Jessica Newberry Le Vay

Senior Researcher in Climate Change and Child Health

I am a Senior Researcher in the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry team and part of Climate Cares - a global initiative working to understand and respond to the links between climate change, mental health and wellbeing.

My work focuses on how to protect mental health and wellbeing in a changing climate, and how climate action can have multiple benefits for mental health, wellbeing and equity. I am interested in generating and translating evidence that can impact policy and practice. 

Key Projects

I lead a programme of work exploring how integrating climate change education with mental health and wellbeing can better empower young people to live, work and thrive in a changing climate (The Compass Project). 

Climate Cares works to better connect research, lived experience, decision-making and implementation across the rapidly growing climate and mental health field. We lead Connecting Climate Minds, which convened 1200 people in 126 countries to inform research and action agendas for climate change and mental health. 

We also advocate for mental health to be embedded in climate policies, and vice versa. This includes raising the profile of the climate-mental health nexus in global spaces such as the UN climate conference (COPs), and holding cross-sector government roundtables. 

Background

Prior to joining the Department of Psychiatry, I worked at Imperial College London as a Climate Change and Health Policy Fellow in the Climate Cares Centre. Previously, I led Cancer Research UK's policy research programme on cancer prevention, aiming to influence UK policy on obesity, alcohol and tobacco control to foster healthier environments. 

I am currently pursuing a PhD by publication with the University of Cambridge. I hold a MSc in Global Health with Disasters and Adaptation from King's College London, and a MA in Natural Sciences (Zoology) from the University of Cambridge.