USC’s Research Strategy & Development (RSD) subdivision, within the Office of Research & Innovation (OORI), is vital for advancing the university’s research mission. RSD staff provide strategic guidance, facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, and secure funding for high-impact projects. By fostering innovation and supporting researchers, RSD help support USC’s cutting-edge research activities and scholarly excellence across diverse fields.
As such, following a collaborative effort involving RSD personnel, we are thrilled to announce the recent award made by the National Institutes of Health (NIH, P20HL176204), for the USC-led proposal, entitled CLIMAte-related Exposures, Adaptation, and Health Equity (CLIMA) Center. The grant program and this award is a result of NIH’s ongoing, largescale NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative, an urgent, cross-cutting NIH effort to stimulate research to reduce health threats from climate change across the lifespan and build health resilience in individuals, communities, and nations around the world, especially among those at highest risk.USC’s funded project, CLIMA Center, proposes to build a community of transdisciplinary scientists and robust research infrastructure to advance community-engaged, solution-oriented climate change adaptation and health research. The goal is to inform climate action policies for health equity that strengthen local adaptive capacity, reduce vulnerability, and increase resilience.
The CLIMA Center is led by Dr. Rima Habre, Associate Professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences (PPHS) at the Keck School of Medicine (KSoM) and in the Spatial Sciences Institute of USC. The center is a cross-department, cross-school effort, with Deputy Director Dr. Rob McConnell (KSoM – PPHS), and key personnel including Dr. Sandrah Eckel (KSoM – PPHS), Dr. Shohreh Farzan (KSoM – PPHS), Dr. Erika Garcia (KSoM – PPHS), Dr. Jill Johnston (KSoM – PPHS, Spatial Sciences), Dr. Kelly Sanders (Viterbi – Civil & Environmental Engineering), Dr. Sam Silva (Dornsife – Earth Sciences), Dr. Robin Stevens (Annenberg – Communication), Dr. John Wilson (Dornsife – Spatial Sciences), Dr. Jiachen Zhang (Viterbi – Civil & Environmental Engineering), and Dr. Lu Zhang (KSoM – PPHS).
“Our focus is on how the most vulnerable communities of southern California are being impacted by wildfire smoke and extreme heat, and how social, human, and system level factors like disaster preparedness, power outages, and urban vegetation, can reduce capacity to adapt to and recover from impacts of climate change,” said Dr. Habre. “While we are initially focusing on cardiovascular health across the life course, I am most excited about working with our incredible team and partners across USC and Southern California to expand our capacity for broader, more impactful climate change and health research, with a greater focus on solutions for health equity.”
RSD personnel worked with members of the USC team throughout phases of the proposal development lifecycle to inform and guide the submission in a successful direction that fully aligned with programmatic objectives. RSD staff worked with Dr. Habre and her team during the preliminary planning phases and assisted with generating content and written pieces for the proposal, copyediting, letters of support preparation and sourcing, graphics, and budget development. RSD and Dr. Habre’s team remained engaged in a support-based role from start to finish, assisting with finalizing the proposal for submission. “This was a full team effort, and we are ecstatic to see such a successful outcome for Dr. Habre and her team,” said Dr. Steven Moldin, Associate Vice President of Research Strategy & Innovation, “Dr. Habre conceptualized a brilliant proposal, fully aligned with USC’s strategic sustainability initiatives in research, and we are thrilled with the outcome.”
Congratulations to Dr. Rima Habre and the CLIMA Center team!