Education Committee

Presentation Topics:  Education, General Climate Health, Fossil Fuel Advocacy, Plastics, Child Health, Communication, Community Health Centers

Sara Carpenter is a pediatrician with a longstanding commitment to caring for vulnerable populations. Her professional interests include environmental and public health advocacy with a particular focus on climate change, health equity, and early childhood learning differences. She is enrolled in the Diploma in Climate Medicine Program at the University of Colorado, with a planned completion in April 2025. While not currently in clinical practice, she formerly directed both the Foster Care Clinic and the International Adoption Clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She is a past member and chair of the Board of Directors for the Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus. She currently serves as the Chair of the Denver Community Health Services Board, which oversees the Community Health Centers at Denver Health Medical Center.

A native of New York, Sara has called Denver home for 30 years. She has a BA in Biology from Columbia University, received her MD degree from the University of California, San Francisco, and an MSPH from the University of Colorado. She completed her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital Colorado where she was also a Chief Resident. While in medical school, Sara was fortunate to spend a year working on international health projects in Rwanda and Nepal. In her free time she enjoys hiking, cross-country skiing, and camping with her husband and three children, or curling up with a good book and her dogs.

Based out of: Aurora, CO

Presentation Topics: Education, Communication, Policy Advocacy, Climate Justice, Palliative Care (Anxiety and Loss - Impact on Death & Dying)

Kate Jennings is an internal medicine and palliative care physician in Denver, CO.  In addition to providing patient centered care to adults and patients nearing the end of their life, she is passionate about the intersection of climate change, health and equity.  She is interested in how climate change impacts patients with a chronic progressive illness.  Her research interests include ways to encourage and educate health care providers to use their unique voice and position to advocate for climate-forward policies and bring the effects of climate change to the bedside. 

Dr. Jennings was raised in Northern Colorado.  She has a BA in Religion from Carleton College, graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and completed both her IM residency and Palliative and Hospice Medicine fellowship at the University of Colorado.  She is enrolled in the Diploma in Climate Medicine Program at the University of Colorado, with a planned completion in 2026. She has worked as an academic hospitalist and inpatient palliative care physician at the Veteran’s Affairs Hospital in Aurora, CO, including becoming the Section Chief of Hospital Medicine, leading throughout the COVID pandemic.  Currently, Dr. Jennings serves as Director of the Longitudinal Integrated Curriculum Health Equity cohort at the University of Colorado.  In this role, she teaches medical students, helping them frame their clinical experiences through a health equity and climate changes lens.  In her downtime, she enjoys spending as much time as possible outside, biking, hiking and skiing with her two children and husband.  

Based out of: Fort Collins, CO

Presentation Topics: Climate change, Pediatric health, Regulatory efforts, Testifying Skills

Nikita Habermehl is a pediatric emergency medicine physician with Children's Hospital Colorado. In addition to providing the best pediatric emergency care as possible, she is passionate about how the climate impacts human health, specifically pediatric health. She takes a holistic approach when providing care, and believes in helping patients better understand their health. She advocates for her patients and communities by working with Healthy Air & Water Colorado, testifying at the capital for certain bills and participating in national meetings to support a healthier community. She not only advocates for her patients, but also teaches future physicians at the medical school and pediatric residents about how climate change can impact their patients' health.

Dr. Habermehl was raised in Longmont, CO and has spent most of her life in Colorado. She has always been taught to respect our natural resources and use them wisely. Now living with her family in Northern Colorado, she strives to live by those principles and enjoys serving her local community at the Children's Hospital, advocating for clean air and water for all, and standing up for those who can not themselves. 

Based out of: Denver, CO

Presentation Topics: Child Health, Air Quality, Pollution, Fossil Fuel, Environmental Health, Plastics, Mental Health

Clare Burchenal is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and general outpatient pediatrician at the Denver Health Eastside Clinic. She is the Director of the Rocky Mountain Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit where she focuses on educating patients, communities and healthcare providers about children’s environmental health. She is a member of the Denver Health Sustainability Committee where she contributes to climate-smart healthcare and community resilience planning. Her clinical and research interests lie at the intersection of climate change, child health and environmental justice, and she has a special interest in environmental toxins (including fossil fuel pollution, plastics and forever chemicals), plant forward diets and nature-based solutions. She advocates for the health of her patients through partnering with local organizations such as Healthy Air and Water Colorado and 350 Colorado and has national impact on policy and practice through her role on the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change. 

Clare completed her BA in Global Public Health at the University of Virginia, earned an MPH in Maternal and Child Health through the Colorado School of Public Health and attended medical school at Weill Cornell College of Medicine. She trained as a pediatric resident at Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado and recently (June 2025) completed a fellowship in Climate and Health Science Policy and a Diploma in Climate Medicine through the University of Colorado. She grew up in Golden, CO and now lives in Denver with her partner and their 2 cats and 1 dog in Denver, CO. She loves trail running, backcountry skiing, camping, birding and boardgames and generally anything that takes her outside to enjoy Colorado’s wilderness.

Based out of: Glenwood Springs, CO

Presentation Topics: Impacts of Extreme Heat on Outdoor Workers, Health Impacts of Microplastics, Local Community impact, Practical Impacts, Impact of Climate Change on vulnerable and disproportionately impacted communities, Communication and social media for advocacy, Use of AI in medical settings

Maria Chansky is a family physician currently providing telehealth services, virtually addressing a wide range of health concerns. She is interested in the broad impacts of climate change on health and will soon be participating in a Master of Science in Public Health Degree in Climate Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Maria blogs extensively about the impact of climate change on human health. She has a particular interest in the use of AI to provide early warnings about environmental threats. She is also deeply concerned about the impacts of climate change on outdoor workers and disproportionately impacted populations. She is vice-chair of the Climate Change and Environmental Health Member Interest Group of the American Academy of Family Practice and is on the Communications Working Group of the Planetary Health Alliance. 

Dr. Maria is from a small town in central Massachusetts but now calls Colorado home. She earned a bachelor's degree in biological anthropology from Harvard College, and a master's degree in medical anthropology from Prescott College. She attended the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA and completed residency at St. Mary's Family Practice in Grand Junction, CO. She has divided her career between Colorado, New England and New Zealand, and has done extensive medical relief work in underserved countries and post-disaster regions. Maria lives with her husband and two cats named Copper and Houdini (because they do a phenomenal disappearing act!) In her free time, she enjoys mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, guitar playing, reading (mostly sci-fi) and astrophotography.

Follow Dr. Chansky's Patient & Planet Blog here.

Based out of: Denver, CO

Presentation Topics: Extreme Heat, Climate Change, Health Education

Logan Harper, MD, is a family physician and Climate and Health Policy Fellow at the University of Colorado. As part of his fellowship, he served as a guest researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contributing to national efforts to strengthen clinical and community responses to extreme heat. Dr. Harper is a passionate advocate for climate-smart health policy and has partnered with Healthy Air and Water Colorado, along with several national organizations, to promote policies and initiatives that protect communities from the health impacts of climate change.