NH HWCA Past Events

Currently living in Iqaluit, Nunavut (in the Eastern Canadian Arctic), Devora Neumark, PhD is an interdisciplinary artist-researcher, educator, and community-engaged practitioner with over 30 years of contemplative practice. Neumark is also a Yale School of Public Health-certified Climate Change Adaptation Practitioner. They completed an Arctic Winter College Fellowship in 2021 with a focus on climate-change induced migration. Neumark was a faculty member in the Goddard College MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program from July 2003 through May 2021, where they co-founded the Indigenous and Decolonial Art Concentration. Their Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s-funded research-creation PhD titled Radical Beauty for Troubled Times: Involuntary Displacement and the (Un)Making of Home was an inquiry into the relationship between the traumas associated with forced dislocation and the deliberate beautification of home. Neumark’s creative work includes projects about climate & environmental justice, and about beauty in the built environment for the forcibly displaced.

Stephanie Acker, MPA, is a Research Associate at the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute and an Assessment Measurement and Evidence Consultant at UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight. She has worked a local, federal, and international level to improve outcomes for vulnerable populations. Previously, Stephanie directed the Bureau of Homeless Services, Emergency Shelter, and Housing for the Boston Public Health Commission and served as a Policy Analyst and National Public Information Officer for the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Stephanie was a United States Presidential Management Fellow. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Gordon College and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

Christine Tappan specializes in applying progressive practice, program, policy, strategy, and financial expertise across the health and human services spectrum. She has 25+ years of experience working in the public, social, and for-profit sectors, as well as primary and higher education, both in the United States and internationally. Throughout her career, she’s focused on building partnerships that use data and analytics to drive collaboration and integrate transformational change at key intersections of the social determinants of health, including early childhood, economic mobility, housing, behavioral health, child welfare, and environmental justice. Currently, Christine is the Co-Director of Abt Associates Global Center on Technical Assistance and Implementation and guides the advancement of Abt’s cross-cutting portfolio of health and human services capacity-building efforts and partnerships across the United States. A focus of Christine’ role is to leverage research and best practices to directly impact the capacity and resiliency of individuals, families, communities, organizations, and systems. Prior to joining Abt, Tappan was Associate Commissioner at the New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services and Director of Local Government Affairs at American Public Human Services Association. She also served as a Fulbright Program Specialist in Central Asia, and as an NGO capacity building expert with a focus on child protection and strengthening child and family serving systems. Christine has an MSW from the University of Michigan and BSW from the University of New Hampshire. She also holds a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Education and Leadership from Plymouth State University and is a Certified Forest and Nature Therapy Guide and Trail Consultant through the Association for Nature and Forest Therapists (ANFT). Christine recently founded BirchWalking, an organization that brings beings together in nature and creates safe spaces to deepen connections that promote resiliency and capacity for all to thrive and live well. She provides guided forest therapy walks for individuals, families, groups, and teams in New Hampshire and beyond both in person and virtually. Christine’s inspiration to become a forest therapy guide came from her own experiences as a health and human services professional and leader experiencing burnout and vicarious trauma. After traditional trauma treatments failed to relieve her symptoms, Christine attended a multi-day forest bathing retreat and experienced profound benefits that lasted over time. She subsequently undertook training through ANFT to become a certified guide and now offers tailored forest bathing experiences for individual health and human services practitioners, as well as teams, leaders, and organizations. Christine is also a volunteer with the Old Growth Forest Network where she is a County Coordinator for two counties in New Hampshire, Rockingham and Strafford, leading efforts to identify and preserve old growth forests. She has also completed her certification to become a Workplace Mindfulness Facilitator through the Mindful Leader Institute, Brown University.

This event is co-sponsored by the NH Public Health Association.

Elizabeth Pinsky is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is the Associate Director of the Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation Service, and at Shriner’s Hospital for Children Boston. Her clinical interests focus on the intersection of child mental and physical health, including trauma and fostering resilience in medically ill children. She believes that climate change poses the most urgent threat to children at that intersection of physical and mental health, and that clinicians caring for children must advocate for a rapid and just transition off fossil fuels. She serves as the Associate Director for Advocacy at the MGH Center for Environment and Health and is also a founding member of Climate Code Blue, a Boston-area climate action group for physicians and other health professionals.

Dr Robert Feder, Chair, Behavioral Health Working Group, NH HWCA, and Member, Board of Directors, NH HWCA, will introduce Dr Pinsky and moderate the Q & A.

This event is co-sponsored by Climate Psychiatry Alliance, NAMI New Hampshire, NH Psychological Association, NH Psychiatric Society, NH Public Health Association and NH Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Jennifer L. Barkin, M.S., PhD, Vice Chair & Associate Professor, Community Medicine, Associate Professor, OB/GYN, Director, Academic Health Department, Mercer University School of Medicine

Presented in collaboration with the NH Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, New Hampshire Psychiatric Society, New Hampshire Psychological Association, New Hampshire Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Join Margaret Fletcher for an introductory hour of theory, evidence and practical methods to apply in your daily life and around the stresses of climate work. Participants will explore the potential of training the mind to support emotion regulation, self-care, and personal agency in facing the climate crisis. Margaret Fletcher was trained and certified through University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness (UMASS CFM) to deliver Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and other mindfulness-based programs. Margaret served as senior teacher and senior teacher-trainer at UMASS CFM until its closing in 2019. She is a co-founder of East Coast Mindfulness, a fully online home for mindfulness programs and MBSR teacher training. Margaret is an advisor to the BESS Family Foundation Eco-Dharma Advisory Board, a group committed to leading efforts at the intersection of mindfulness/meditation and the environmental impact of climate change and biodiversity loss. To learn more about Margaret, visit: http://margaretwpfletcher.com/

William Gunn, PhD, psychologist, volunteer in NH HWCA’s Behavioral Health Working Group will be introducing the speaker and moderating the Q&A session.

Ben Liu, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University, Member, Steering Committee, Climate Psychiatry Alliance

Jen Darnell, MD, PGY-2, Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University

Max Galvan, MD, PGY-2, Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX

Rahul Malhotra, MD, Independent Practice, Summit, NJ

Presented in collaboration with the NH Psychiatric Association.