Alliance for Community Engagement– Climate and Health (ACE-CH) Fact Sheet

The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative (CCHI) has funded four sites as part of the Alliance for Community Engagement on Climate and Health (ACE-CH). ACE-CH supports the CEAL mission by fostering, coordinating, and sustaining community-engaged research across the U.S. that will identify and promote interventions mitigating health inequities related to climate change

ACE-CH Mission

ACE-CH is a community-engaged alliance that promotes community-driven, sustainable strategies addressing the impact of climate on populations disproportionately affected by social determinants of health and health disparities. ACE-CH assesses community knowledge of the health impacts of climate stressors and builds partnerships with multiple stakeholders to encourage and foster resiliency.

ACE-CH Awardees

University of Alaska Fairbanks | Alaska Alliance for Community Engagement– Climate and Health (AK ACE-CH)

Principal Investigators: Stacy Rasmus and Karsten Hueffer 

The AK ACE-CH team focuses on indigenous knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about climate and its impacts on health and well-being in Alaska. The team is developing and pilot-testing strategies to assess multi-level risk and resilience factors in rural Alaska Native communities in two high impact regions of the state

AK ACE-CH Focus: Food systems impacts, Infectious disease, Mental health

Public Health Institute | Climate Health Adaptation and Resilience Mobilizing (CHARM Lake County)

Principal Investigators: Paul English 

The PHI team works to understand the health impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and heat events on disproportionately affected populations such as American Indian Tribal communities, immigrants, and agricultural workers. The team is establishing continuous community engagement structures with local Tribes and community-based organizations to address HABs and extreme heat in Lake County, California.

CHARM Lake County Focus: Extreme heat, Harmful algal blooms

University of Colorado School of Public Health | Mountain West ACE-CH Hub: Climate Change Engagement Platform to Support Resilient Rural and Urban Communities (MW ACE-CH)

Principal Investigators: Katherine Dickinson and Katherine James 

The MW ACE-CH hub is supporting climate change resilience among economically disadvantaged populations, communities of color, immigrants, and some occupational groups experiencing disproportionate impact in both urban and rural communities near Denver. The hub is developing scientifically rigorous surveys to measure climate change and air quality concerns, beliefs, behaviors, information sources, assets, and desires regarding environmental justice.

MW ACE-CH Focus: Poor air quality, Drought, Wildfires, Extreme heat

University of Southern California | Community-Driven Approaches for Environmental Justice and Health in the Face of the Climate Crisis: Prioritizing Local Action for Climate Equity (PLACE Study)

Principal Investigators: Jill Johnston 

The PLACE Study team focuses on community-driven approaches to environmental justice and health among families, immigrants, people of color, unhoused individuals, and elderly communities in historically marginalized areas of Los Angeles and the City of Carson. The team is using spatial approaches to assess neighborhood-scale vulnerability, such as community air monitoring networks in climate justice neighborhoods.

LACE Study Focus: Extreme heat, Air pollution, Wildfires

CE-CH Awardees are supported by the NIH Community Engagement Alliance and the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative.