Investing in Health: The Local Impact of Climate Action & Clean Energy

Read more about our Speakers: 

Welcome Remarks: Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham

(Mayor) Deana Holiday Ingraham, the 34th Mayor of East Point, Georgia, a champion public servant, is a wife,  mother, and advocate who is dedicated personally and professionally to public service. East Point has  been busy and as development interests increase, Mayor Holiday Ingraham is committed to being people focused and clear about her desire to attract responsible developers who are interested in building  community as well as building buildings and attract socially responsible enterprises that are interested in  partnering to ensure economic mobility and opportunity. Despite popular belief, she knows that  revitalization/redevelopment is not synonymous with gentrification and believes that East Point can and  will revitalize and redevelop while minimizing, if not eliminating, the negative impacts of gentrification through infusing and requiring equity. Mayor Holiday Ingraham is committed to collaboratively working  with city leaders, as well as county, regional, state and national partners to advance equity and  opportunity for all, ensure housing affordability and dismantle environmental injustice in East Point and  pollution-burdened cities across the country.  

Mayor Holiday Ingraham received a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida A&M University in Business  Administration, Master of Science degree from Nova Southeastern University, and a Juris Doctor degree  from Howard University School of Law. In 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2024 Mayor Holiday Ingraham was named  as one of “Atlanta’s Top 100 Black Women of Influence.” She is a former Co-Chair of National League of  Cities’ (NLC) Youth Education and Families Council, former NLC Board of Director, past President of the  Georgia Municipal Black Caucus and immediate past President of the South Fulton Municipal Association,  who currently serves on the NLC Advisory Council and the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) Board of  Directors. Additionally, she is the founding Chair of GMA’s Children and Youth Advisory Council and serves  as immediate past Chair of the Environmental Justice Working Group for the U.S. Environmental  Protection Agency’s Local Government Advisory Committee and continues to serve on the committee.  She serves as a board member of the Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance, Clayton State University College of  Arts and Sciences Advisory Board and is an esteemed member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. An  advocate for children, Mayor Holiday Ingraham has held strategic leadership roles in Georgia’s fourth  largest school district and she and her husband Willie Ingraham, Jr. are the proud parents of their daughter  Nia.

Keynote speaker: Neha Pathak MD, FACP, DipABLM

Dr. Pathak board certified in both internal medicine and lifestyle medicine and works as Chief Physician Editor for Health and Lifestyle Medicine for WebMD and host of WebMD’s Health Discovered podcast. She reports on topics related to lifestyle, climate change, and environmental impacts on health for WebMD and Medscape, and is a regular contributor to Yale Climate Connections.

She is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine board of directors and Chair of the Global Sustainability Committee and serves on the Medical Society Consortium for Climate Change and Health steering committee. Dr. Pathak is also a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health where she facilitates coursework on climate change and health. She is a founding member of Georgia Clinicians for Climate Action and Board Co-Chair of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, a faith-based environmental non-profit. She was invited to join the National Academy of Medicine’s Communicating about Climate Change and Health Project expert panel. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and children.

Neha Pathak, MD, FACP, DipABLM

WebMD Chief Physician Editor

Board of Directors ACLM and Chair ACLM’s Global Sustainability Committee

Founding Member, Georgia Clinicians for Climate Action

Board Co-Chair, Georgia Interfaith Power and Light

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine

Lecturer, Yale School of Public Health

Moderator: Jessica Mengistab

Jessica Mengistab works as an Assistant Nurse Manager in Mother & Baby at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta, Georgia. Jessica graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Villanova University in 2015 after earning a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Rutgers University in 2012. In her work and personal endeavors, Jessica aims to marry her passion for maternal-child health, health equity, and environmental justice while ensuring diverse nursing perspectives are included at all levels of discourse. In her previous work as Program Manager focusing on climate and clean energy advocacy with the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Jessica worked to engage, educate, and mobilize nurses nationwide on federal climate solutions and clean energy advocacy campaigns that prioritized equity, decarbonization, and sustainability.

Panelist: Gary A. Harris

Garry A. Harris is the President of Sustainability Solutions Group and Institute  (SSG &I), a consulting firm that provides diverse sustainability, energy engineering, environmental, sustainability and community development services. The SSG &I consists of two organizations; Center for Sustainable Communities, a nonprofit dedicated to making communities cleaner, greener, healthier, safer and more climate resilient, and HTS Enterprise, energy engineering, policy, research and education.  Mr. Harris has more than three and a half decades of experience in the energy, climate and the environmental field. He has worked tirelessly to advance numerous local, regional and statewide coalitions focused on advocacy, policy development, and collaborative problem solving in areas including clean energy, climate, transportation, health disparities, housing, pollution, and community development.  

Mr. Harris is a graduate of the 2009 Class of Leadership Atlanta; 2013 Class of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership; 2014 Class of Regional Leadership Institute; and graduate of the US EPA Environmental Justice Academy (2016). 

He is a co-founder of the UN Regional Center for Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development (RCE Greater Atlanta),Tech Academy and the National Environmental Institute Justice institute (NEJI) 

Panelist: Kiya Stanford

Kiya Stanford is the Georgia Field Coordinator at Moms. She is a passionate advocate and organizer dedicated to creating equitable and sustainable communities. With extensive experience at the intersection of environmental and social justice, she brings a unique blend of grassroots organizing and strategic leadership to her work.

Kiya has worked on local, state, and national campaigns to increase civic engagement and advocate for

environmental and social causes. As an organizer and content creator with organizations such as Care in

Action, New Georgia Project, and the League of Conservation Voters, she has led efforts to amplify

marginalized voices, mobilize communities, and advance policies that address systemic inequities. Her work

has focused on building coalitions, empowering underserved populations, and driving change in areas where environmental and social justice intersect.

Kiya is deeply committed to fostering collective action and creating initiatives that inspire communities to address the challenges of climate change, economic inequality, and social equity. Through her work, she aims to build a more inclusive and sustainable future for the next generation.

Panelist: Danna Thompson

Danna (pronounced DAN-UH) Thompson is the Director of Advocacy for the American Lung Association in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In her role, she handles the planning, development, and implementation of local and state public policy initiatives in her respective states, along with assisting the Washington, DC staff with Federal priorities. She has over 20 years of experience in government relations and grassroots lobbying.

Panelist: Dr. Karen Rawls

Dr. Karen Rawls is a seasoned professional licensed registered nurse having leadership and teaching experience across a variety of nursing programs and clinical areas. She currently is an Associate Professor at Hawaii Pacific University School of Nursing. Dr. Rawls received her PhD in Education, specializing in nursing education and research, from Capella University and holds an MSN in nursing education, a BSN from the University of Phoenix, and ADN from Georgia State University Perimeter. She is a scholarly Fellow with the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. Dr. Rawls recently founded the Atlanta Metropolitan Nurse Honor Guard which provides sentimental services for nurses who have passed away. Dr. Rawls is an accomplished nurse educator. She has led the development and implementation of several nursing schools across the US. Her academic experience is vast having taught lecture, didactic, clinical, and skills lab as well as NCLEX review in hospitals, colleges and universities across the United States and China. Dr. Rawls is the owner of Health Education Learning Programs. Her company utilizes organizational platforms to address health equity concerns, provide nursing education,investigate environmental health issues, and promote best practices that foster cultures of wellness. Dr. Rawls serves the board of AHEC Southeastern Primary Care Consortium, Ambassador for America Cancer Society, Ambassador for Ebenezer Baptist Church Health Ministry, Legislative Presenter for the Georgia Nurses Leadership Coalition and Board Chair for Rooted Group.

She is a life member of the National Black Nurses Association, Vice President of the Atlanta Black Nurses Association, President-elect for the Georgia Nurses Foundation, Chair for the Georgia Nurses Social Justice and Racial Equity Workgroup.

Dr. Rawls is a highly sought-after keynote speaker, writer and workshop leader. She enjoys traveling, listening to music, family time, tutoring novice nurses, and cooking.

Panelist: Robyn N. Bussey 

Robyn N. Bussey serves as the Just Health Director at the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), where she leads the organization’s health equity portfolio. In this role, she oversees the design, development, and implementation of health equity training, technical assistance, and strategic communications for communities, organizations, and stakeholders working to understand, operationalize, and advocate for health and racial equity. Her work centers on advancing equity across intersecting areas including climate and health, access to care and services, and reproductive justice.

Prior to joining PSE, Robyn was the Community Health Strategist at ARCHI (Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement) and a Senior Research Associate at the Georgia Health Policy Center, housed in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

Driven by the belief that racism—not race—is the primary barrier to health equity, Robyn is deeply committed to dismantling structural inequities and amplifying community voices, particularly across the American South. Her dedication is reflected in a robust portfolio of work that includes leading community health improvement initiatives across metro Atlanta and designing programs aimed at advancing health and social equity.

Robyn brings thought leadership to several collaboratives, panels, and boards, and contributes to publications focused on health equity, climate and health, food security, and healthy, affordable housing.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Florida A&M University and holds dual Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Health Administration from Georgia State University.

A proud native of Waycross, Georgia, Robyn currently resides in East Point with her son, Kemp.