CLIMATE CHANGE AND HEALTH EQUITY

Climate and Health Equity Advisory Group (CHEAG)

Apply to be a CHEAG Volunteer Advisor

The CHEAG 2025 cohort has been selected and the application is now closed. If you are interested in applying to the CHEAG, please check in again early next year (2026) for updates on potential future rounds of recruitment.*

Thank you for your time and interest!

What’s Involved?

Participate in meetings every other month. Meetings will be about 1 to 1.5 hours long and will be held virtually. We will try to accommodate the schedules of CHEAG members.
Commit to attending meetings for at least one year, with possibility of participating for longer.
Review materials provided before meetings to facilitate informed discussions. We will try to keep materials to a minimum.
Engage in honest and constructive dialogue to provide recommendations to CDPH.

Who Should Apply?

Climate change poses a threat to our physical and mental health, touching all aspects of our health and well-being and affecting access to basic needs of clean air, food, water, shelter and safety. California communities and population groups disproportionately affected by climate change include, but are not limited to people with disabilities, older adults and youth, Indigenous communities, people with chronic medical conditions, farmworkers and other workers facing greater climate exposures, racial and ethnic minoritized groups, immigrants, people who are or have been incarcerated and people with lower incomes.

CDPH recognizes that a wide range of expertise is needed to best inform state-level programs and policies to protect the health of California communities, particularly those disproportionally impacted. CDPH seeks to hear from viewpoints outside of state government agencies, such as academia, community-based organizations (CBOs), local health jurisdiction (LHJ) staff, California Native American Tribes and Tribal-serving organizations and from individuals in the community with valuable lived experience and expertise, who are actively working within their communities or organizations to address climate, environmental, economic, racial and/or heath inequities by pushing for policy changes in institutional and social systems.

If you are an individual who:

is a California resident;
is interested in informing CDPH in addressing climate change and health equity;
has lived experience with the impacts of climate change and is actively working within your community or organization to address climate, environmental, economic, racial and/or health inequities;
has work/volunteer experience advancing public health, racial equity, environmental justice, community and/or climate resilience policies;
is ready to collaborate, share knowledge and problem-solve;

then the CHEAG is looking for participants like you!

Participant Benefits

An opportunity to inform state-level climate change and health equity programs and policy.
Informational resources or materials may be made available to share with members’ networks.
An opportunity to meet new people and learn from other, diverse perspectives.

*While the CHEAG in its current form will be made up of volunteers, we are currently looking into potential mechanisms for compensating CHEAG advisors for their time and services as part of our broader mission to advance racial and health equity.