About Us
The REACH Center forms a new multi-institutional partnership that leverages world-class strengths in public health, medicine, and public policy at George Washington University; Earth and atmospheric sciences at George Mason University and Howard University; environmental justice at Howard University; and research translation at Environmental Defense Fund. The Center’s ground-breaking partnership cultivates a diverse, multi-disciplinary, collaborative research enterprise that generates new knowledge and accelerates research translation into health-protective and equitable climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.
Exploratory Center Network and Community of Practice
Our ideal location in the National Capital Region, hosted at the only school of public health in Washington, DC, presents us with the unique opportunity to leverage the power of novel geospatial datasets and research co-generation with governmental and non-governmental partners to research the health and equity impacts of climate change mitigation and adaptation actions from local to global scales.
The REACH Center is part of a larger network of 21 exploratory centers across the United States funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to foster the exploration of transdisciplinary approaches to address the complex challenges associated with climate change.
These 21 centers engage in a broader community of practice that is organized by the CAFÉ Research Coordinating Center, an effort that is jointly led by the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). The CAFÉ RCC aims to build this community of practice through the management and support of climate change and health research and capacity building efforts.
Both the 21 exploratory centers and the broader research coordinating center are part of the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative, a cross-cutting effort to "stimulate research to reduce health threats from climate change across the lifespan and build health resilience in individuals, communities, and nations around the world, especially among those at highest risk."