IASC-North America: Climate Migration: Advancing Climate Justice and Health Equity

Prof. Maxine Burkett (Stanford University), Jackie Qatalina Shaeffer (Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium), and Ama Francis (Taproot Earth).

Co-hosted by IASC and Environmental Justice Working Group at Stanford, this panel brings together leading thinkers and advocates in climate justice, health equity, and climate change and human mobility. Panelists discuss community experiences of climate displacement and relocation across North America, ranging from the Caribbean to Alaska Native Villages. They also introduce key strategies for advancing human and civil rights, domestically and across borders, in the context of rapidly changing environments.

Maxine Burkett
Professor of Environmental Social Sciences, Stanford University

Maxine Burkett is a Professor of Environmental Social Sciences at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability. Burkett’s research examines the relationship between environmental change and inequity and its impact on frontline communities, both domestic and international. With a background in law and diplomacy, her areas of expertise include climate change (international, national, subnational law and policy), ocean and coastal law, climate-related migration, and climate change and human security. Professor Burkett most recently served as a Professor Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law as well as in senior roles at the White House and the State Department. At the State Department she oversaw the formulation and implementation of U.S. policy on a broad range of international issues concerning the oceans, the Arctic, the Antarctic, and marine conservation in her role as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Fisheries, and Polar Affairs. She also served as a Senior Advisor to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, where her portfolio included climate-related migration, climate security, bilateral relationships with island nations, and Indigenous Peoples’ engagement. From 2021-2023, Burkett was also a Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, where she advanced research on climate justice and public health.

Ama Francis
Senior Advisor, Taproot Earth https://www.taproot.earth/en
Ama is a global climate leader and social justice strategist with more than a decade of experience. Their commitment to climate justice stems from lived experience –Ama’s own family was displaced by an environmental disaster. They were a World Economic Forum Global Futures Council member and have presented at expert forums at the World Bank, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the United Nations Development Program, among others. Ama’s work and writing has appeared in multiple publications, including the Harvard Environmental Law Review, NPR, and CNN. Ama was Climate Director at the International Refugee Assistant Project and continues to be a non-resident fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, where they developed legal solutions to climate displacement and served on the Advisory Board of the Platform on Disaster Displacement and the Steering Committee of the Climigration Network.

Ama received their J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Harvard University, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the New York bar.


Jackie Qatalina Schaeffer
Director of Climate Initiatives, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, www.anthc.org
Jackie Qataliña Schaeffer, an Iñupiaq from Kotzebue, Alaska, is the Director of Climate Initiatives program at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. For decades she has worked across Alaska holistically infusing indigenous knowledge into a variety of sectors she has experience in, including comprehensive planning, energy, housing, water security, sanitation and climate change adaptation for rural communities. Her current work includes leading the team of the Center for Climate and Health and the Center for Environmentally Threatened Communities within the Climate Initiatives program.
Qataliña has co-authored six regional Energy Plans for the State of Alaska, the Oscarville Tribal Adaptation Plan, 2019. She was instrumental in the publication of the Unmet Needs Report for Environmentally Threatened Alaska Native Villages, 2024. She is a Co-PI on the Human Wellbeing team for the Study of Environmental Arctic Change, serves on the National Academies Board on Environmental Change and Society (BECS), and as a Board Director for Arctic Encounter Symposium and Rural Community Assistance Corporation. Qataliña also enjoys traditional sewing, art, mentoring youth and young leaders, and is passionate about designing fashion for modern Inuk. She is committed to mentoring the next generation of Alaskan Native leaders and spends much of her time learning and exploring better ways to do this. She is a mother of six and grandmother of 10 and currently resides in Palmer, Alaska.