Andrew Stern, MD, was awarded a Presidential Citation for his commitment to supporting at-risk families through philanthropy, and for raising awareness about the challenge of our time and mounting a meaningful response to the threat of climate change.
A long time Zen Buddhist practitioner, amateur sculptor and writer, Stern is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. After more than 30 years of practice as a neurologist, Stern recently retired as an associate professor of neurology at the University of Rochester, N.Y. Recognizing the health threats of climate change as the issue of our time, he now devotes himself fully to raising awareness about our degrading global environment. He is the co-founder and executive director of The Lost Bird Project, a non-profit organization that initiates many and diverse national projects aligned with its mission of connecting more deeply to the earth through art. Discovering a need in the scientific community for near-shore ocean data to better understand the effects of climate change on coastal systems, Stern designed Smartfin, a data-collecting device deployed on surfboards that would essentially turn surfers into citizen scientists. Sterns presents about climate change health to health professionals. He has spoken about ocean health at the White House, to groups of Senators and Congressmen, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, to scientists at the National Institutes of Health, and now to psychologists at the American Psychological Association annual meeting in Denver, August 2016.