Hurricane season is upon us. Learn more about flooding and school resiliency to extreme weather events.
July 30, 2025
1:00 PM EST
Extreme weather events increasingly disrupt schools, displacing students and staff and creating lasting trauma. This webinar features Brian Kasher, a widely respected expert in school environmental health and emergency preparedness, who will present practical strategies for building school districts’ resilience to natural disasters. Internationally respected expert Leslie Rubin, a pediatrician and leader in children’s environmental health, will moderate the discussion, and Joel Scheraga, an international authority on climate change and public health, will provide insights on the role of federal, state, and local governments in community preparedness and response. Attendees will learn how to identify and close preparedness gaps, strengthen community and federal partnerships, and ensure that students return to safe, supportive learning environments as quickly as possible.
Read more about our panelists
Leslie Rubin, MD, Moderator
Dr. Leslie Rubin is an internationally respected developmental pediatrician and a leader in addressing children’s environmental health disparities. He serves as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine, Adjunct Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine, Medical Director of the Rubin Center for Autism and Developmental Pediatrics, and President and Founder of Break the Cycle of Health Disparities, Inc.
In 2004, Dr. Rubin launched the Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities program to inspire the next generation of leaders to tackle environmental and social determinants of children’s health. Having just completed its 20th year, the program has engaged more than 200 students from 50 academic departments in 21 states and eight countries in Africa and Latin America, producing over 200 peer-reviewed publications and 18 books in its public health series. The program is conducted in partnership with the SoutheastPediatric Environmental Health (PEHSU), and it received the EPA Children’s Environmental Health Excellence Award in 2016.
Dr. Rubin’s work centers on promoting health equity and environmental justice for children worldwide, particularly as climate change amplifies health risks and displaces vulnerable populations. His advocacy stresses that addressing children’s health disparities is essential to building community resilience and helping schools and families prepare for and recover from environmental trauma and extreme weather events. His career combines clinical expertise with global advocacy to protect children’s health in the face of environmental and social challenges.
Brian Kasher, Planning for School Resilience
Brian Kasher is a nationally recognized environmental health and safety expert with more than three decades of experience in occupational and environmental preparedness. Named a White House Champion of Change and EPA Mentor of the Year, Brian is a Certified Instructional Trainer with the Board of Certified Safety Professionals, an ISO 14001 Certified Lead Environmental Management System Auditor, and a North Carolina Emergency Preparedness Manager of Environmental Health and Safety (EP-MESH).
Brian has been on the front lines of natural disaster response, serving as “first boots on the ground” for federal agencies and private disaster assessments across the Southeast. For 12 years, he served as the environmental technical expert for the North Carolina Baptist Men’s Disaster Relief Safety Team, certified in disaster relief administration, communications, mass feeding, recovery, and medical response. His experience extends to national security preparedness; he holds multiple certifications from the Texas A&M Engineering Service (Department of Homeland Security) in Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience and Weapons of Mass Destruction response.
An educator as well as a practitioner, Brian has developed and delivered hundreds of accredited occupational and environmental health training programs nationwide. He co-authored the model EPA asbestos worker training curriculum, created a 40-hour anthrax terrorism response training program in Washington, D.C., and regularly speaks at national and international environmental health and safety conferences. Brian holds a Master’s in Public Advocacy, a Graduate Certificate in Public Management Practices, and a Graduate Certificate in Adult Education, reflecting his lifelong commitment to preparing communities, schools, and responders for environmental and health emergencies.
Joel Scheraga, Federal Perspectives
Joel Scheraga is a nationally and internationally recognized authority on the risks that climate change poses to public health, the environment, and the economy. Until recently, he served as the Senior Advisor for Climate Adaptation in the Office of Policy within the Office of the Administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In this role, he led EPA’s efforts to ensure that its programs, policies, and operations continue to protect public health and the environment as climate risks grow, with a strong focus on environmental justice and support for states, tribes, and local communities.
Joel played a key role in shaping the Biden Administration’s National Climate Resilience Framework (2023) and authored EPA’s 2021 Climate Adaptation Action Plan and 2024–2027 Climate Adaptation Plan, which are integrating climate resilience into every aspect of the agency’s work. Under his leadership, EPA modernized its financial assistance programs to promote climate-resilient investments, prioritized the resilience of infrastructure funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act, and advanced partnerships with communities, businesses, and philanthropic organizations to build national adaptive capacity.
A Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Joel was also honored with a Presidential Rank Award for his leadership as a career member of the federal Senior Executive Service. His decades of work emphasize preparing schools, communities, and vulnerable populations for climate-related disruptions while protecting health, particularly for children and those in underserved communities.
