Scholars past recipients

From Iquitos, heart of the Peruvian Amazon, Blanca grew up surrounded by health inequality and environmental neglect. With the passion this experience sparked, Blanca co-founded Ikua4Change providing Amazonian children with both quality education and crucial environment protection knowledge.

She also leads Fundación Manos que Sanan, offering free medical and mental healthcare to Loreto’s most vulnerable. Through hands-on work with rural populations, her activism has promoted health equity, strengthened local systems, and empowered communities to protect their well-being and ecosystems.

Growing up between rising sea levels and rising hospital admissions, Daniel saw firsthand how environmental and health crises collide. Now based in Singapore, he leads regional efforts to integrate climate resilience into public health strategies.

As co-leader of the U-INSPIRE Alliance and through leadership roles with the Youth UNESCO Climate Action Network, WEF Global Shapers, and Climate Reality Project, he works to dismantle silos between climate and health systems. His projects span mental health impacts of biodiversity loss, climate-resilient healthcare, and disaster preparedness in vulnerable communities. Daniel believes a sustainable and equitable future starts with breaking the silos from the younger generation.

Born in Siaya County, Kenya, David is a Clinical Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). He uses his role to advance health equity by developing accessible, evidence-based interventions that address disparities in healthcare. Through rigorous research on disease prevention, diagnostics, and treatment strategies, he is developing resilience by helping communities better withstand health crises.

David also focuses on climate and nature action, exploring environmental health impacts and promoting sustainable practices. Motivated by a deep desire to improve outcomes for underserved populations and create a sustainable future, he conducts inclusive, community-engaged clinical research to bridge health, climate, and social justice.

A global health advocate and researcher from Canada, Ida Marchese is committed to advancing equity, youth leadership, and inclusive policy. With experience in global health and public policy, she applies an intersectional approach that bridges rigorous research with community action. She has led health equity initiatives in Peru exploring climate–health linkages, and conducted research on barriers to health literacy among young women in Canada.

Representing Canada at the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum, the High-Level Political Forum, and CSW69 through the CanWaCH delegation, Ida amplifies youth perspectives in international policy spaces. Founder of SCIENSIS, a nonprofit supporting women in STEM, she also serves on the Board of the Women’s Nonprofit Network, is a ONE Global Activist, and a member of the Canadian Council of Young Feminists.

Originally from the Philippines, Kim settled in Chandler, Arizona as an elementary teacher and DoD STEM Ambassador where he has spent a decade igniting change in Title I schools.

His skills lie in blending climate education, STEM, and nature-based solutions, turning classrooms into vibrant workshops where young minds craft eco-inventions for disaster resilience. By empowering underserved youth through hands-on projects, he is instilling environmental awareness and civic responsibility at an early age.

A dedicated advocate for health equity and environmental justice, Kim is forging partnerships that bring clean water, sustainable food, and green technologies directly to his community.

When it comes to environmental movements in Nepal, Richa champions the voices of women, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities. Her advocacy has secured greater recognition for these communities' needs in national climate dialogues, notably influencing Nepal’s climate policy drafts with gender-inclusive and disability-friendly language.

Richa has also boosted public understanding of climate change's health impacts through youth outreach. She has successfully elevated young voices from mountain communities, highlighting health issues from climate-induced displacement. Her work has shaped national grassroots movements and contributed to Nepal's landmark International Court of Justice submission, aiming for stronger accountability and better legal protections for vulnerable communities.

A dedicated advocate for equity in education, Rida Karim served as the Student Representative on the Fairfax County School Board, the ninth-largest district in the United States. In this role, she championed policies on grading fairness, inclusive school meals, and technology access, directly impacting 183,000 students across the county. She is also the founder of Technology Youth Empowerment, a nonprofit bringing hands-on workshops on health and sustainability to under-resourced schools.

Her leadership extends globally: Rida authored a policy book on rare disease access across the European Union, which she presented at the International Conference on Global Infectious Diseases.

Currently she is a first-year student at the University of Virginia studying Public Policy, Data Science, and Business, where she is pursuing her goal of redesigning systems of access.

Ritika is a PhD researcher at the Yardi School of Artificial Intelligence, IIT Delhi, where she applies machine learning to address public health challenges. Her work focuses on building predictive models to understand vaccine uptake and early childhood development outcomes.

She has worked on quantifying the effects of maternal recall on immunisation estimates and identified geographic cold-spots for zero-dose children in low- and middle-income countries. Ritika believes ethical, transparent AI can turn complex health data into actionable insights, supporting smarter, more equitable policies and strengthening health systems.

The COVID-19 pandemic inspired Romina to find ways to translate basic science into public health actions, thus reducing the gap between innovation and equity in health, especially within vulnerable Peruvian populations.

Romina’s work covers omics-based research, exploring new insights on the immune response of Amazonian indigenous communities to infectious diseases. She is able to translate health data into impact to uncover health inequity patterns on maternal and child health and their determinants. She also contributes to initiatives such as the development of early warning systems for re-emerging viruses in remote regions, and interventions to reduce anaemia and parasitic infections in children.

Shem’s experience in health and climate grew from his academic background in Development and his work as a Technical Advisor to the Government of Ekiti State, Nigeria. There, he addressed health system resilience, health equity, and climate action by creating a plan which included stakeholder engagement with government commissioners. The work documented how climate shocks like flooding and drought disproportionately affect rural communities and strain fragile health systems. 

By witnessing firsthand how climate events exacerbated health disparities in underserved regions, Shem believes true resilience must be locally grounded. His work strengthens health equity by identifying vulnerable populations and creating evidence-based frameworks for targeted interventions.

Yasmina’s home of Alexandria, Egypt faces the real threat of disappearing due to climate change. No wonder she has developed a true passion for health equity, youth empowerment, and climate action.

While working as a pharmacist, she also co-leads research that focuses on the intersection of healthcare, climate, and AI, with a particular emphasis on how environmental change impacts the health of women and children.

Yasmina serves on Egypt’s National Youth Committee for Climate Change, is a Global Shaper, and an alumna for the SUSI program by the US Department of State, earning a grant for her Women and Climate initiative.

Growing up in a low-income household in Colombia with limited access to education inspired Yurgen to advocate for inclusive policies.

Dedicated to sustainable development and health equity, he founded the HUB Global Initiative, which designs cooperation projects that connect local communities with global opportunities. He actively advances sustainable development through work with international organisations such as the United Nations.

Yurgen has supported the dissemination of behavioural economics research to promote healthier decision-making across Latin America and the Caribbean. This work, using digital platforms and innovative communication formats, make complex findings more accessible to policymakers boosting health equity and resilience.