Photo by Therese Iacono

The October 23 event concluded the Institute’s 2025 Annual Public Lecture Series, and will be moderated by Executive Director Fara Warner 

Between soaring food prices and public health crises, issues around health and food access are in the news almost daily. Engaging in these topics can be difficult as the issues continue to be fueled by both climate change and turbulent politics. “Equity on the Table: A Conversation about Public Health, Food Access, and Climate Change” covered how we can create a healthier and more equitable food future for ourselves and our community.

This event featured a panel discussion with three fellows from the SciComm Identities Project (SCIP): Dr. Ambarish Karmalkar, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Rhode Island; Dr. Roger Figueroa, Assistant Professor in Social and Behavioral Science in Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, College of Human Ecology at Cornell University; and Dr. Christine Ekenga, a Rollins Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Moderated by Fara Warner, Metcalf Institute’s Executive Director, the conversation focused on the intersection of climate change, public health and food equity, and highlighted the fellows’ research.

Launched by the Metcalf Institute, Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, and the URI Science and Story Lab, the SCIP fellowship was a one-year professional development opportunity for pre-tenure faculty at U.S. institutions who identify as underrepresented racial or ethnic minorities in STEM. The project, supported by a $2.8 million collaborative National Science Foundation grant and co-led by URI’s Dr. Sunshine Menezes and Michigan State’s Dr. Bruno Takahashi, addressed the significant gap in science communication research and training by centering the motivations, experiences, and priorities of underrepresented scientists. The fellowship offered three cohorts that each focused on a specific subtheme: energy, water, and food.