been at the collegiate level. She holds the BA in Liberal Studies from Shaw University, the MA in English with a concentration in Professional and Technical Communications from East Carolina University, and PhD in Christian Counseling from Christian Leadership University. She also completed doctoral hours at George Washington University in Higher Education Administration. She has completed the Certificate in Trauma and Resilience (Florida State University) 

Dr. Dawn currently serves as a member of the North Carolina Faith and Justice Alliance Steering Committee, NC Task Force to address Early Care and Education, Suspension, Expulsion, and Exclusion Practices, the NC Trauma Summit Steering Committee, and the NC Rural Health Association Steering Committee.   

She is the past Chairperson of the NC VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) Spiritual and Emotional Care Committee, the Founding Chairperson of the Pamlico County Disaster Recovery Coalition, and a Founding Member of the NC Inclusive Disaster Recovery Network. She served on the Board of Directors for Coastal Community Action, Inc. and as a board trustee at Pamlico Community College. 

Dr. Dawn co-founded with her husband the Eastern North Carolina Church and Community Resiliency Collaborative in 2022. The Collaborative has served nearly 6000 residents throughout Eastern North Carolina in the past 2 years. She has received numerous community honors for her work in education and community resiliency. 

Mr. Samra served nine years as Deputy Director on SAMHSA’s Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) and is skilled at both virtual and onsite T/TA across a diverse cross-section of behavioral health and recovery services. Areas of expertise include but are not limited to expanding access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder (MAT/MOUD); stigma and bias reduction; urban/rural SUD, OUD, and homelessness support strategies; criminal justice involvement, re-entry, drug courts, and trauma informed corrections care; cultural proficiency and the impact of subcultures of addiction, homelessness, and incarceration on treatment and recovery. He also specializes in peer leadership and professionalism. Mr. Samra is a Dedicated Specialist for the SAMHSA Program to Advance Recovery Knowledge (SPARK), Recovery Consultant for SAMHSA’s Opioid Response Network (ORN) and regional T/TA provider for the Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) homelessness initiatives. He has a master’s degree in public administration and currently resides in Nashville, TN. He utilizes both his extensive personal experiences and professional knowledge when providing technical assistance. 

Elissa Epel, Ph.D, is a Professor, and Vice Chair, in the Department of Psychiatry, at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research aims to elucidate mechanisms of healthy aging and to apply this basic science to scalable interventions that can reach vulnerable populations. She is the Co-Director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, and the Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study, & Treatment, (COAST), and a Co-Director of the Center for Health and Community. 

She is also focusing on climate wellness. She is the Director of the Mental Health Council for climate change, part of the UC wide Climate Change, Health and Equity Center. 

Epel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, past President of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and past co-chair of the Mind & Life Institute Steering Council.  Since 2022, she is named as a highly cited research across fields (top .1% globally). She has served as a consultant to NIH, CDC, Facebook, Apple, United Health, and UC campus-wide initiatives on stress and health.  Epel’s research has been featured in venues such as TEDMED, Wisdom 2.0, NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s Morning Show, 60 minutes, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and science documentaries. She co-wrote the New York Times best-seller “The Telomere Effect: A revolutionary approach to living younger, longer” with Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn (translated into 30 languages) and the new “Stress Prescription,” an independent bookstore best seller and being translated into 15 languages. She enjoys leading science-based meditation retreats. Her personal website is www.elissaepel.com. 

As President and CEO of the National Council on Aging, Ramsey Alwin is leading a nationwide movement to ensure equitable aging for every American. 

Building on NCOA’s 70 years of service and advocacy for older adults, Alwin is renewing the organization’s commitment to improving the lives of millions, especially those who are struggling. She is sparking critical conversations about the resources every American deserves to age well—and what needs to change to ensure all have access.

A seasoned thought leader and policy advocate, Alwin has changed the way people think about older adult poverty and economic security. She designed a new measure of economic security for older adults that better accounts for out-of-pocket health costs and worked to introduce the Measuring American Poverty Act in Congress to redefine the federal poverty measure for the older population. Thanks to Alwin’s efforts, the U.S. Census Bureau formally implemented the Supplemental Poverty Measure nationwide, virtually doubling the elder poverty count and better demonstrating true needs among this population. 

Prior to leading NCOA, Alwin directed financial resilience global thought leadership at AARP and served as Director of National Economic Security Programs at Wider Opportunities for Women. Currently, she serves on the Executive Committee of the UN NGO Committee on Aging, the America250 Health and Wellness Advisory Council, and the National Academy of Social Insurance Finance Committee.