Our Team
We are psychiatrists—in academic, community, and research positions—united by our mission to assure optimal mental health for all through the prevention and mitigation of climate change's impacts. We also advocate to maximize the mental and physical health co-benefits of a sustainable, regenerative, global response to climate change.
Today’s rising crop of psychiatrists will have to contend with climate change as an everyday, all-encompassing facet of life on Earth. They will not only contend with climate change’s effects on the severity, distribution, and symptomatology of mental illness, but also with its impact on the psychiatry field’s theoretical foundations and research priorities. We now live and practice psychiatry in a world where psychological processes, human behaviors, and environmental consequences are clearly and inextricably linked.
Our Steering Committee
Robin Cooper, MD, San Francisco, California
Private Practice. Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco
Robin Cooper, MD, has been in private practice, focusing on both psychotherapy and medical management, throughout her fourty years in the field. She currently has a clinical appointment of Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where she has served many different roles in education and supervision. She has always had a parallel interest in both treating and advocating for the provision of services to the severely mentally ill. She has served on a number of boards, and has represented the California Psychiatric Association to the state stakeholders’ organization, California Coalition for Mental Health. Her interest in climate change’s impacts on the mentally ill derives from her many years of political work in climate change politics—specifically working with Citizens’ Climate Lobby to advocate for national legislation of a carbon tax which would return revenues to American families. Her concern for environmental justice has fueled her interest in understanding the differential impacts of climate disruption on poor, under-served communities, including on mentally ill individuals. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
Contact: robincooper@climatepsychiatry.org
Robert Feder, MD, New Hampshire
APA Representative to the Medical Society Consortium for Climate and Health, Chairman of the Behavioral Health Work Group for the New Hampshire Healthcare Workers for Climate Action
Robert Feder, M.D. has been practicing psychiatry in New Hampshire for over forty years. He majored in psychology at the University of Michigan, obtained his M.D. from the University of Washington, and did his general adult psychiatry residency at Yale. Bob has practiced in a variety of settings, including running inpatient units and partial hospitalization programs at both community and private hospitals, serving as the Medical Director of a behavioral health managed care organization, and running a private practice specializing in substance abuse, mood disorders, and forensic psychiatry. Bob's climate activities include the American Psychiatric Association representative to the Steering Committee of the Medical Society Consortium for Climate and Health, Chairman of the Behavioral Health Work Group for the New Hampshire Healthcare Workers for Climate Action, Treasurer for 350NH, and activities with No Coal No Gas. Bob enjoys hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, boogie boarding, playing guitar, and singing.
Elizabeth Haase, MD, Carson City, Nevada
Chair, GAP (Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry) Climate and Health Committee;
Movie Producer, Frogs in a Pot
Elizabeth Haase, MD, is a consultation psychiatrist; the Medical Director of Psychiatry for both Carson Tahoe Hospital and Behavioral Health Services in Carson City, Nevada; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Nevada School of Medicine; and a board-certified Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Deeply involved in a variety of climate—mental health efforts, she was the inaugural Chair of the Committee on Climate and Mental Health for the American Psychiatric Association, and is the Chair of the Climate Committee for the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. She has been a Climate Reality leader, as well as producer and lead for Frogs in a Pot, a short documentary about helping kids to emotionally prepare for climate challenges, and has written numerous chapters and articles about climate change and mental health. Dr. Haase earned a fellowship certification in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, where she also completed training in psychoanalysis at the Columbia Center for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Research and served as voluntary faculty for twenty three years. Earlier in her career, she supervised, lectured, and published in the areas of gender and sexuality, personality, adult relationships, and pain management. In her free time, she likes to be in nature in any form, and to dance.
Contact: ehaase@me.com
Janet Lewis, MD, Finger Lakes Region, New York
General psychiatrist in private practice in the Finger Lakes region of New York State;
Co-chair of the Climate Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry.
Dr. Lewis is a psychiatrist in private practice in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Rochester, a founding member of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, and co-chair of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry’s Climate Committee . She has given numerous academic presentations on climate mental health at annual meetings of the American Psychiatric Association as well as to other professional, community and religious groups. She is an author on climate papers in professional journals, including Psychodynamic Psychiatry, and the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease . She has been featured in podcast interviews, and interviewed and quoted by media outlets, ranging from NBC to Rolling Stone Magazine. She conducts seminar series for University of Rochester psychiatric residents, covering the breadth of psychiatry’s interface with climate change.
In 2015, she established a continuously meeting study /support /consultation therapists’ group in Ithaca NY, initially focused on climate change, but now also encompassing other social issues with which climate change is intertwined. She has 2 grown children, one grandchild and lives with her husband, dog and cat, innumerable trees and other creatures in acres of woods .
Contact: janet.lew.md@gmail.com
Ben Liu, MD, Portland, Oregon
Ben Liu, MD, is a Consultation-Liaison trained psychiatrist. He completed residency in his Northern California hometown at UC Davis, and headed north to Portland to better pursue early-career endeavors in a place with more verdant scenery / fewer heatwaves / the best public transit. He considers himself as part of the Trump "class of 2016," in which the horror of Trump’s promises to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord launched him into tireless climate activism. He started with handing out event flyers at the farmer's market as part of the 350 Sacramento outreach team, and most recently contributed to the inaugural offering of OHSU's Climate Change & Human Health course. He now lives and breathes climate change. Ben’s interests include nurturing sustainable climate activism, climate communication, and living with chronic recurring illness.
Beth Mark, MD, MES, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Beth Mark, MD, is a staff psychiatrist at the Student Counseling Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She became a licensed physician acupuncturist in 2013 and has incorporated acupuncture and mindfulness-based stress reduction approaches in her work with university students. Always a nature lover and avid hiker, her interest in climate work was sparked as she observed the local impact of the changing climate during her time outdoors. She completed a Master’s in Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, with a specific focus on the psychological impacts of learning about climate change in the classroom.
Stephen Peterson, MD, Washington, D.C.
Stephen Peterson, MD, is a practicing psychiatrist in Washington DC, doing inpatient outpatient and consultation liaison work. He is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University. He has three adult children and two granddaughters, and is in the fight for their world to come.
Dr. Peterson is also a member of APA Caucus on Climate Change and Mental Health. Dr. Peterson has been a Steering Committee member of the CPA since early 2020. He states, ”I find the CPA an effective place to work on climate improvement.”
Emily Schutzenhofer, MD, MPH, Seattle, Washington
Emily Schutzenhofer, MD MPH is a Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellow at the University of Washington, in Seattle, WA. She will be joining as junior faculty in July 2024. She is dedicated to promoting global mental health through action including climate advocacy. She joined the Early Career Network early in her residency and rapidly grew into leadership as Co-Chair. She developed and continues to lead the ECN Speakers Bureau and CPA/APA Social Media Team. She is an effective and talented speaker and has presented numerous times on the topic of Climate Change and Mental Health for organizations nationwide, including at the APA Annual Meeting. Emily has contributed to a textbook chapter on climate psychiatry for the American Association for Community Psychiatry Textbook of Community Psychiatry. She has also served as an invited guest of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Climate Committee since 2021, contributing to a standard climate psychiatry curriculum for residency programs. Her leadership in local organized medicine/psychiatry and advocacy work dates to her time in medical school at the University of Virginia (Medical Society of Virginia) and in residency at the George Washington University (Washington Psychiatric Society, serving on the Board of Directors).
John Sullenbarger, MD, Dayton, Ohio
John Sullenbarger is an associate of Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine's department of psychiatry where he is focusing on residency and medical student education regarding climate change effects on mental health. He has been active with the Climate Psychiatry Alliance since 2020, delivering lectures to various audiences and co-authoring a chapter on climate change in the American Association of Community Psychiatry's textbook amongst other activities. He has ties in both Oregon and Ohio, and enjoys reconnecting with Nature in his spare time.'
Lise Van Susteren, MD, Washington, D.C.
General and Forensic Psychiatrist, Washington D.C.
Lise Van Susteren, MD, is an expert on the physical and mental health effects of climate change. In 2011, she co-authored "The Psychological Effects of Global Warming on the U.S.-And Why the U.S. Mental Health System is Not Adequately Prepared," which was one of the first reports on the subject by a psychiatrist. Since then, she has continued to be a prolific speaker, advocate, and author on these issues. In addition to community organizing on climate issues, Dr. Van Susteren has served on the Advisory Board of the Center for Health and Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Contact: lvs350@me.com
Josh Wortzel, MD, MPhil, MS(Ed), Providence, RI
Josh Wortzel, MD, is a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at Brown University. He completed his AB in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology at Harvard College, his MPhil in Clinical Research at Cambridge University, his MD at Stanford University, and his general psychiatry residency and Master’s in Education at the University of Rochester. Much of his current research involves studying the impact of climate change on mental health, including studying educational interventions about climate mental health, the effects of heat waves on suicidality, and the impact of climate distress on children’s mental health. He has greatly enjoyed presenting about these topics at the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Education, and grand rounds across the country. In addition to being a member of the CPA steering committee, Josh is the chair of the APA Committee on Climate Change and Mental Health, the vice chair of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s Resource Group on Climate Mental Health, and is on the steering committee for The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Climate Change and Mental Health Committee.
Contact: Jrwortzel@gmail.com
Additional Leaders
Elizabeth Pinsky, Boston, MA
Elizabeth Pinsky is a pediatrician and child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is the Associate Director of the Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation Service, and Shriner’s Hospital Boston. Her clinical interests focus on the intersection of child mental and physical health, including trauma and 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 a founding member of Climate Code Blue, a Boston-area climate action group for health professionals. She is currently the chair of the Children/Youth working group of CPA.
Contact: egpinsky@gmail.com
Past Members / Co-Founders
James Fleming (jflemingmd@yahoo.com): James Fleming, MD, currently serves as Medical Director for three intensive outpatient programs for senior citizens, and works as a contract psychiatrist for the Missouri Department of Corrections. In addition to these roles, for many years he has maintained a private practice of holistic psychiatry. Dr. Fleming is a Life Member of the American Psychiatric Association and has held numerous APA-related positions, including former President of the Western Missouri Psychiatric Association. Since 2015, has served as one of two representatives from Missouri to the APA Assembly, the APA’s governance body. He was also Co-Chair for an APA symposium on the the psychiatric impact of environmental toxicants in October 2018.
Jack Gorman (jackgorm@gmail.com): Jack is a psychiatrist in New York City, who has a long background in academic medicine and research. He is particularly expert in the issue of science denial, having co-authored with his daughter, Sara E. Gorman, a book, Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Facts That Will Save Us. (OUP, 2017), which covers a wide range of denial of science.
He is most recently author of Neuroscience at the Intersection of Mind and Brain (OUP, 2018) which addresses the neurobiology and social psychology of fear, prejudice, and science denial. He is available to speak about the psychology of climate change denialism, ways to communicate the urgency of climate change effectively to the public, and the mental health consequences of climate change.
Carissa Caban-Aleman (ccabanal@fiu.edu): Carissa is a community psychiatrist from Miami, on the faculty at Florida International University, who is Puerto Rican. She is a leader of CrearConSalud which is focused on activities in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria and the bungled federal recovery/response. She and others in CrearConSalud work to support community resilience and to consult regarding mental health consequences in Puerto Rico. She has received acknowledgement from the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health by being awarded the January, 2019, Champion of the Month.
Tony Ng (atn0623@aol.com) is a community psychiatrist in Bangor, Maine, who is very experienced in disaster response. He serves as the chair of the Caucus on Mental Health and Climate Change for the American Psychiatric Association.
David Pollack (dapptsmt@gmail.com): David is a psychiatrist who has worked as a community and public psychiatrist in Oregon since 1973. He is Professor for Public Policy at Oregon Health and Science University. He served as either staff psychiatrist, consultant psychiatrist, or medical director for several community mental health programs in Portland from 1976-98. In 1998-99, he served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, in which capacity he worked in the Health Office of Senator Edward Kennedy. He served as Addictions and Mental Health Medical Director for the Oregon Department of Human Services from 2002-2006. He has written about and presented on many issues, including: community psychiatry, health delivery systems, health care financing, mental health integration with primary care, disaster psychiatry, workforce development, ethical aspects of community mental health services, and climate change psychiatry. He has also been active at the national level, in various capacities, with the American Psychiatric Association and the American Association of Community Psychiatrists.
Anne Richardson (richas01@hotmail.com): Anne is a community psychiatrist in North Carolina who has a general understanding of CC mental health issues. As a mother of several young children, Anne has a particular personal passion for the issue. She has taken the lead in coordinating the presentation at APA meetings of the Overview of Mental Health Consequences of Climate Change.
Alexander Schrobenhauser-Clonan (Alex.Schrobenhauser-clonan@ucsf.edu): Alex is a psychiatry resident at UCSF. As a psychiatrist in training he brings a particular view of the issues related to younger physicians and has developed presentations on what young psychiatrists may need to know. He is particularly interested in curriculum development and integration into all levels of physician training on climate change health impacts. He has been working with Beth Haase on improving the sustainability of mental health practices (i.e., how to reduce the carbon footprint in clinical settings).