LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Alexandra Adams MD, PhD is the Professor and Director of the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity (CAIRHE), a phase II COBRE at Montana State University, and she was the founding director of the Collaborative Center for Health Equity, an NIH P60 center at the University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health. She has an international reputation as a highly respected health equity researcher based on her work in community-based participatory research, working in partnership with communities to understand and solve health challenges using both scientific rigor and crucial community knowledge. At UW, she also practiced in family medicine and pediatric obesity clinics for 17 years. She has directed multiple NIH-funded clinical trials, including the Healthy Children Strong Families 2 trial in five Native communities nationally, and has over 60 peer-reviewed publications. Her work also includes leading a large collective impact project on statewide obesity prevention and health promotion with over 3000 community, public health, and academic partners in Wisconsin.
Scott Bischke of MountainWorks Inc. served as Science Writer for this report, as well as for the 2017 Montana Climate Assessment. Scott is a BS (Montana State University), MS (University of Colorado) chemical engineer who has worked as an engineering researcher at three national laboratories: the National Bureau of Standards (now National Institute of Science and Technology), Sandia, and Los Alamos. He worked for roughly 11 years as lead environmental engineer for a Hewlett-Packard business unit. Scott has authored, co-authored, or edited two environmental impact statements, book chapters, technical papers, five popular press books, and successful proposals totaling tens of millions of dollars.
Madison Boone is the Program and Communications Manager for the Montana Institute on Ecosystems (IoE) at Montana State University, a position she has held since 2017. Prior to joining the IoE, she served for two years with the non-profit One Montana and MSU-Extension Service in Gallatin County through the Big Sky Watershed Corps program, during which she worked on projects related to climate, agriculture, and water. Boone graduated magna cum laude in 2014 from Hendrix College with a BA in Biology and a BA in Environmental Studies.
Lori G. Byron MD, MS, of Hardin Montana, received a BS and BA from Kentucky Wesleyan College, her MD from University of Louisville, and completed a pediatric residency. She practiced pediatrics for 27 years on the Crow Indian Reservation. She is a past-president of the Montana Academy of Pediatrics. She co-chairs the Citizen’s Climate Lobby Health Team and chairs Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate. Lori is on the Children’s Health Advisory Committee to USEPA and the Executive Committee of the Environmental Health Council at the American Academy of Pediatrics. She recently earned a MS in Energy Policy and Climate from Johns Hopkins.
Robert Byron MD, MPH is an internist from Hardin, Montana. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University, he served in the US Navy. Obtaining his medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine, he then completed an internal medicine residency, later earning a master’s in public health through the University of Washington. Dr. Byron worked on the Crow Indian Reservation for over 20 years, then later helped start Bighorn Valley Health Center in Hardin. A former governor of the Montana Chapter of the American College of Physicians, he also served on the Montana Board of Environmental Review. He is vice-chair of the Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate and co-chairs the Citizen’s Climate Lobby Health Team.
Amy Cilimburg is the Executive Director of Climate Smart Missoula where she develops local climate solutions and works to build networks and community resiliency. Amy helped launch Climate Smart in 2015 following efforts to develop Missoula's municipal and community Climate Action Plans. Based in Missoula, she has worked on climate and energy policy and conservation for over a decade. Amy has a MS degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana. She is on the Board of the Missoula’s Mountain Line Transit System and is a member of the Governor’s Climate Solutions Council.
Margaret (Mari) Eggers PhD is a research assistant professor in environmental health at Montana State University Bozeman (MSU). She previously lived in Crow and taught science at the Tribal College for a decade. Since 2005 Eggers has been working with Crow colleagues and others on community-engaged research and mitigation to reduce exposure to waterborne contaminants, improve access to safe drinking water and understand the impacts of climate change on water resources and community health. Eggers teaches environmental and global health, is the Associate Director for MSU’s accredited Environmental Heath degree program and serves on the local Board of Health. Eggers has a BA and MA (Stanford), an MS in Ecology and a PhD in environmental health (MSU).
Angelina Gonzalez-Aller PhD is a researcher, educator, and organizer working at the intersections of health, climate change, and social justice. Angelina holds a PhD in political science, specializing in racial and ethnic studies, health disparities, and US policymaking. Angelina currently works at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation as the Community Resilience Program Manager where she strives to support communities in their efforts to achieve conservation goals and prepare for a changing world.
Philip Higuera PhD is an Associate Professor of fire ecology in the Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences at the University of Montana. He directs the PaleoEcology and Fire Ecology Lab, funded largely from the National Science Foundation and Joint Fire Science Program, and he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in fire and disturbance ecology. Work from his lab spans western North America and reveals how fire activity and forest ecosystems vary with climate change, in recent decades and the distant past.
Susan Higgins MS is an Associate with the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity and Montana INBRE at MSU. Prior, Sue was water planner for the State of Montana, and facilitated research exchanges for The Tributary Fund in Mongolia and Montana. She was also director for water research communications at MUS Water Center and a founding director for the Montana Watercourse. A trained facilitator, Sue has authored guides on topics such as streambank stabilization and wetlands management. She was consultant for the Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent and the National Drought Resiliency Project and has co-developed best practices for scientists engaging globally with faith and indigenous communities.
Paul Lachapelle PhD is Professor in the Department of Political Science at Montana State University-Bozeman. His teaching and research spans many disciplines and practices, including community climate change resiliency, diversity and inclusion, and social justice topics. His publications include the edited book, Addressing Climate Change at the Community Level (Routledge 2019), as well as journal articles on energy impacts in communities, democratic practice, and local governance. He earned a PhD (Forestry) at the University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation and serves as a member of the Board of Directors (and past-President) of the International Association for Community Development.
Miranda Margetts PhD is an instructor (Department of Land Resources and Environmental Science) and research assistant (Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity) at Montana State University. She received her legal qualifications and worked as a health lawyer in Australia before moving into health research in the US. Miranda also holds a research affiliate position with the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale University, for her role on an international women's reproductive health study. She also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Community Memorial Health System in Ventura County, California.
Bruce Maxwell PhD is Professor of Agroecology and Applied Plant Ecology in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Science (LRES) at Montana State University. Maxwell was instrumental in the formation of the Department of LRES and has received national awards for outstanding teaching, best peer reviewed papers and outstanding graduate student from the Weed Science Society of America. He has published over 100 scientific journal articles and book chapters, chaired and been a member of numerous agricultural and ecological research grant review panels and been a member of two National Academy of Sciences National Research Council Committees on Agriculture. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Argentina in 2007. His research has historically straddled the disciplines of invasion biology and agroecology.
David McWethy PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University. His research focuses on understanding how changes in climate and human and natural disturbances shape the structure and function of ecosystems in the western US, Australia, the Pacific Basin, and South America. His research utilizes fossil pollen, charcoal, plant remains, and the geochemical fingerprint found in lake-sediment and ice cores to reconstruct past changes in climate, vegetation, fire, and human activity.
Sally Moyce RN, PhD is an assistant professor in the College of Nursing at Montana State University. Her research interests focus on occupational exposures to extreme heat for outdoor workers. She studies the intersection of occupational policy and human health, with an emphasis on immigrant workers. Sally teaches nursing research and population-focused nursing courses.
Richard Ready PhD is a professor of environmental and resource economics at Montana State University. Dr. Ready has a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources from Cornell University and master’s degree and PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Wisconsin. Previously, he was on the faculty at University of Kentucky, The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and Pennsylvania State University. His research addresses topics including environmental health, climate change, invasive species, landscape change, and outdoor recreation. He has served on several editorial boards of professional journals and on the EPA Science Advisory Board’s Environmental Economics Advisory Committee.
Lisa Richidt MPH is a Senior Epidemiologist for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. She works in the Chronic Disease Bureau where she analyzes data from multiple surveillance systems, develops program goals and objectives, and conducts program evaluation. Before moving to Montana in 2011, Lisa spent two years working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and attending Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to that, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mozambique where she taught high school biology and coordinated a variety of health/HIV-related projects.
Jennifer Robohm PhD is a clinical psychologist on the faculty of the University of Montana Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana. She is part of the 2020 class for the Bloomberg Fellowship Program at the Bloomberg Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she will be working on the physical and mental health impacts of climate change in Montana. Dr. Robohm and Hayley Blackburn, PharmD, recently received a planning grant from the Montana Healthcare Foundation to develop “climate change and health” curriculum and continuing education programming for healthcare trainees and practicing health professionals in our state.
Nick Silverman PhD, PE is a Faculty Affiliate and Adjunct Professor at the University of Montana in Geosciences and the College of Forestry. His academic research focuses on identifying hydroclimatic trends in mountainous landscapes and the interactions between water, climate, and vegetation. Nick has a background in Physics and Engineering and is a licensed Civil and Water Resources Engineer in the State of Montana. He received a PhD in Hydroclimatology from the University of Montana in 2014 and led the climate analysis for the 2017 Montana State Climate Assessment. Currently, Nick works around Montana and the greater Pacific Northwest on projects that help land managers build adaptive capacity to solve food, water, and energy challenges related to climate change.
Eliza Webber MPH is a Research Project Manager at the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity at Montana State University. She graduated with an MPH from Yale School of Public Health in 2015, specializing in chronic disease epidemiology and social and behavioral science. Since then, she has worked in program evaluation, assessing community-wide diabetes prevention interventions, and in clinical health outcomes research, using state and nation-wide datasets to explore indicators and trends in pediatric cardiac disease. Eliza’s work is driven by her passion for eliminating health disparities.
Cathy Whitlock PhD is a Regents Professor in Earth Sciences and Fellow of the Montana Institute on Ecosystems at Montana State University. She is recognized nationally and internationally for her scholarly contributions and leadership activities in the area of long-term environmental and climate change, with much of her research focused on Montana. Whitlock has published over 200 scientific papers on this topic. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. Whitlock is lead author of the 2017 Montana Climate Assessment.