Michelle Montgomery, MA, MPP, PhD (enrolled Haliwa Saponi/descendant Eastern Band Cherokee) | Shasta Gaughen, PhD | Katherine Weber, MD | John Balbus, MD, MPH | George Luber, PhD | Paul Charlton, MD, MA

Michelle Montgomery, MA, MPP, PhD (enrolled Haliwa Saponi/descendant Eastern Band Cherokee) is an Associate Professor and Chair, Division of Social and Historical studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She is also the Assistant Director for the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Indigenous Curriculum and Community advisor for the School of Education, Interim Director for Undergraduate Program in the Department of Bioethics and Humanities School of Medicine, and co-coordinator/external Indigenous advisor for the University of Minnesota Morris Sustainability Leadership Program. Dr. Montgomery’s -heart work – focuses on Indigenizing and decolonizing the climate justice narrative through the Indigenous Speaker Series, environmental ethics connected to Indigenous Peoples’ identities, and Eco-critical race theory to eliminate racial and environmental oppression.

Shasta Gaughen, PhD, is the Environmental Director and the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Pala Band of Mission Indians in Pala, California. She has worked for Pala since January 2005, and established Pala’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office in 2008. Dr. Gaughen received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 2011, and her Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples’ Law from the University of Oklahoma in 2021. She is Chair of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, a member of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and a member of the Institute of Tribal Environmental Professionals’ Climate Change Advisory Committee. Dr. Gaughen is also the director of Pala’s Tribal Climate Health Project.

Katherine Weber, MD, is a Climate & Health Science Policy Fellow at the University of Colorado

John Balbus, MD, MPH, is the Acting Director for the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health

George Luber, PhD, is a Visiting Professor with the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University. Since receiving his PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of Georgia, and joining CDC in 2002, Dr. Luber has served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer and Chief of the Climate and Health Program at the National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His research interests in Environmental Health are broad and include the health impacts of environmental change and biodiversity loss, harmful algal blooms, and the health effects of climate change. Most recently, his work has focused on the epidemiology and prevention of heat-related illness and death, the application of remote sensing techniques to modeling vulnerability to heat stress in urban environments, and Climate Change adaptation planning. Dr. Luber has served as a Co-Chair of the Climate Change and Human Health Interagency Workgroup at the US Global Change Research Program, a Convening Lead Author for the 3rd and 4th US National Climate Assessment, and a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Fifth Assessment Report.

Paul Charlton, MD, MA works as an emergency medicine physician at the Gallup Indian Medical Center where he currently serves as the emergency department director. He completed medical school at Dartmouth and his residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Washington/Harborview. Dr. Charlton also holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University in Conflict Resolution, which drives his motivation to improve health care systems to address issues of quality, equity, and social justice. In addition to his clinical contributions, his academic niche is conflict management and health care, for which he holds academic affiliations with several universities focused on this topic. He lives in Gallup, New Mexico, with his wife and two children, and is an active climber and trail runner.