Mona Sarfaty, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Dr. Mona Sarfaty is the Executive Director and Founder of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, comprising societies representing 70% of all U.S. physicians. Her research on physicians’ experiences and attitudes about climate change, in conjunction with the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, led to her founding the Consortium in 2016. Under her leadership, the Consortium has grown into a nationwide coalition of member societies, affiliated public health organizations, state-based health groups, and individual climate and health advocates with the mission of education and advocacy to mobilize support for equitable policies that address the health impacts of climate change.

Dr. Sarfaty has been actively engaged in education, communication and policy development regarding the impact of climate change on health for over 15 years. She currently serves on a National Academy of Medicine Work Group on Decarbonization of the health system, and on external advisory committees for Walgreens (on corporate social responsibility) and Merck (on sustainability). She is the author of Climate Change and Population Health: A Primer (JB Learning, 2021), peer-reviewed articles, reports, and two book chapters on climate change and health, and widely circulated guides and peer-reviewed articles on colorectal cancer screening. “Health Voices” videos can be viewed on the Consortium’s YouTube channel. Key climate-and-health-related reports include “Health Promise of Climate Solutions” and “Health Cost of Inaction on Climate Change.”

She is trained in family medicine and public health and has engaged in teaching, research, and advocacy for 40 years. She was a Senior Health Policy Advisor for the U.S. Senate Health and Human Resources Committee (now H.E.L.P.) for 7 years, where she developed and negotiated policy and wrote legislation that established notable new programs, including:

• The Emergency Medical Care and Treatment of Labor Act (EMTALA);
• The Comprehensive HIV Information and Research Act;
• The Excellence in Minority Health Education and Care Act;
• The Geriatric Training Act; and
• Acts creating the Foundation for the NIH and the National Institute for Rehabilitation Research.

Subsequently, she founded the Community Oriented Primary Care Track at the George Washington School of Public Health (now Milken Institute School), Project Access and the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County, MD, and the Diabetes Information and Support for Your Health group-visit program at Thomas Jefferson University. She also participated in founding the Thomas Jefferson University School of Population Health. She served on the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable for a decade.

Dr. Sarfaty is recipient of many honors and has been an invited lecturer in many academic, medical, governmental, and scientific venues. She is married to Dr. Jay P. Siegel for 40 years, and has two children and six grandchildren. She did postdoctoral training at UCSF, received her MD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, her MPH from George Washington University, and her BA from Harvard University.

Dr. Mona Sarfaty

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Climate Change and Population Health