Congratulations to Stephen H. Linder, PhD, professor with the Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health, for his recent appointment to the Board on Environmental Change and Society (BECS) of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Sciences is one of three National Academies, including the Academies of Engineering and of Medicine, chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1863 to provide independent scientific advice to Congress and the Federal government. It is the nation’s premier source of scientific guidance for government, conducting expert consultations, consensus studies, roundtables and workshops to report on the state of the science, principally at the request of policymakers.
BECS focuses on the intersection of environmental change and human behavior, and addresses the social, political and economic factors at work behind our changing climate. Linder’s work on community-based health assessment and environmental risks to public health, as Director of the Institute for Health Policy at UTHealth School of Public Health, will contribute a unique perspective to the Board. “There is no better time to be contributing to policy decisions on community resilience, constructive adaptation and the mitigation of adverse health effects in the face of rapid environmental changes. I am honored and grateful to be serving with BECS,” he said.
Stephen Linder, PhD, is an associate faculty of the McGovern Center and the associate director for UTHealth Houston’s Quality Enhancement Plan, Healthcare Policy for Health Professionals, under the leadership of Rebecca Lunstroth, JD, MA. The university’s QEP is formally coordinated by an interprofessional team of faculty affiliated with all six schools of UTHealth Houston and housed in the McGovern Center.