In this article:
- The interconnectedness of human health
- The art of teaching climate asynchronously
- Connecting climate change to the health curriculum
- One Health, many applications
As the rising average global temperature triggers extreme weather on the local and regional level, it is becoming increasingly clear that climate change impacts public health: more frequent wildfires, droughts, and heatwaves not only endanger human lives but also result in habitat loss and disrupt agriculture.1 Yet the science and sociology of climate change are not traditionally addressed in health professional training. Dr. Hillary Nelson and Dr. Elizabeth Woodward, along with their peers in the One Health initiative at Penn, would like to change that. Penn LPS Online’s Certificate in Climate Change provided these two academic leaders with the foundational climate knowledge that they could use to develop courses in their own departments.
The interconnectedness of human health
“One of my long-term goals is for all Master of Public Health students to graduate with an understanding of how climate change impacts public health,” says Dr. Hillary Nelson, Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program housed in the Perelman School of Medicine. Already, the MPH program requires students to complete an asynchronous Canvas-based course that prepares them for doing field work in Philadelphia; in addition to materials about local urban history and social determinants of health, Hillary added a module to cover the basics of climate change and climate justice.
Hillary’s interdisciplinary goals for the MPH program made it a natural fit for the One Health initiative at Penn. One Health is an approach defined by the World Health Organization2: “Basically, the idea that the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems are all deeply interconnected,” explains Dr. Elizabeth Woodward, Clinical Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Penn Vet. At Penn, students can pursue One Health by choosing from a wide range of related electives; in addition, students pursuing an MPH can choose the One Health track, which was designed in conjunction with Penn Vet. The One Health in Action group also invites scholars from different schools to discuss their in-progress work or research—usually in pairs, inviting cross-discipline questions and conversation. “We need to foster communication and collaborations across different areas of expertise… not just in the health schools, but also design and law and business schools,” says Elizabeth. “I always think of One Health as a triangle between animals, humans, and the environment,” Hillary elaborates. “From a public health point of view, it's a wonderful framework: you can't think about the health of humans without thinking about the health of animals and the environment, and you can't talk about the health of the planet without thinking of all three.”
While the One Health electives and invited speakers present a wide range of academic perspectives to One Health students, Hillary and Elizabeth felt that their students would benefit from a more robust education in climate change—in fact, they wanted to roster a new course dedicated to the subject. “Climate change is an integral part of One Health, so we thought that a One Health and Climate Change course just really fill a niche,” recalls Hillary. “We wanted to learn more about climate change, having both been a little self-taught…. and we thought that the rigor of getting an actual certificate in climate change would be important.”
Penn LPS Online’s Certificate in Climate Change offered both the expertise and the rigor they sought, so the faculty wrote it into their application for a grant to develop the course. The grant was awarded by Penn’s Environmental Innovations Initiative (EII), a platform for scholarship and education that addresses environmental and climate challenges. Over the course of a year, Hillary and Elizabeth each completed a Certificate in Climate Change—learning much more than environmental science along the way.
The art of teaching climate asynchronously
Together, Elizabeth and Hillary took Global Environmental Issues, Oceanography, and Climate Change. In the spring 1 term, Elizabeth took Introduction to Disaster Management. “That course really developed my understanding of how humans are impacted—on a much different level than I understood before, just by being a consumer of the news,” she recalls. Hillary, a climate disaster survivor who lost a house to an uncontrolled fire in California, opted instead to take Atmospheric Science that term. “The two subjects I hadn’t really taught myself were oceanography and atmospheric science, so I just learned so much from those courses—and it’s very nice to have it taught to me,” she says.
As professors themselves, Hillary and Elizabeth appreciated the perspective gained by stepping back into the role of a student—and they made note of effective tools that they might want to fold into their own courses. Certificate in Climate Change courses are all asynchronous, which was a new experience for both teachers, and they were particularly interested in ways to engage students without requiring them to log on at the same time. “I really enjoyed the discussion boards and thought that they were very effective in getting people to think critically about the material and contribute in a meaningful way,” says Elizabeth. “We did integrate that a little bit into our course this year.” She notes that she also appreciated seeing all the different ways to use and interact with their classmates on Canvas, the online course platform: some tools were analogous to in-person activities, like discussion boards, while course materials such as podcasts and videos took advantage of the multimedia possibilities of a virtual classroom.
The faculty-turned-students also valued the wide range of perspectives offered by their classmates, who logged on from all over the world; like the cross-disciplinary conversations fostered in their Research In Progress series, their Penn LPS Online peers brought very different regional experiences into their discussion. “We were from all phases and all walks of life, and I think it's a testament to the instructors and their use of different tools to teach asynchronously that we could really interact with one another and learn from each other,” says Elizabeth. “It was good to see everybody really sharing their diverse opinions and experiences.”
Even taking one course at a time, the accelerated 8-week courses require a demanding schedule of reading, recorded lectures, and assignments—which the professors embraced while continuing their own teaching and administrative responsibilities. “When I’m teaching, I have expectations of what I want my students to do. If I assign a reading, I want them to do the reading. So I did every bit of reading, every video, all the optional things. That’s a lot of work!” laughs Hillary. “It was challenging. I expected it to be challenging, so I wasn’t surprised,” adds Elizabeth. “I was ready for it, and it was worth it.”
Connecting climate change to the health curriculum
With their climate change certificates in hand, Hillary and Elizabeth joined their colleague Dr. Roderick B. Gagne to develop the One Health and Climate Change Course. Drawing on their Certificate in Climate Change knowledge as well as subject expertise in their own fields, they planned to introduce One Health students to key terms and processes of climate science as well as solutions and professional applications. Topics included agriculture and animals, ecology, indigenous studies, and the impact of climate change on people, animals, and ecosystems. “I've been teaching for a long time, and I've designed a lot of courses and taught with a lot of colleagues. This was the most fun I've ever had working,” recalls Hillary. “When it comes to climate and One Health, there are so many angles. We could have taken it wherever we wanted,” adds Elizabeth. “So we really got to develop something that all of us are truly passionate about and proud of.”
Their enthusiasm spilled over into the course itself, which debuted in the spring 2025 term with an audience composed of veterinary students and MPH students (and a few students who were pursuing dual degrees in both). “These were students from different trainings who had never been in classes together before,” explains Hillary. “So every class had some sort of in-class activity, and one of the great things was the amount of laughter we could hear during the class. They really enjoyed learning from one another.” Inspired by the interactivity of their virtual class experience, the instructors planned creative and collaborative class assignments; for example, the students were asked to represent various lobbies and argue a proposed bill that would have very different implications for different stakeholders. Climate change matters are serious and often fraught, these students found joy in learning with cooperation and creativity.
One Health, many applications
After their successful pilot semester, the One Health and Climate Change course will be taught again next spring. Hillary and Elizabeth also have plans to develop the One Health course series—including their new climate change course—into a certificate program that would be open to Penn students, faculty, and staff. “This One Health certificate program will equip students and faculty with transdisciplinary skills to collaboratively address global challenges at the intersection of human, animal, plant, and environmental health,” explains Hillary. “We see it as an opportunity for cross-disciplinary engagement and critical thinking, cultivating a new generation of leaders to tackle major global problems, including climate change.” Their team received a Draw Down the Lightning grant from Penn to help make the certificate program into a reality.
Meanwhile, Hillary and Elizabeth have continued to reflect on their experience in Penn LPS Online’s Certificate in Climate Change—as teachers, as lifelong learners, and as individuals who are impacted in countless ways by this pressing global issue. “The Certificate in Climate Change made me feel more informed and better prepared to go ahead and move forward. It definitely continued the energy that I have to make small changes in my behavior,” says Elizabeth.
Hillary agrees: “It’s made me a better citizen, because I more deeply understand so many of these issues, and political decisions and their impacts.”
To learn more about the course designed by Drs. Woodward, Nelson, and Gagne, read Penn Vet Launches New Course One Health and Climate Change at Penn Vet. To learn more about the Certificate in Climate Change and how it might align with your personal and professional goals, read the Penn LPS Online feature Ready to make an impact? 5 reasons to pursue a Certificate in Climate Change.
1 Fifth National Climate Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program (2023)
2 One Health, World Health Organization (2025)
