The Spring Lunch: Science, Society, and Our Environment

Sean M. Decatur became President of the American Museum of Natural History in 2023, after nearly a decade of distinguished service as president of Kenyon College. He has served on numerous advisory boards, including the Board on Life Sciences at the National Academy of Sciences, and currently serves as chair of the Center for the Advancement of Science Leadership and Culture at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and as an advisory committee member for Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative. He serves on the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College and on the board of directors at the Joyce Foundation, the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), New York City Tourism + Conventions, and the Bank Street College of Education.

Prior to joining Kenyon College, Decatur was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Oberlin College, where he was also professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Previously, he was professor at Mount Holyoke College, where he helped establish a top research program in biophysical chemistry, and a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has won research grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health and from private foundations, including the Alzheimer’s Association and the Dreyfus Foundation, and is the author of numerous scholarly articles. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Decatur earned his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. degree in biophysical chemistry from Stanford University. 

Dr. Melissa Lem is an internationally recognized leader in the field of nature and health. A Vancouver-based family physician who also works in rural and northern communities within Canada, she serves as director of PaRx, Canada’s national nature prescription program powered by the BC Parks Foundation, and president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

As a widely published writer, climate change panelist on CBC Radio's Early Edition, in-house medical columnist for CBC TV Vancouver, and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Lem prioritizes knowledge translation. She is currently a co-investigator and advisor on two international nature prescription research projects (PANDA and RESONATE), with total funding of $10M+.

Dr. Lem was the inaugural winner of University College’s Young Alumni of Influence Award at the University of Toronto, recipient of the 2024 Canadian Eco-Hero Award, a 2024 YWCA Women of Distinction Award, and 2022 Adult Nature Inspiration Award from the Canadian Museum of Nature. She sits on the advisory committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas Health and Well-being Specialist Group.

Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D, is the chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health where her focus is allergy, asthma, and immunology in children and adults. She has published more than 400 papers, many on climate change and health as well as on allergies and asthma. For more than 30 years, she has devoted herself to understanding how environmental and epigenetic factors affect the risk of developing immune dysfunction.

Her laboratory has been studying exposomics and solutions-facing research with policy- oriented outcomes to track climate change mitigation and adaptation in relation to health outcomes.  She started four biotech companies, works in climate and health inequity, co-started a sustainability seed grant program, and works with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations on several projects in global health. Dr. Nadeau earned her M.D./Ph.D. degrees from Harvard Medical School in 1995. She was the Naddisy Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Stanford University until 2022, after which she joined Harvard, where she is now the John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies.