Human Health and Ecological Resilience

Please Note: This live online conversation was recorded on our CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel. Watch it here.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to more fully reveal injustices, inequities, and imbalances that contribute to climate change, ecological degradation, and economic instability that threaten our individual and collective well-being. This potent time invites us to consider questions like: How can we cultivate individual, collective, and ecological resilience in this unstable new reality? What lessons does the pandemic offer for addressing climate change and human health?

Join Natalie Metz, CIIS faculty in Professional Psychology and Health, and Elizabeth Allison, CIIS faculty in Religion and Ecology, for a conversation exploring connections between human health and the health of the planet.  They discuss the current global narratives in medicine and climate change, and how each narrative relates to human and planetary health. Natalie and Elizabeth explore the microcosm and macrocosm of embodied health and the emergence of a new consciousness that embraces collective well-being.

Through deep inquiry into human health and climate change in our current moment, Natalie and Elizabeth share tools for collective healing and resilience.

Please note that this talk will be hosted live online. Instructions on how to join the conversation will be included in your event confirmation email. If you need additional assistance finding or joining the event, please email publicprograms@ciis.edu.

Natalie Metz is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor in practice in Oakland who focuses on women's health, botanical medicine, and digestive wellness. A large part of her practice is the natural management of cervical dysplasia and compassionate gynecological care. During medical school, she pursued additional training in herbalism, midwifery, and naturopathic philosophy. She helped found the Naturopathic Gathering, an annual philosophy conference, and taught within the botanical medicine NPLEX review curricula. She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry and has a background as a medicinal chemist designing novel pharmaceutical agents. She serves as faculty for several educational institutions, is featured in the documentary The Future of Medicine, and is a contributing author for the Foundations of Naturopathic Medicine textbook. She is a graduate of the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program, and teaches in the Integrative Health Studies department and the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research, all housed at CIIS. She is a lifelong student and lover of art, dance and music and enjoys sharing her passion for life with the world. For more information about her practice, please visit www.drnataliemetz.com

Dr. Natalie teaches Integrative Nutrition, The Integrative Body, and Holistic Medicine and Modalities at CIIS. Read more about these courses here.

Elizabeth Allison, PhD is Associate Professor of Ecology and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where Dr. Allison founded and chairs the graduate program in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion and created the Religion & Ecology Summit series of annual conferences.  Dr. Allison is co-editor of After the Death of Nature: Carolyn Merchant and the Future of Human-Nature Relations.  Dr. Allison’s research and teaching explore connections between religion, ethics, and environmental practice, with particular attention to biodiversity, waste, ecological place, and climate change. Dr. Allison’s articles appear in journals including WIREs Climate Change, Mountain Research and Development, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, and in edited volumes on Bhutan, religion, nature, and geography.