About

The Center for Climate, Health, and Society has been on a journey of reinvention. Originally established as a broad environmental health research center, CHAS spent the past year engaged in a deliberate and community-driven strategic planning process, working closely with South and West Side community organizations, campus partners, clinicians, and policy leaders to rethink its priorities and sharpen its focus. That process led us to a clear conclusion: the intersection of climate change and community health is one of the defining challenges of our time, and it demands a fundamentally different kind of academic center that places community knowledge at the center of the research enterprise, connects findings directly to policy and health system change, and builds the infrastructure to sustain that work over the long term. What follows reflects the mission and vision that emerged from that work.

Mission

CHAS advances health equity in climate-vulnerable urban communities. We conduct interdisciplinary research, train future leaders, and partner with communities to co-create solutions rooted in justice, resilience, and inclusive development.

Vision

A future where every community can thrive in a changing climate, with equitable access to clean air, safe housing, resilient infrastructure, and high-quality health systems.

Who We Are

Based at the Crown Family School at the University of Chicago, CHAS brings together scholars, clinicians, practitioners, and community partners to address the health impacts of climate change in urban settings.

Our work focuses on communities experiencing disproportionate exposure to extreme heat, air pollution, flooding, and chronic disease. We combine community knowledge with academic research to generate solutions that can be sustained through public systems.

CHAS reflects the Crown Family School's conviction that the most urgent challenges facing society — from poverty and educational inequality to global health and economic mobility — cannot be addressed by any single discipline alone. Climate and health sits at the convergence of all of these, and CHAS is designed from the ground up to work across fields, institutions, and sectors to meet that complexity.