Dr. Palinkas and Cambray Crozier talk about the role that social work and anthropology can play in responding to and overcoming climate change.

About Dr. Lawrence A. Palinkas

Dr. Palinkas is the Albert G. and Frances Lomas Feldman Professor of Social Policy and Health and Director of the Behavior, Health and Society Research Cluster in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern California. He also holds secondary appointments as Professor in the departments of Anthropology and Preventive Medicine at USC. Prior to joining USC’s School of Social Work, he was professor and vice chair of Family and Preventive Medicine at UC San Diego. He has also been a visiting professor at the Peking Union Medical College in China, the University of Oulu in Finland, and the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. His areas of expertise include medical and applied anthropology, behavioral health and prevention science, mental health services research, and health and environmental psychology. 

Recognizing that climate change threatens health, undermines coping, and deepens existing social and environmental inequities. Dr. Palinkas is helping lead work with the the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare to identify transformative social responses, including new partnerships, deep engagement with local communities, and innovations to strengthen individual and collective assets. 

Dr. Palinkas' Mentors

• F.G. Bailey, a British social anthropologist and prolific writer who published sixteen books in anthropology, and is well known for his studies of local and organizational politics.  He conducted fieldwork in Bisipāra, Orissa, India,  and has also written on political functions, particularly the ways that social structure arises out of and is used by the interactions of individuals.
• Eric Gunderson, a psychologist who studied human adaptation to living and working under the conditions associated with isolation and confinement and an important contributor to the field of Antarctic psychology.
• Chester Middlebrook Pierce,  a visionary pioneer in the field of global mental health. Pierce was Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Education at Harvard University. He also served on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health.
• Loretta Jones, who fought for better healthcare in inner-city Los Angeles,  and whose collaboration with UCLA researchers that helped bridge the gap between community care and academia.
• Kenneth Wells, a psychiatrist and health services researcher, has led a number of studies of how variations in health services systems and financing affect clinical care as well as on the use of Community-Partnered Participatory Research to address disparities in access to and outcomes of services for depression. His full title is a mouthful:  Dr. Wells is the David Weil Endowed Professor and Director of the Center for Health Services and Society of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Fielding School of Public Health
• Interview with Ann Bancroft, Polar Explorer.  This conversation explores climate change, education, and the specific intersection of introversion and advoc