Our Team

Sam Myers

Director

Sam Myers works at the intersection of human health and global environmental change. He is a Principle Research Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

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Contact: pha@harvard.edu

Carlos Faerron

Associate Director

Formerly the PHA's Education Fellow, Dr. Faerron now serves as the Associate Director of the PHA and is the co-founder and current director of the InterAmerican Center for Global Health (CISG). He is also an Assistant Professor and Director of Global Health Programs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Graduate School.

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Contact: faerronguzman@g.harvard.edu

Marie Studer

Program Director

Marie Studer is the Program Director of the Planetary Health Alliance, overseeing the strategic visioning, external relations, and program operations for PHA. She is a scientist with a passion for connecting people with meaningful and creative explorations of the world that are relevant to them and our future.

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Contact: mariestuder@g.harvard.edu

Liz Willetts

Policy Director

Liz is an internationally recognized expert in interdisciplinary policy analysis and communications with 20+ years’ experience mobilizing knowledge and engagement on biodiversity, climate change, pollution, food systems, and community health for marginalized populations.

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Contact: ewilletts@g.harvard.edu

Nicky Christensen

Communications Manager

Nicky Christensen is the Communications Manager with the Planetary Health Alliance. She has worked in nonprofit communications for over 10 years, facilitating connections among educational and business communities by creating and implementing comprehensive brand strategies encompassing print and digital media, design, and photography.

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Contact: nchristensen@g.harvard.edu

Joanna Wagner

Community Building and Outreach Coordinator

Joanna Wagner is the Community Building and Outreach Coordinator with the Planetary Health Alliance, where she provides administrative and communications support for all aspects of PHA programs. Before joining the team at the Planetary Health Alliance, Joanna graduated from Boston University’s Kilachand Honors College with a degree in International Relations and Environmental Analysis & Policy. In her spare time, she is pursuing her MLA in Sustainability Studies through Harvard's Extension School.

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Contact: joannawagner@g.harvard.edu

Jeremy Pivor

Senior Program Coordinator

Jeremy Pivor is the Senior Program Coordinator for the Planetary Health Alliance. For over a decade, he has worked in environmental conservation, international climate change diplomacy, and public health. His conservation efforts have brought him around the world from the United States, Madagascar, the Sargasso Sea, the Coral Triangle region in Southeast Asia, to Indonesia Borneo. He cherishes working with and bridging partnerships with organizations from the local to international scale.

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Contact: jeremypivor@g.harvard.edu

Kevin Greene

Administrative Assistant

Kevin (they/them) is the Administrative Assistant with the Planetary Health Alliance. Prior to joining the PHA, Kevin covered the performing arts in the Chicagoland area as a journalist with Newcity, an independently operated local media company, where they primarily reported on Chicago’s theater community with a focus on young adult programming and early career artists.

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Contact: kevingreene@g.harvard.edu

Tulsi Modi

Regional Hubs Lead 

Tulsi is the Research and Knowledge Intern at the Planetary Health Alliance. She is currently enrolled in a Masters in Public Health program, with a concentration in Global Health, at the Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California. Tulsi is focusing her efforts on the impact of climate change on human migration and globalization, specifically in developing countries.

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Contact: tmodi@g.harvard.edu

Jo Bjorgaard

Planetary Health Annual Meeting Intern

Jo is the Planetary Health Annual Meeting Intern for the PHA. She is a Doctor of Nursing practice student at the University of Minnesota specializing in health innovation and leadership. She is focusing her studies on planetary health.

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Kent Boyd

Planetary Health Annual Meeting Intern

Kent Boyd is one of the Planetary Health Alliance Meeting interns with PHA. He is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at the University of Minnesota, specializing in Health Innovation and Leadership.

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Lorenz Bodner

Medical Student Intern

Lorenz Bodner studied Medicine and Classical Singing in Vienna and is passionate about Science Communication related to Planetary Health.

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Jinia Sarkar

Communications and Member Engagement Intern

Jinia Sarkar is the Communications and Member Engagement Intern at PHA. She is currently a Master's student studying Environmental Health Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Bear Aragon

Education Intern

Bear Aragon is studying medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) with plans to specialize in emergency medicine and natural disaster preparedness. As a member of UCSF’s five-year track, Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved (PRIME-US), she is currently pursuing her Master of Public Health in Health Policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Shreya Pillai

Communications and Member Engagement Intern

Shreya is the Communications and Member Engagement intern at the Planetary Health Alliance. She is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Global Studies and International Relations from Northeastern University, Boston.

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Fellows

Melvine Anyango

Next Gen Fellow

Melvine Anyango Otieno is a 2019 Planetary Health Campus Ambassador turned PHA Next Generation Fellow, working to inspire, activate and convene the next generation of planetary health campus ambassadors from around the world, as well as conduct outreach to facilitate local and international collaborations through her leadership in growing the Planetary Health Eastern Africa regional hub. She attained a BSc in Environmental Biology and Health and currently pursuing MSc in Environmental health at the University of Eldoret.

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Tatiana Camargo

Education Fellow

Tatiana is a biologist and Associate Professor, researching and teaching about science education in different contexts (in schools, for community action, and health care) and for different public audiences (children, women farmers, indigenous populations and quilombos) aiming to promote scientific literacy as a key tool for exercising full citizenship.


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Sandeep Maharaj

Global Outreach Fellow

As the PHA's Global Outreach Fellow, Sandeep works to support and strengthen the emerging network of Planetary Health Regional Hubs around the world, mainly through convening and cross-fertilizing current hubs and facilitating the creation of new hubs where desired. At an academic level, Sandeep serves as a lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, and administratively, he serves as both the Associate Dean for Distance Education and Planning and the Director of the Entrepreneurship and Business Transformation Office for the Faculty of Medical Science at UWI's St. Augustine Campus.

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Jennifer Rasmussen

Education Fellow

Jennifer has been a registered nurse for nearly ten years, working primarily in community health and home care in the greater Boston area. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in May 2022, receiving a Master of Public Health in Global Health. During her final semester, Jennifer completed her practicum with the World Wildlife Fund where she worked with the Director of Forests and Health on projects related to the interconnection between forests, conservation, and human health.

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Joshitha Sankam

Global Outreach Fellow

Dr. Joshitha Sankam is a Public Health Professional with experience in domains of Planetary Health and Health Vulnerability & Adaptation to Climate Change. She is the Lead- Health Sensitization and Science Officer at Future Earth Global Hub-South Asia, Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science. She is working towards Health Sensitization with a focus on Nutrition, Coastal Health Risk (disaster response) and Urban Heat in a changing climate. She also works to raise awareness of the effects of climate change on human health among communities and health professionals.

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Matthew Carvalho

Policy Fellow

Matthew Carvalho is a researcher at Georgetown University specializing in Planetary Health law and diplomacy. Originally from southeast Massachusetts, Matthew has worked multiple jobs in the global health governance fields, including work for the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Capitol Hill, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services.  

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Steering Committee

Bristol Moonga Ntebeka

Bristol Moonga Ntebeka served as Planetary Health Campus Ambassador in 2022, and then became a Planetary Health Alliance Next Generation Steering Committee Representative. He is dedicated to inspiring the youth, promoting awareness about Planetary Health, and contributing to the implementation of innovative ideas in the Planetary Health sphere. He is passionate to collaborate with and provide support for the Planetary Health campus ambassadors from anywhere in the world. He holds a BSc in Biology from the Copperbelt University in Zambia, and a Masters of Science in Epidemiology from the University of Zambia.
 
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Francine Laden

Dr. Francine Laden is Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Dr. Laden received her ScD in Epidemiology and MS in Environmental Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

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Advisory Board

Ethan Brown

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, 
Beyond Meat

Ethan Brown is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Beyond Meat, a company dedicated to building meat directly from plants.

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Committee Emeritus

Planetary Health Alliance

The Planetary Health Alliance is a consortium of over 340 universities, government entities, research institutes, and other partners around the world committed to understanding and addressing global environmental change and its health impacts.
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