Hazardous Inequalities: Older Adults Responding to the Unequal Health Effects of Climate Change

In honor of Earth Day on April 22, 2025, the University of Southern California Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, in cooperation with HelpAge USA and HelpAge International, will highlight how local, national, and global actors are responding to the unequal impacts of climate change on the health of older adults. Climate change disproportionately impacts and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities of aging populations. The resulting displacement, limited access to health services, and social isolation due to extreme weather events is of utmost importance to the health and rights of older people. This virtual panel will address how social and economic inequalities among older adults affect their opportunities for healthy longevity in a climate-changing world, and showcase how older activists for climate justice are acting to advance health and equality.

This virtual event, “Hazardous Inequalities: Older Adults Responding to the Unequal Health Effects of Climate Change,” will take place on Tuesday, April 22, at 9:00 am PDT/12:00 pm EDT/6:00 pm CEST.

Centering the voices and agency of older people themselves, this panel will:

1. Highlight how older people and their associations in low and middle-income countries are acting to mitigate the health risks and inequalities associated with climate change 
2. Share perspectives from older persons in the United States about how they perceive the health hazards posed by climate change, who is most vulnerable, and how we can work individually and collectively to mitigate these hazards
3. Review population-level data of how pre-existing social and economic vulnerabilities contribute to inequalities in the health risks and effects of climate change, such as heat, respiratory and water-related illnesses, parasitic diseases, mental health effects, and injuries and death

The conversation will begin with an introduction by IIGH Director Sofia Gruskin and will be moderated by IIGH Director of Policy Engagement Jonathan Cohen.

The discussion is hosted by the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health in cooperation with HelpAge USA and HelpAge International.

Please join us on Tuesday, April 22, at 9:00 am PDT/12:00 pm EDT/6:00 pm CEST.

This program is open to all eligible individuals. IIGH operates all of its programs and activities consistent with the University’s Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.

Speakers:

Cindy Cox-Roman is the President and CEO of HelpAge USA, a nonprofit organization that supports the rights, needs and contributions of older people around the world. She previously served as HelpAge USA’s board chair, as well as board chair of HelpAge International in London. Cox-Roman has spent her career in the fields of strategic research, communication, and aging. Previously, she served as CEO of WIT Consulting LLC, a market research firm with a specialty in bringing the voice of older people to the design of policies, products/services, and communications. Prior to WIT Consulting, Cindy was a partner at Yankelovich Partners, the social trend research firm, and a vice president at Y&R, the global ad agency. She has a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and M.A. in gerontology from the University of Southern California. 

Scarlett S. Small and Tuere Marshall are Grandparents with Friendship Bench DC, a program of HelpAge USA that empowers older people to provide a listening ear and support to others in their community. As trusted community leaders, they bring wisdom, warmth, and deep local ties to their role, helping foster connection and resilience across generations. Their work with Friendship Bench DC reflects the power of older people to heal, lead, and build stronger communities.

Ritu Sadana is leading WHO’s cross cutting efforts to fill in evidence gaps and provide guidance on how to implement a life course approach in practice, connecting a good start to life, optimal development and healthy aging, and a dignified death at any age, involving all levels and regions of the WHO secretariat, policy makers, researchers and civil society in the health, education, labour and social protection sectors. Sadana led the research and writing of WHO’s Decade of Healthy Ageing: baseline report, released in 2020, and coordinated the development of the first WHO Global Strategy on Ageing and Health, endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2016. She also conceived the idea for a UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, and co-authored the WHO World Report on Ageing and Health released in 2015. Sadana has more than 30 years of experience in public and private sectors, working in multiple countries and regions, in low, middle- and high-income countries, and has over 250 scientific and policy publications. She holds a Doctor of Science from Harvard University,  a Master of Science in Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), with expertise in economics, epidemiology, demography and health policy. 

Quyen Tran brings over 35 years of expertise in research, emergency response, and community development across Asia and the United States. He has provided technical support to a range organizations in key areas such as food and income security, social protection, healthy and active aging, community-based care, disaster risk reduction, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. His work has been instrumental in establishing and strengthening intergenerational, sustainable community-based organizations, including Older People’s Associations (OPAs). With more than two decades of experience in community-based approaches to healthy aging and climate change, Tran has played a pivotal role in promoting and implementing initiatives across multiple countries in Asia.

Moderator:

Jonathan E. Cohen is Professor of Clinical Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California and Director of Policy Engagement at the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH). He represents the Keck School of Medicine and IIGH on USC’s new Capital Campus. Cohen was previously the Public Health Program Director at the Open Society Foundations. His work has contributed to the normative development of fields as diverse as access to essential medicines, harm reduction, HIV/AIDS, mental health, palliative care, and reproductive and sexual health. He is an emerging leader in the field of population aging and his current work seeks to equip low and middle-income countries to equitably confront the challenge and opportunity of population aging and demographic change. He holds degrees from Yale College, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.

Opening Remarks:

Sofia Gruskin directs the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH). She is USC Distinguished Professor of Population, Public Health Sciences & Law, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Chief of the Disease Prevention, Policy and Global Health Division at the Keck School of Medicine, and Professor of Law and Preventive Medicine at the Gould School of Law. She has published extensively, including several books, training manuals and edited journal volumes, and more than 200 articles and chapters.